“Congratulations Mark and Michelle Drake!”

My friend Mark Drake married Michelle Shaw on Saturday. Friday night was the rehearsal dinner, the wedding was on Saturday at 2PM, the picnic reception at 5PM.

This all had Corinne and I very busy (though she was much busier than me). I was a sort of semi-usher in the wedding: I read Genesis 2: 18-25 and Ephesians 5: 17-33 at the beginning of the ceremony (my brother, Jed, actually 'performed' the wedding), and then organized/managed the process of a couple hundred people flowing into the "receiving line."

Michelle was absolutely radiant. It's too bad I don't have a single picture! I was supposed to be the assistant photographer also, but Corinne needed my help with the reception more than Bonny Pride needed my help with the photos, so I think I made the right choice. (Unfortunately, I didn't make this decision until after purchasing eight rolls of film and a pack of batteries for my 35mm rig, and charging up and cleaning up my digital camera.)

The picnic reception was a great success! Corinne had been told to expect as many as 200 people there, so she prepared enough for a "few extra." Frank Locke ran his gas grill to cook Indian chicken kabobs. Jim Burns ran two grills cooking hotdogs and hamburgers (and nearly getting smoked into a stupor). I ran three grills, cooking some burgers, some cajun-rubbed flank steaks (which were later cut down into thin strips for consumption) and some more chicken kabobs. Lesson learned: running three grills at once is a bit of a stretch, especially when everybody knows you're the husband of the caterer and so asks you dozens of questions about what, where, when, and how. Things ran much more smoothly when I handed one of the grills off to my Dad.

Our ecclesia had another picnic Sunday afternoon, to finish off some of the food. I took Corinne home right after meeting so she could get some (much needed) sleep, and then returned in time for the tail end of the picnic. When we were all done, everybody took home whatever leftovers they wanted. I grabbed five "Gladware containers" of Potato Salad, the Cajun flank steak, and Indian chicken... and then brought three full catering trays of food to the W.A.R.M. Shelter. :-) (Like I said, she made a "little extra." She cooked for 200 adults, but my best guess is that the reception had 100-120 people, evenly split between adults and kids.)

This entry is officially about Mark and Michelle, who Corinne and I are both very happy for, but I have to say (for the umpteenth time) that I'm incredibly proud of my wife! That she was able to "put aside," or at least work-through, all of her own pain while producing such incredible volumes of truly excellent food... well, she's just amazing. The totally oppressive heat and humidity finally wore her down Saturday afternoon so she left the reception a little early, but not until after all of her work was done. What a woman!