One of my very best friends Lindsay had the kind of wedding that you only see on television and think to yourself, "That would never happen." In her 2007 Texas wedding, rain started out as the main feature, but ended up as the backdrop for one of the best memories.
Lindsay is a songwriter and she's written a little diddy that captures that summer evening perfectly. Click here to hear the song set to pictures from the actual event. I'm the one with the too-long hair, my husband is the one carrying the cake.
I wrote this story as an email to friends after the wedding. It is not my finest writing.
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It had been storming on and off all week, and thunderstorms were predicted for the weekend, so the worry for rain on their outdoor ceremony was already high. But the sun broke out for a pleasant rehearsal on Friday night and we had high hopes that the same would be true for Saturday.
The ceremony was scheduled to start at seven, and we were outside by five to take pictures. Lindsay looked beautiful. Her beaded halter dress fit the setting for Story Book Ranch perfectly. We took cute bridesmaids pictures out in front of an old timey caboose, then went back inside to hide and wait while the guests arrived. Maybe it was nerves but several of the bridesmaids, myself included, were suddenly just famished. Lindsay’s high school friend Kiki needed to breastfeed her three-week old before we walked down the aisle, so her husband was going to arrive early with their little girl. We called and re-routed him and he showed up a few minutes later toting the baby and six orders of chicken nuggets. One of my favorite memories of the night was seeing us all fancy and nervous diving into that chicken and bbq sauce.
We could see the guests from where we were stationed, and some of the them were arriving with umbrellas. Still, it really didn’t look that bad. The debate began as to whether or not we should get started early. We didn’t, but they went ahead and took the mothers and grandmothers down and at five minutes until seven the bridesmaids loaded up in a golf cart and the bride, her father, the flower girls, and the ring bearer were behind us in a horse-drawn carriage.
It was about a quarter of a mile from where we were to the ceremony site, including a bridge over a creek. Our wedding party caravan had barely taken off ‘round the hill when the sky opened up and the light drizzle turned into heavy rain. Someone radio'd us that the guests were all making a run for it to the pavilion where the cocktail hour was planned. Lindsay decided to wait it out a few minutes to see if it would pass, so the golf cart and the horse carriage pulled under some trees and waited. We still looked fairly pristine, if I do say so myself. After a few minutes it became clear that not only was it not going to let up, the rain was only getting harder.
The golf cart full of bridesmaids took off down the hill. We arrived at the pavilion to 200 people cheering us on and we were waving our bouquets and wooing and laughing hysterically. We jumped out to wait while it was decided how to proceed. One of the options was to just make an aisle here and they’d get married right in the pavilion.
The groomsman and ushers had moved up to the reception site, an old opry house, and were waiting there. So we had bridesmaids in the pavillion, a groom and his groomsman in the opry house, and a bride and her father in a horse drawn carriage hidden underneath some trees.
We were about to start rearranging the pavilion when Here comes the bride! Down the hill came the horse and carriage – it probably had gotten too wet to wait any longer. All the guests were cheering and clapping – it was a welcome like no other.
The horse and carriage pulled up to the pavilion and and cowboy driver got out and started helping the little children out of the carriage while Lindsay and her dad stayed put underneath the umbrella. The cowboy had the ring bearer almost to the ground with one hand and one of the little girls just stepping out with the other hand, when the horse got spooked by the rain. It took off, and the 2 year-old boy landed on the ground in the mud. Both little girls were barely hanging on and there were screams all around as the cowboy, with one shrieking little girl barely in his arms ran after the horse.
They were several yards up the way when the horse stopped and the cowboy was trying to get the second little girl out of the carriage when BULL if it does not happen again. Off the horse goes! Another little girl practically under the wheels of the carriage. The whole pavilion was watching, frozen in fear. The cowboy manages to catch the horse a second time, but by now the bride has lost composure. Everyone got out of the carriage and had to make a run for it to the pavilion.
