MAKING SWEET MUSIC

While in town for this final round of planning, we picked up a brochure for the Lotus Music Festival. This international music festival is held annually in Bloomington. A few blocks are closed off to accommodate the festivities, including the ones that would be most convenient for our guests to travel by foot, from the church to our reception. So they smell a little pot on the way to the reception? It will make the food that much more sumptuous. It’s always a festive atmosphere. This thought did not bother us.

But scheduled right in front of the building housing our reception was a “bring your own percussion instrument” traveling jam session—coinciding perfectly with our reception. Coordination and rhythm are not hallmarks of us white Midwesterners, and chemically lowered inhibition only increases the odds of this shortcoming being put on display. Certainly, one traveling member will bring a power tool, and another will know where a plug is. I am picturing the cast of Stomp with all their instruments in tow, repetitively falling down a very long flight of stairs.

We mentioned this to our minister during a meeting, and he said, “It will just add to the festive atmosphere.” We hoped so.

Let us pray: Wherever you draw your faith from, Father, let it, and our love, bestow the gift of pleasurable sound to the frying-pan orchestra that will welcome our marriage into the real world. For thine is the power, and mine is the worry. On Earth, as it is in Bloomington, give us one day of peaceful wedding. Amen.

I told myself that this was a building block of my character and slept well that night, realizing that, if I ever need to perform multiple self-invasive surgeries at the same time, I will have no fear, for I have planned a wedding.
- Drew Lloyd
From "Will You?" to "I Do.": A Groom's Tale of Survival