Wedding Week

This is Monday of wedding week. By this Saturday our entire family will be in Atwater, California (in central California, in the San Joaquin Valley, between Modesto and Fresno, more or less due east and over the mountains from San Jose) for the wedding of our son Mark and Vanessa Friesen. Already the westward migration has begun. This afternoon Nick flew from Birmingham to Chicago. He will be in Oak Park until Friday night for the wedding of John Mark Edwards and Rachel Glancy, after which he will take a 10:20 PM flight from Chicago to San Francisco, arriving at 12:30 AM and getting to the hotel around 3:30 AM.

The San Joaquin Valley is often called America’s breadbasket because so much of our fruit and vegetables are grown there. We’re having the wedding in the backyard of Vanessa’s home, in a gazebo built amidst some almond trees. Over the years I’ve done a few outdoor weddings, almost all of them memorable. Each has its own flavor. The Atwater weather forecast for Saturday-Tuesday says, “Highs 97-107.” I think that means we’ll move the ceremony right along.

We talked with Mark and Vanessa today and things seem to be going well. Vanessa’s family has been doing lots of renovation in preparation for the wedding, and Mark has been helping out. Yesterday he helped put on a tile roof. And he’s been mixing concrete, building a fence, and doing lots of other construction work. Vanessa was very proud of him, and I am too, especially since he clearly didn’t inherit those skills from me.

Today Marlene has been making the favors to give to those attending the rehearsal dinner on Friday night. She is very creative and gifted at that sort of thing, and we both liked the finished result.

I have no great conclusions to draw from all of this except to say that things are coming together as we move through the final few days before the wedding. Those who have been through this before know that it’s hard to think about anything else. Mostly we’re trying to make sure we have everything we need when we leave on Thursday morning.