Loose Leaf Notes

I managed to burn a pot of vegetables before heading out to the weekend wedding. So now I smell like burnt carrots instead of lemon verbena (the scent of the soap I bathed with).
After a few choice curse words and setting the pot outside on the stone walkway to cool, I began to get dressed into something colorful, something from Floyd’s “Winter Sun Outlet Store.” But wait… Where is my husband?
I called his cell phone. He didn’t pick up, so I left a message: “I thought you were going to the landfill (2 hours ago). I guess you’re not going to the wedding. I suppose I’ll drive over to Katherine’s house and go with her,” I said while looking out the window. “No wait… My car isn’t here either.”
My son’s truck recently broke down. He had hitchhiked from Ashville to Floyd in order to go to the same wedding. The bride is a family friend and a former girlfriend of my son’s. I forgot that I let him use my car to attend a brunch at the farm up the road, where he was anxious to see some old friends.
Fifteen minutes before it was time to leave for the 2:00 nuptials, my husband and son both showed up, at which time chaos ensued. There were people eating food out of pans with their hands, people borrowing other people’s clothes, someone was cutting themselves while shaving, and everyone wanted to use the bathroom at the same time. (My friend Katherine who has 5 sons would later say when I told her this, ‘What people?! What? All three of you?!’)
The stress leading up to the wedding washed away once we arrived and immersed ourselves in the lush outdoor setting at “The Pond House,” where I had gone on a retreat last fall. A long runway aisle of white fabric ran alongside Easter Creek and led to a Mountain Laurel archway. At the end of the archway was a waterfall.
Waiting for the ceremony to start, everyone was becoming tense, looking up at the dark clouds that had moved in and were now hanging overhead. Eventually, the bride, looking like a vision, came down the aisle with her father and the service began. The crowd watched, intently quiet, until the bride and groom each said “I do” just as thunder clapped loudly in the background.
The couple kissed and headed back down the aisle, not a moment too soon. When they reached the end, the rain came pouring down. Everyone picked up their chair and ran for cover under the tents that were decked out with lights alongside the pond, where the band was warming up and the feast would soon begin.
Everything happens in its own time and sometimes just in the nick of it.