The Ceremony

I was Catholic once. At least that's what a poster said.

I forgot about this until I was looking through my Syracuse pictures looking for pictures of Brianne and me for the previous entry. And there it was....One of our graduate friends was very involved in the Catholic Student Association on campus. When the sign up list for a group outing to tour the Wine Region of Central New York came up short, she asked the class if anyone wanted to go fill some slots. Go drink? Sure, why not? Several of us non-Catholics signed right up and had a fantastic time on gray Saturday. We posed for a few pictures and thought nothing of it.

Until later that year when someone spotted a brochure in the student union.
There we were.... a baptist, a methodist, a jew, and an agnostic or two... posing as the poster children on the brochure for the Catholic Grad Student Association. We had a good laugh about this.

If I had remembered I'd been Catholic once, maybe I wouldn't have been so nervous as a reader in a Catholic church at my brother's wedding. I had to walk in front of people...which makes me incredibly nervous. I fell in front of everyone at my senior prom, but that's another post. Anyway. Not only did I have to walk in front of everyone, I had to bow going and coming AND do it all twice for two separate readings. My brain went temporarily on the blink because I chose to do all of this in four inch heels. I was way too worked up about all of this.
I did not fall. I did just fine.

My brother's wedding ceremony went beautifully. The bride was stunning and beaming. Parents shed a tear or two. My brother looked happy and handsome.Since it was a military wedding, he and his best man, my brother John, wore their fancy Army uniforms. They spent part of the morning leading up to the ceremony getting their uniforms together. Luke and his bronze star. John and his purple hearts. We are so proud of them both....but anyway...Soldiers marched down the aisle at the end of the ceremony and there was a saber arch. Just before Luke and Brianne walked through the last set of sabers, the soldiers crossed sabers below and wouldn't let them pass until Luke kissed Brianne. He dipped her and when she was back upright, they said "welcome to the Army,

ma'am!" They did a similar thing while entering the reception. There were several cheers.

And the smallest dude in a tuxedo was a very well-behaved Jack. He seemed mesmerized by the colorful stained glass windows and by his Mema who was feeding him a bottle. He did get a little warm, so by the end of the ceremony he was giving a shout out to Risky Business by going pants-less.

Some of the group probably thought I was rude because I was taking and texting pictures frequently to relatives in Arkansas. They got to experience the wedding on an iPhone, and I bet they could still see the happiness of the newlyweds.