Almost wedding crashers

Kari and I plus 3 other mothers and their daughters spent the weekend in Des Moines at a very nice motel courtesy of our pastor. Our pastor's daughter was married on Saturday, and our pastor had asked the girls to "man" the children's room at the reception.  They had been told that there could be 5 kids in the room or 25.  We went loaded with games and activities.  Pizza, pop, and ice cream was provided.  The only thing we didn't have was a DVD.  However, one very nice 9 year old said he had a DVD in his vehicle.  The young man and I went off to the reception room to find his mom who couldn't remember him carrying one out.  However, his aunt who was listening to the conversation, said she had a bag full in her van. She went out and got them, and she saved the day, for the kids were beginning to wear down and needed the inactivity.  I must say, I have never played so many games of Go Fish in so many different ways in one evening in my life!

We mothers were invited to the wedding. We realized that it would be good if we had a gift, so off to Target we went.  The list of gifts was pulled off the Club Wed computer, and we looked it over to see what was still left to be fulfilled.  We got a couple of very nice picture frames that were on the list and then discovered that there was no gift bag large enough for them. That meant we had to buy wrap, scissors, and tape.  We went to the motel, one of the mothers wrapped the gifts, we dressed for the wedding, and went to the lobby to meet the car that was taking us to the church.

We arrived at the church early enough that when we were seated, we were right up front a couple of pews behind the families. The ceremony was lovely even if the pastor inadvertently skipped over a scripture reading.  The bride's mother and maternal aunt were having a conversation across the church via lip reading and hand gestures at this point because the aunt was supposed to be reading the scripture. Finally, the aunt made her way to the front as the couple kneeled, and she read the wedding prayer which someone else was supposed to do.  However, unless you were reading the program like I was, no one would have noticed.

Why was I reading the program to follow along? I don't think I mentioned that the only people we four mothers knew were our pastor and her husband.  We felt like wedding crashers! When the newly married couple came back in to start dismissing each pew so that they could talk with each and every person there, we sat trying to figure out how we could gracefully escape without anyone noticing. Since there was no way to do this, we waited. When our turn came, the people to my left were hugged and thanked for being there to join in the joy of their wedding.  Then I stepped up. This look of confusion crossed both of their faces. I then said these words, "You have absolutely no idea who we are, but our daughters are covering the children's room at your reception, and your mom invited us to the wedding.  We love weddings, so here we are. Thank you for letting us attend and congratulations."  I must say, they recovered quickly.  Their parents did a good job in instilling graciousness in their characters.

At the reception, children left with us had to be escorted back to the reception room because of the passage through the bar area.  We did so faithfully and made sure the children were with the adult they were supposed to be with before returning back to the children's room.  Parents didn't have as much concern when sending them back. We took turns standing in the door to stop the ones trying to escape (these were the ones whose parent told us to not bring them to the reception room).  After five and a half hours, we were down to our last two. We knew the reception would be ending soon, so we took the two and headed there and watched what was left of the dancing. The girls joined in the dancing and had a good time. They figured no one there knew them, so if they danced, no one would remember them.  

I realized I had been in my dress shoes too long. My toes kept cramping when I was trying to go to sleep.  Tiredness won.  My toes were fine this morning, so I must not have any permanent damage!  I appreciate my nice comfy shoes!

Later.