Have Faith

Its been awhile since I’ve actually sat down and blogged. Its not that I haven’t had the inspiration, I just haven’t had the time. But today seemed like a good day to get back into things. It started with a story my husband told me this afternoon. It was related to our wedding and how the power went out at our reception. You always imagine something going wrong on your wedding day, that just wasn’t one of them. Let me begin by going back to a sunny day on October 5, 2002. It was the perfect fall day. I love the fall weather. For me its the best time of the year. Apple orchard, sweatshirt, football game, back to school kind of weather. But let me get back to the point, the wedding day. It was mid to low 60’s, sunny with just a hint of a breeze. We were set to get married at a beautiful, unique church in town. The reception was in the same building as the church so we would be wed and go take pictures as our guests had appetizers. After appetizers, everyone would head to the reception. Everything was planned to a tee.The wedding went off without a hitch. The ceremony was perfect in every way. A little long some may argue, but being that is was our wedding, time seemed to stand still. A little over an hour, yes an HOUR later, we were Mr. and Mrs.  We headed outside to take pictures immediately following the ceremony with our bridal party and families. My new hubby and I were completely oblivious to the fact the anything was amiss . That was until our coordinator came outside and said the words that I will always remember…”the power is out, but don’t worry, I’m sure it will be back on soon”. Ok, I can deal with that. There’s not a cloud in sight , no storms, snow or gusty winds to cause an outage. It must have been some crazy fluke, it will be fixed soon. Meanwhile inside, much like after an intermission at the theatre, the lights flickered in the room where our guests were enjoying apps and drinks. And just like at the theatre, many assumed that meant it was time to head to the next room.  Although in actuality, it was signaling the beginning of our crazy night. From what I understand, the guests headed to the elevators to make their way down to the Atrium.The elevators weren’t working, so many unaware guests just took the stairs and continued to enjoy their cocktails. A while later, our wedding coordinator approached us again outside. “The power is still out, not sure whats going on.”  Wait what? Its been over an hour since I last saw you. This isn’t happening? Who will play the music that we have our first dance too, how will our maid of honour and Best man give a speech without a microphone. What song will they play when we enter? (BTW, that had been a source of tension between my future husband and I in the preceding months, but now we’d be lucky if we had music at all). We finished our pictures, and you can still see the look of worry on my face in those last final pictures. I ran inside to a building that was stillwell lit, thanks to wall of windows that were filtering in the daylight which I knew would soon be gone. I began to cry to my mom. At that point two young girls who must have worked there walked by and in a hushed tone said, “I feel sobaaaaad for her! Can you imagine?!” That just cemented how I was feeling. After freshening up we walked downstairs to await our entrance. Our DJ lined up everyone to enter and everything was going to go as planned. Person by person left as I heard our DJ announce each member of the bridal party in his best teacher voice. I threw on a smile and it was go time. I walked into the room as we were being announced and was taken aback by how beautiful it looked. The candles were flickering across the main head table and all of the guest tables. The daylight was fading but there was just enough left to light the room up with that ‘beginning of evening glow’. Our guests cheered for us and for a moment I forgot anything was wrong. Everything at that point was just right. There was a beer sitting at the head table waiting for me, considerately placed by one of my co-workers who knew me all too well. Life was good. As I sat down I looked around at all of the smiling faces. Then it suddenly hit me again. There’s.no.power. The food was already cooked so everyone would eat their dinner and leave. My mind wandered a million different directions as my dad began his speech. The first toast. A toast I wouldn’t appreciate until I watched the video later, after all the distractions were gone. Then came the rest of the speeches. No microphone, just my loved ones doing the best they could with the current situation. And they did it beautifully. The night progressed. The were drinks were flowing and people were having a surprisingly good time. I won’t bore you with all of the details, but some of the highlights included a boom box at dinner that my uncle brought from home, bright orange extension cords hanging from the balcony and some serious negotiating with the reception hall by our groomsmen and friends to bring in a generator. (This had never happened to them before and they had no back up plan). Finally. We had a generator that powered the DJ’s equipment and his flashing lights. That was it, except for the glow of all of the candles, which someone said reflected off  of the glass ceilings like stars. The dances were a little late, the food was a little cold but the night was perfect. The lights came on close to midnight and the guests Booed. The atmosphere was gone. The party was over. We found out then that the reason the power went out was because a transformer blew in a very large factory nearby. Completely random. And a complete blessing in disguise. What I thought was going to make things terrible, ended up being the thing that made things so great. What I thought was going to be a disasterous night ended up being the best night because all of our loved ones came together and did everything they could to make sure our day was special. And it made us realize how much people care. The ones who love you will always be there. That is something I know beyond a shadow of a doubt.  Which brings me back to today. My husband was working at that same place today for his company because they host a booth for big car event that happens yearly. He was telling the manager about that night. The manager laughed and said he remembered it very well. Apparently our photographer put a picture of our candlelight reception on a wedding website. Still to this day, he said, couples still come in with that picture and say they want their wedding just like this candlelight reception. He tells them that the evening that picture was taken can’t be duplicated. I wish I could see that picture. I don’t know which one was put there, and I can’t seem to find one that captures how magical that night was. And that is the point of this lengthy blog. I didn’t intend for it to go on so long, but its been quite some time since I’ve reflected on that day. Maybe the first time I have in writing since it happened. We grow up believing our life is going to go one way, and when it doesn’t we assume something’s gone all wrong.  It hasn’t gone wrong, its gone exactly how it should I’m trying to let go of all of the things that can’t be controlled and enjoy the things I can control. The time each day I get to spend with my kids.  The fact that they are having a sleepover right now because they are “best friends” and aren’t fighting for a minute! The tiny little hugs and I love you’s. The 5 minutes I get to lay with them before they drift off to sleep. Watching my favorite shows with my husband of 13 years and talking about our future plans, which may or may not work out like we think. I know now that need to have faith that things will work out. Maybe not how we planned but how its meant to be.

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