The Wedding! Post 1

We had a wedding in the family.

The plan, of course, was to have a nice big wedding, then to recuperate from all the flurry and flutter, go through the pictures from the photographers, and then post a long description with lots of photos.

First, Covid upended all the plans.

When Paul was injured three weeks after the wedding, other priorities took precedence over sharing wedding pictures.

Ben was a helpful bro

Matt returns the favor.

 So here we are, five months later, having lots of fun clicking through the four CDs of picture that Phoebe left on the kitchen table, relishing the memories.

Because, oh my word, it was a fun day. Despite all the upended plans and dashed hopes, it was just a lovely, joy-filled day all around.

Matt and Phoebe both grew up in this area but met in Washington, DC. You can read that story here.

After their engagement, Covid hit, and the regulations changed almost weekly, whittling down the guest list and negating all their plans. The reserved venue closed down and canceled all events.

Despite their disappointment, Matt and Phoebe decided, for the sake of conscience and vulnerable family members, to follow all the regulations and recommendations regarding Covid. It meant the end of their plans for a wedding with lots of friends and relatives at a beautiful gardens venue in Eugene. But it also inspired ingenuity and creativity, not only in Matt and Phoebe, who possess both in abundance, but also in everyone around them.

They would keep the original date of June 14, they decided, but they'd have a drive-in wedding.

The parents of one of the bridesmaids offered a small, mowed field on their farm. The dad built a platform and ramp, and they offered the farm office as a preparation room for the bride and bridesmaids.

Emily the bridesmaid and friend prepares the path on
her family's farm.

Matt used his engineering skills to make a parking diagram. He and a bunch of others got together, mapped out the field, and pounded in numbered stakes.

I think Amy's taking the plastic bag off the cardboard number.
Because of course we had to work around the weather.

Each car received a number and parked in the designated spot, carefully lined up to not block the view of anyone around them.

Matt set up an FM radio station so everyone could hear the service from their cars.

They ordered hot food from a caterer, to be passed out after the ceremony. In lieu of a guest book, Amy took pictures of every carload when they arrived.

Rehearsal was cold and windy.

Despite nasty weather before and after, that day was just perfect.

Paul performed the ceremony. At that spot in the service, he said, "If anyone sees any reason why these two should not be wed, let them honk their horn three times."

No one honked.

They got married. 

When Paul presented them as husband and wife, then the horns honked in a joyful applause.

It was a very happy day.

--

Most of these photos were taken by Paul Carter and Randi Bjornstad, both of whom had worked for the same newspaper that Phoebe's dad and I worked for. They take journalist style photos at weddings, documenting rather than staging.

Last minute decorating.

Little Phoebe and Matt in the gift canopy.

Amy welcomes Uncle Marcus and Aunt Anna . . .

. . .and Phoebe's relatives, with her 100-year-old grandpa in back

The kids were so tolerant of their giddy mom.

Out of compassion for anyone with a slow internet connection, I'll post more pictures later in separate posts.