Hold Everything Lightly #7 {A Simple Wedding}

I met Stephen at church.

 Not my family church, Green Pond Baptist Church, where my dad's people attended for over two hundred years. No, I was bad and went to the First Christian Church of Jackson where a young South African pastor was visiting because he was studying for a degree at Columbia Bible College in Columbia, South Carolina. His name was David Webster and his wife was Pam.  They had four young daughters. I was sixteen and had never heard a British accent before in person. David was and is a compelling speaker and pastor. Droves of young people and adults started to come to hear him speak. This is when I was thought to be in a "cult" and essentially excommunicated from Green Pond Baptist Church. I actually lived with David and Pam for a short time. Daddy allowed me to get a passport, plane ticket, and a South African visa. The plan was I would finish my last year of high school in South Africa and live with the Webster's. The plane was set to take off on January 3. Stephen asked me to marry him on December 21st.

Stephen's family was all that mine was not.

 His parents had been married for thirty some odd years. They were people of faith and went joyfully to church. They sat down together for meals, homemade biscuits, beef roast, vegetables, coleslaw and dessert every Sunday after church without exception. I was attracted to him and his family. Other than with my aunt and uncle I had never had what he took for granted. He did have some reservations about marrying me because of my parents. We waited to marry until I completed my first year of college. I wore that engagement ring the last year and a half of high school proudly.  I was eighteen when we married and two weeks later turned nineteen. Stephen, soft spoken, kind, sort of a farm boy was twenty three,with blond hair and blue eyes.  I knew we would have beautiful babies.

The wedding took place at an outdoor venue, Hopeland Gardens, in Aiken, South Carolina on May 23. I had thrifty habits back then too. My gown and veil were purchased second hand and were gorgeous. The entire event cost me no more than a couple thousand dollars and I planned it with the help of Steve's sister. One of the songs I had for the wedding was "Fairest Lord Jesus" an odd choice but a favorite of mine.  The gardens had curvy serpentine brick fences and small reflecting pools. We floated large white magnolia blossoms in the twin reflecting pools. Daddy did give me away and that image is priceless to me however the wedding was a disaster. Mother was admitted to the hospital that morning with a kidney stone and my darling brother Freddie was beside her in his tuxedo listening to her holler (no doubt she was in terrible pain) and he was conflicted and upset. He came to the wedding after all that and stood in the heat. The man who married us carried on and on. It was so hot Freddie fainted on the grey wood deck we were standing on and broke his nose. Freddie, who was over six feet tall fell like a tree, he fell hard. An ambulance was called for Freddie. They asked if I wanted attention too because I nearly fainted after Freddie.  I was upset and hot so I went and changed out of my beautiful wedding gown. In the remainder of the photos I am in my little skirt and top but I was cool. The reception went fine, considering the circumstances, and everyone was kind and loving to us. 

There is a pool of blood, on the otherwise pristine pale grey deck, in the wedding photos.

After the reception we drove to Savannah Georgia for a honeymoon. 

We were glad to escape our own wedding.

 More glad than most couples I fear.

"Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts, when God pries your fingers open."

---Corrie Ten Boom 1892-1983 

To read other installments in the series click on Hold Everything Lightly  

at the top of the blog page.

♣

thanks for reading

Olive