greenhouse effect

I've been pretty busy this past week preparing for a wedding ceremony this weekend. It's only the second wedding that I've been involved with in a pastoral role. I won't beat around the bush... I was nervous as I could be. The wedding ceremony was held in The Jewel Box at Forrest Park in St. Louis. The place is pretty impressive. It is essentially a large greenhouse. This makes for beautiful pictures, but on a sunny day (such as yesterday) it gets might hot as well. The ceremony is strictly limited to only a half an hour with a half hour before and after for arrival and departure of guests. I just wanted everything to go well for the couple.

Everything indeed went smoothly. The couple got hitched and I didn't stumble over too many of my words. One mistake though... After asking the guests to rise for the bridal march, I forgot to request that they be seated after she was at the front. The assembly remained standing throughout the ceremony. I didn't even notice. The good thing about this is that the ceremony lasted only 15-20 minutes. I had one gal tell me, "I'm Catholic, I'm used to standing a lot longer than that honey."

I'm blaming the mistake on the heat... yeah, it was the heat. I couldn't think while all that sweat was glistening on my bald head. Well, I have a feeling that I won't forget that aspect of the ceremony ever again!