THE WEDDING - May 30, 1981

Mama PC

Well, I almost forgot to tell THIS part of the story.

My sisters had just married within the prior 18 months, so I wanted to make sure and not break the bank of my parents for my wedding. I found all kinds of used and broken things, repaired them, painted them...and picked roses from a neighbor's garden to decorate the platform. My PawPaw helped me to resolder a rickety candelabra set, we painted them white and wahlaa.... My mother altered my sister's wedding gown, and made a veil. John organized all the music, arranging, rehearsing and writing. I made silk flowers and arranged my corsage, along with baskets of flowers for my attendants. Oh, and my mother and grandmother and I made the wedding cakes the week before, then the day before, we decorated for hours! Everything was done very inexpensively and nicely. Simple, but it worked.

I don't remember much of the wedding rehearsal the night before. I do remember that I was glad John was no longer ill.

The morning of our wedding, I awoke with the realization that I hadn't bought a ring for my groom! (I had originally decided that this wasn't necessary, and John didn't seem to mind... but when it came down to it, I felt like it was important) So, I rushed to the mall, picked out a nice one, and took the claim ticket to a friend, for her to pick up when they were finished sizing it.

I got back home and my whole house was full of company. I could not even get into my own bathroom to get ready for my OWN WEDDING!

Finally, around 3:30 or so, all the relatives left, so I was able to spend some time alone, preparing for my wedding... our wedding. It felt strange doing everything for the last time in my parents' home, not knowing what to expect when I would become Mrs. John J.Crouse.

I remembered that a friend told me to focus on each moment and try to remember each thing that occurred, and I tried as best I could to do so. Time flew by.

John did an excellent job arranging the wedding music. He wrote several songs. We recorded them the week prior, and the whole wedding party, which were positioned on the floor were to move to the upper platform, facing out toward the audience as the music played. Between phrases of the song, the attendant would quote into a specially placed microphone a verse from I Corinthians 13. It was very well organized. The only problem was, that the sound man made a boo boo...and somehow rewound the cassette tape where the performance song was to be played from too far back...and what happened was like this....

The song started - with a lively introduction that had light keyboards and percussion and bass.....

"It takes God's love to be patient and kind...."

the music kinda did a "doodle-a-doo, da dooh, da dooh dooo.....not words, but instrumentally

and then all of a sudden, right out over the house speakers came one of the voices during the recording saying......

"WHAT ABOUT THE AIRCONDITIONER?!?!?!"

During the recordings, we started and stopped, and all of the attempts were STILL ON THE MASTER COPY and it ended up that DURING OUR WEDDING A DEFECTIVE ATTEMPT GRACED THE WHOLE AUDIENCE!!!!!!!!! It was a horrible thing to experience........ but, at that time, John and I were facing each other and we did just that.... we kept facing one another and smiling at one another. Never said a word. The minister ( my father ) finally left the stage and walked all the way back, up stairs, into the balcony and into the sound booth where he found the epitome of that short little stocky guy on The Munsters leaning against the sound booth wall CRYING.... anyway, somehow Dad got the tape back to where it should be.... and it started back up.... and we acted like nothing happened. What else could we do???

It was a long pause.

It was a lesson. A life lesson.

Life is not perfect. So, why should we have perfect weddings? It just prepared us in a very hard way to just go ahead and go with the flow. Learn what we can, make the best of what we have to work with.

We did learn to never have more than one copy of a song on a recording if ever using a sound track or recording for a wedding or other type of performance again.

I sang a song to John.... let me see if I can remember the words. I had chosen it from a collection of wedding songs... well, at this moment, I can't remember the song or words... so I'll have to enter it another time.

John wrote a song for me and sang it to me for the first time.

" I could tell you that I LOVE you....
That I'm always thinking OF you..
I could say that I adORE you....
All my life I've waited FOR you...

I could tell you of the dreams I've had
of building a life together
All the warm and rich and tender things we'll share...

But for all of this we would not know
That what we have will last...
Through unexpected sorrow
And winter's chilly blast
Warm feelings come and go
Life brings changes...
Things we cannot know....

It takes more than emotion
to build a life-time of devotion

It takes God's love
In our hearts....


Then, it went into the I Corinthians 13 song... that I referred to earlier.


Oh, John's reminding me of the song I sang to him...

"You are lovely in my eyes,
I love you and adore
...But my heart determines this:
I must love God more.
Though I love you oh so well,
I must love God more...

I'll love you where you're strongest
Your strength can help me stand
I'll love you where you're weakest
There I'll care
I'll help you there
and give your heart
a helping hand....

We can only be fulfilled
When we're filled with Him
For God alone can light our way
When the flame grows dim
For God is light and God is love
When the flame grows dim...

Our love may be deficient
Each to meet the other's need
We must borrow from God's plenty
For God is love
God is love, yes
God is love indeed.