Wedding Behind-the-Scenes

Let's face it. Every one of us have different gifts. Some of us just don't have the beautiful voices or the musical talent to play instruments splendidly (if at all) or the speaking ability or the close relationship to the bride that finds you in the spotlight or walking down aisles or singing on the platform.

Some of us end up being the cooks, servers, cleaners, and helpers that sweat it out in aprons  by stoves or shiver it out in sweaters inside walk-in refrigerators before weddings. (Not to say the singers and musicians and ministers don't spend hours sweating or shivering as well! The church was so chilly even my husband was cold, and that is saying something!

And then some of us are just part of the "stay-out-of-the-way" people who remind ourselves that in a clan as big as ours and with as many friends as we all have, not everyone can be included in the wedding party, prep, or prelude. Some of us have to be gracious about being the "stay out of the way" people, because it is only kind of us to stay out of the way and not squawk about it. I was trying very, very hard to do this very sweetly, not even sneaking into the church for pictures, by going to visit my mother while my heart was at the church with my sisters and nieces doing the wedding preparations.

Until a desperate plea went out from the mother of the bride that more help was needed in the kitchen. So, saggy sweater and all, I jumped into the van with sheer delight, and Jonathan took me to the church kitchen where I learned how to spin lettuce in a salad spinner and had one of Kezia's girls help me. 

I don't have to be on the wedding platform singing with Krissy's beautiful contralto voice, or whatever it is, to be happy.

Just give me some lettuce to spin in the kitchen with the gals, and I am swooning.

 

One of the girls was helping make hundreds of rolls.

These were shelved in the kitchen storage unit. 

Other girls peeled cucumbers. 

My sister Iva, who has multiple gifts, beauties, and talents, especially the talent of cooking yummy food, browned many dozen pork chops. 

Others peeled, cooked, and mashed potatoes, and sliced carrots. 

These are just four of the eight crockpots full of mashed potatoes. 

 

Here are borrowed crockpots lined up!

After the wedding, about half of the potatoes were left over, but at least the error was on the side of abundance! 

I couldn't help getting a picture of all these jars of home canned green beans. They were my favorite dish of the wedding meal--from my sisters' garden(s).

What fun to watch everything!

My niece Bethany, who was extremely happy to travel to the wedding with sisters and her boyfriend Lyndon, helped in the kitchen with him. (By the way, I really, really like Lyndon, and I think Bethany is really blessed.)

Regina and I chopped lettuce.  

When I heard that my son Tim had mentioned that he was so bored he could do dishes, I welcomed him to the kitchen sink where his cousins Evan and Brynn helped dry the dishes Tim washed. Don't tell this lady you are bored.
You will never be bored again.

 Another sister-in-love, Elizabeth (Gabriel's wife) in my mother's cabin made un-pretty hair a little more pretty--

or at least so it would stay in place better and look nicer when I went to hug the bride and congratulate her and the groom.

Holding the mirror to check on her hair arrangement was actually her idea, not mine, as I was quite sure she would do fine.

(As you can see, I was wearing a coat during the wedding, trying to keep from shaking with cold.)

Other behind the scene activities were arranging gift baskets. At the Jadwin house, a hub for a lot of us, Crystal and two brothers did a Pizza Theme gift basket with a rolling pin, pizza cutter, pepperoni, pizza sauce, pineapple, mushrooms, etc.  Rose and Carrie had a Baking gift basket, and mine was a Doing Dishes gift basket. It was so fun doing those!

A small choir practicing for the wedding, including a number of young people from a New York church that Daniel used to attend before moving to Missouri, and several cousins.

It was a pleasure to be a quiet person behind the scenes and not have to stress out about anything.

Well, until Jonathan and I decided to accept the bride and groom's challenge during the reception to show them how to kiss.

But that is for the next post.