This was not the dramatic entrance Lindsay had been dreaming of. The bridesmaids circled her up and everyone tried to say reassuring words. Meanwhile the rain poured down and Lindsay said “Quit saying that one day this is going to be a great memory – that one day we’re going to laugh at this. I don’t want to hear that. This sucks.” We all readily agreed that in the moment, yes, this appeared to be a bit of a disaster. But we stay circled up and we prayed and we laughed and Lindsay made the decision that she just wanted to get married right there in the pavilion and then have a big party.
As soon as she made this decision, a voice came over the loudspeaker telling us to move to the opry house for the ceremony. So people then started making a run for it or loading into the shuttles to go the 15 yards up to the opry house. During all this I was with the other bridesmaids surrounding Lindsay, but I heard through the grapevine that around the time the rain starting coming down our friend Trip had moved into full producer mode.
Little did we know that he and the other ushers and groomsman had grabbed the candelabra’s and worked through the rain. Someone had even sprinkled rosepetals down the makeshift aisle of the opry house. So by the time we got up there the room had been transformed.
All the tables were decorated anyway, since this was to be the reception site, but the room blazed with candles and twinkle lights and was full the brim. There were people standing in a balcony that went all the way around the room. In a pinch, someone played Pachabel’s Canon for us to walk in to, and when Lindsay entered that room I’ve never heard such love. The pretty music was drowned out by everyone’s cheers and whistles, and it was an awesome moment to see her look around and see all those soaking people in the opry house, totally surrounding us, ecstatic. There were lots of tears from everyone, the emotion of it all rivaled any wedding I've ever attended.
You might think that’s the end of a beautiful story, but it’s not. Lindsay’s tears dried right on up after she saw her groom, and after the heart-warming ceremony we took pictures and had just poured our first drinks when there was new news. The creek was rising. That bridge that we crossed to get over to the ceremony? It was flooding. So if we don’t evacuate soon, we’re going to end up staying the night in the rose-petal strewn opry house.
The guests with the bigger cars were rounded up and started a shuttle line. While the women and children were evacuated first, we just kept on taking the wedding pictures. The girls were all trying to save the decorations for the new reception area while downing glasses of wine.
After most of the guests left via car shuttle, the wedding coordinators started saying things like, “We’re just going to leave the cake.” Trip didn't like that kind of thinking. We called our friend Ben, one of the boys running shuttles, and before I knew it I was packed into a Land Rover with a centerpiece on my lap, Trip and my husband in the far back with a huge three tiered wedding cake, and the bride and groom in the middle. We laughed until we cried again (while driving very, very slowly). Trip joked that it would make an excellent Land Rover commercial.
We finally made it to higher ground, and by the time we arrived with the bride and groom and the cake, the fourth location of the night had also been transformed. The DJ was going, the bar was in full effect, and nearly all of the guests had stuck around for the momentous reception.
The bridal party made their entrance to “Welcome to the Jungle” and guests were dripping wet and laughing and in general just having a blast. By that time, all wedding formality had gone completely out the window. Nobody looked perfect anymore – except for Lindsay, whose hair and makeup held up miraculously well – and we were all now bonded. You’ll meet people at a wedding you never would have chatted with before when you’re all trying to disassemble centerpieces and grab twinkle lights.
We danced until 1am, Lindsay sang a beautiful song, the cake tasted amazing, and we ended the night on an awesome note when one of the grooms friends from gave an a capella version of Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz” as a send off.
I know that Lindsay didn’t want to hear about how this will all be a good memory some day – but it didn’t take years for it to turn into that. We woke up the next morning still laughing at what a good time it was. The Gorilla and I both agreed that it was just about the most fun we’d ever had a wedding, I'd been to a dozen "perfect" weddings that were way less fun.
"Don't tell me it will all be okay, 'Cause all I've dreamed of has all washed away. I've been plannin' this since I was eight, I don't want to hear it's good luck to rain on my wedding day."
For the whole song, click here.
(Friend, that wedding day rain didn't stop you one bit. You're one of the best couples I know and I miss you every day.)
Photos by Lemin Studios.
