Planning helps events go smoothly

During my years as the wife of a minister and as a leader in local, district and Conference United Methodist Women I had many times when I was responsible for organizing a small committee meeting, or a large convention so it would go smoothly. I prided myself that with lists of duties and list of members I could match them up and make anything turn out wonderfully. Therefore when our great-granddaughter and her husband approached us about celebrating their third anniversary with a service of renewal of their wedding vows, we agreed that it would be nice and we would help. They had not had a church wedding three years ago and Marilyn felt that she would really like to have a more informal, but serious, ceremony conducted by Lester, her great-grandfather minister.

Marilyn had spent many of her childhood and youth years living with us, and always had a great affection for our front yard pond where she learned to swim and enjoyed our paddleboat. She and Dennis, with Lester's guidance, began thinking of ways the ceremony could be performed pond-side where her friends and family could have room to sit or stand nearby. She had also asked her Aunt Jenny (Thornton) if she would prepare a ham dinner to serve outside at our home after the service ended.

We arranged for tables and chairs, got some extra flowers to decorate the deck, did hours of mowing, cleaning, and raking to neaten up the lawn and deck after the winter and spring winds and rains and felt we were ready. I hadn't worried about the house since it was all to be outside. But suddenly the weather person's maps made it look like there would be rain right on our part of southwest Missouri in the morning. (All of this was due to start at 11 a.m.) So, what do we do? We get permission from the minister of the Nevada United Methodist Church to have the ceremony inside Marilyn's church, and then we planned to serve the food from inside the house if it was too rainy to serve outside. THAT MEANT I HAD TO CLEAN MY HOUSE, THE BATHROOMS, AND BE PREPARED FOR GUESTS TO LOOK IN MY DRAWERS FOR SPOONS OR AN EXTRA NAPKIN.

Using our new present of Roberta, the robot vacuum, I turned her loose to clean the living room, kitchen, bedrooms and hall while I spruced up the kitchen, and completely cleared off the stove island to allow Jenny's food to be served from there. The shop vacuum was still sitting in by the stove where Michael had cleaned the flue earlier. I told them I would put it away Saturday morning.

It's funny how early 11 a.m. is when your house is filled with family who have come for the event, several who need a last minute shower, and a 2 ˝ year-old toddler already overtired. But we did get each other to the church on time. In fact we were early and the doors hadn't been opened yet so we were standing around thinking of new plans when Jim came, right on time if we hadn't been early.

Remember that the whole Saturday morning was very pleasant. There was no rain after all except later in the afternoon, but we proceeded with the service in the sanctuary where it was really very nice. Several pictures were taken and introductions made along with directions out to our house. Michael and Jenny had slipped out right away and Michael was wiping off damp chairs outside, Jenny switched tablecloths from inside to outside and by the time the rest of the guests came it looked like that was our plan, which it was earlier.

Everyone seemed to relax and have a wonderful time visiting, eating the great meal and then seeing the four-layer wedding cake that Penny, Marilyn's mother, had made for the day. It was delicious and beautiful, but had not enjoyed its ride from Windsor so it had become a two-tiered cake with a small cake for the bride and groom sitting beside the other layers. But the traditional first bites of the anniversary couple, and toasts were made and only a small covering of clouds was beginning. When the guests had left and family members were bringing in food and dishes from the outside, the clouds became thicker and it was sure that there would be more rain very soon.

We all collapsed on the inside chairs and rejoiced that a perfect day had not been hampered by rain after all. Things had gone very well. I glanced into our view room to check out the windows one more time at the pretty setting with all the flowers. My eyes fell on the shop vacuum still sitting where it had been left months before. Oh well, they know I haven't been feeling very well lately.