It Went Off WITH a Hitch

Generally speaking, having something go off WITHOUT a hitch is a good thing unless you are perform a wedding in which case the hitch (getting hitched) is pretty important.

So tonight, there was a hitch and the hitch had a name...Bobby and Rachel Rodriguez. Bobby and Rachel grew up in the youth group when I was youth pastor. Both were active in the youth group and have stayed active in various ministries in the church since they graduated from high school. When they approached me several months ago and asked me if I would perform their wedding ceremony, I was honored. We have spent the past 5 weeks in pre-marital counseling, the rehearsal was last night and the big event was at 6:30pm tonight.

The wedding tonight was extra special for me. Not only was it cool seeing two of my youth group kids getting married, but I got to do the service and it was my first wedding. There were lots of things that made me sad when I transitioned from being youth pastor to administrative pastor a little over a year ago (like 'leaving' kids I loved and spent my life for), but I had only one regret...I was leaving the youth pastorate and I never got to do a wedding for any of my youth group kids. I was honored that Bobby and Rachel asked me to participate in this part of their lives.

The pre-marital counseling went well from my perspective. What you learn about marriage comes from experience and not from listening to somebody talk about it, but I hope I gave them some things to watch out for and perhaps some 'preventative medicine'. The rehearsal got started late last night, but we were done in time to get to the dinner, and the rehearsal ran smoothly. The wedding tonight was great. Rachel looked lovely and I got to hold hands with Bobby! Actually, I just shook his hand in the wedding pictures, but we had to hold the pose and we both laughed about it.

Speaking of laughing, there was one funny part in the service, but I'm not sure if anybody who was not on stage caught it. Bobby and Rachel chose big bands for wedding rings. When I took the rings out of the box to give to the best man and maid of honor before the service, I thought how VERY similar they looked. During the service, I took the rings back from the best man and maid of honor. I held them in my open palm and told Bobby to take Rachel's ring and put it on her finger. He took a ring and as I was about to start reading the vows for him to repeat, I heard Rachel say, "It's the wrong one!" The rings looked so much alike, Bobby grabbed the wrong one. We made a quick switch and I'm not sure how many people caught it, but it was kinda funny.

So tonight was a good night. Family and friends got to witness two 'kids' pledge their lives to each other, place Christ in the center of their marriage and ask God to bless them. Marriage was God's idea, and it was fun celebrating this 'great idea' tonight. It went well, and it went off WITH a hitch.

- Rob