Megan Salthouse
Saturday, February 6
The wedding of Megan Salthouse began at 12:34 in the afternoon, as so specifically arranged by herself.
To start, Puck was dropped off at the Silverspoon’s in his oversized Krispy Kreme sweatshirt, track pants, and Scandinavia knit hat, where he began his play hours with a tin of colored stick blocks and Curly… who then got busy frying bacon.
While there, Collette caught the news from the Mid-Atlantic:
30 inches of snow down in Maryland, 20 in D.C., and another five to ten possibly on the way. Likely a record-breaker. Apparently the farmer’s almanac had been correct…
By quarter till twelve, OLeif and Collette were on the road to Dardenne Presbyterian.
It had been a long time since Collette had been there. Long ago when she was in her first year or so of playing violin. Eight or nine years old, playing in the ensemble in the balcony during a worship service.
And there it was again — so similar to the good old Kirk, but with more glass window in the back, and evergreens in the cold wind behind them. It was always beautiful, the traditional Presbyterian architecture. And Dardenne had a pipe organ now, part of which graced the ceiling in a horizontal way, shooting forward in a very Empire Strikes Back spaceship fashion.
Inside, the guests were mostly already seated, including: Rosie Hatch, Mr. and Mrs. Swiss, Mr. and Mrs. Blunt, Mr. and Mrs. Owen, Ichabod Coca-Cola, Mr. and Mrs. Popples and Sunrise, Mr. and Mrs. Toast, Jimmy Saint and Meg, Mr. and Mrs. Pepper, etc., and Mom and Dad.
In ceremony, there was brevity, Judah directing the congregational singing, and singing himself, watermelon pink for the bridesmaids, Ivy’s young nephew carrying the rings on a circuit board (seeing as both bride and groom were engineers), and pipe organ.
The mother of the bride was just smashing. And when Megan arrived on her father’s arm, Nicodemus made his pronouncement of relinquishment, and kissed his daughter.
“Bye bye,” he said, smiling, and no doubt doing his best not to tear up in too great a manner.
After Megan and her new husband had been freshly announced and had left the church, everyone drove the few miles to the banquet center, where tables were prepped for a late lunch.
Bags of pink M’nMs and Andes mints were laid out for the guests and were quickly munched away before the wedding party had arrived…
Everything began with the toasts. Once the older members of the wedding party had said their piece, the young ring bearer took his place behind the microphone.
“…I’m really happy to be here. It was a good wedding. I’m happy to have you in our family. And I love this family,” he said.
Best toast of the afternoon.
It was then time to take the line for the buffet.
“Is there anything Collette will eat here?” Jimmy asked, surveying the tables. “Maybe if there were donuts out, right?”
Collette laughed, but she did manage to come away with a plate of roast beef and sliced bread with butter.
Conversation centered around a variety of topics: everything from the youth handling baby alligators in New Orleans and Joe’s infamous running through the building during the same mission trip decked out in a hazmat suit pretending to be a ghost while the director of the mission was having a meeting… to the Pepper’s new weekend house in the country, Mom’s and Dad’s trip to Europe, and the book Mr. Owen was writing about the stock market…. Mr. and Mrs. Owen celebrating their 61st wedding anniversary, Meg seeing giant pinecones from Nevada the size of Thanksgiving turkeys, and Jimmy riding a horse once that was spooked by a bear, bucked him off, and he had received a bruise down practically half of his body….
Then Nicodemus and Ivy dropped by the table, and Nicodemus shared his first wonderful experience at Crown Candy Kitchen, where he and Megan had the enormous chocolate shakes, and Megan had bought him thirty dollars worth of chocolates for his birthday.
“Hey, I love food,” he said happily. “My two hobbies: cars and food.”
Then came the cake. There was a little smashing in the face, as Collette had predicted. Chocolate cake and white cake. Collette had the chocolate. Mom even had a dark chocolate rose.
And then the dancing. The best part, of course, was the father-daughter dance, wherein, after the first slow part, the DJ cut to I Like to Move it, Move it and Nicodemus decided to, as he liked to call it, ‘get his groove on’. He started breaking it down, with Megan right beside him.
“Sure,” he had said earlier for his disclaimer, “I paid for all of this, so I’m going to go out there and make a fool of myself on the dance floor.”
But the audience enjoyed the performance.
In summary, a good, short wedding, as, in Collette’s humble opinion, all weddings should be… and an enjoyable reception. She wished Mr. and Mrs. Justin Differential very well.