Together at a wedding rehearsal

On Friday night I had the joy of conducting the wedding rehearsal for George Rezendes and Mary Ann McComiskey. The wedding was scheduled for the next day at the U. S. Coast Guard Academy and we went over everything from where the folks were going to stand to how the service was going to flow. The Academy Chapel has a beautiful sanctuary. It was my first service there.

Wedding rehearsals are pretty standard once you've done a few. I've done over a hundred weddings in my twenty five years in ministry. The first wedding was for a couple in their late twenties while I was serving the Cross Mills Baptist Church in Charlestown Rhode Island. It was a small wedding in the church and the rehearsal went very well. The wedding party consisted of the couple and their best man and maid of honor. The wedding itself was small because both of them had been married before. They wanted to do something quietly with only a few friends and neighbors.

I sometimes tell the story of how the service from start to finish lasted only 11 or twelve minutes. And Lori sang. They gave me $50 and I felt guilty about it.

Wedding rehearsals are really about getting everyone together so that they can get acquainted with the place and have some idea of what is going to happen. I run my rehearsals from the inside out.

We put everyone in place so they will know where they are going to stand for the twenty-five minutes or so that the wedding in going on. (I preach a little bit more now a days.) Then we practice marching out to the recessional music. When everyone is out in the front hall, we line them up and let them march back down to their spots. It is pretty straight forward.

I sit everybody down then and walk through the service itself explaining the legal, traditional and religious parts. I have my little spiel and filter in humor and a few good stories. It puts everybody at ease and gets them ready for the wedding.

I don't usually go to the rehearsal dinners unless it's a good friend. On Friday night George qualified. Lori and the girls joined us as we went to the Seaman's Inn to spend a nice night together. Our kids grew up with George's kids. The Rezendes family moved to Norwich shortly after we arrived. Next thing you know they showed up at church. George's kids and our kids grew up together. On Friday night the kids were together again and we had a great time.

Life has changed for all of us since we first met. The kids are mostly grown up. Timothy is married and has a son of his own. April is living in Boston. Becky is living in New York. Casey lives in Maryland and Sarah will be graduating from college this fall/ Even the baby, Rachel, has turned into a lovely young woman. Now George is starting a new chapter in his life. I don't know what the future will bring but Friday night was a glorious celebration of family. It was one of the reasons I thank God every day for his call to serve.

Here are some photos from that wedding rehearsal.

Cal