Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Wedding Miracles

A couple weeks ago Rich was asked to officiate a wedding for a sweet young couple in the spanish branch. Aaron and Alexis. I had met them before but didn't really know them. Fast forward to last saturday when I am on the phone with my sister Devyn. I am kid free and heading to Target. I get there, hop out of the car and get my cart. I start walking down the aisles and while I am on the phone with her I say, "Why am I at target? I should just go to safeway." but seriously, I LOVE target and honestly don't like safeway because there are so many choices!  I like small and simple and target has everything else I need besides groceries. Devyn reminded me I can always find stuff at target, but I decided to put my cart back and head on over to safeway. Little did I know at the time, but I was just following a prompting to be the answer to someone's prayer.

That someone happened to be these sweet sister missionaries and this young couple. As I was getting ready to leave safeway with my groceries I ran into the sister missionaries and this young man Aaron. I saw him picking up a boquet of white flowers and I saw the wild look in the sisters eyes as I asked what they were doing.  They told me they were shopping for the reception. I hesitated as I tried to process what was going on and then quickly asked if they needed help.  Sister Deneke (the blonde) said, "Yes, we don't have anything."  So I said, "Okay. I will be over to help soon.

I quickly enlisted the help of some of my sweetest friends in a mass group text message. I had offers of money to help, babysitters, backup help, people to buy things and be runners, and my saving grace was Stephanie the caterer.  I even had a friend chime in a couple hours later that said, "I don't know what we are signing up for, but I am in. How can I help?"

Fast forward 30 minutes later and Stephanie and I are at the house evaluating what needs to be done.  This young man is trying to put on a reception for his sweet bride with no budget (and it starts in less than 3 hours). He is proudly boiling potatoes and stirring chili and sliced loaves of bread are sitting on the table with some butter. It was so sweet, but they deserved something a little fancier (we found out later that the none of the bride's family showed up for the wedding and she had no support)  When we walked into the house with the paper doilies hanging from the ceiling the father patted his son on the back and in Spanish said, "see son, people do care about you."

We hopped back into the car and sprang into action. Flowers from trader joes were bought (she needed a bouquet!), balloons were gathered, tables and chairs and serving platters and table cloths and so much more were almost magically put into place. A friend Elizabeth showed up with 5 dozen cookies and bags of chocolates. A bag of ice made its way there, along with some much needed dish soap that the young man had ran out of during all of this. 3 different salads appeared, with water and party punch and while I was slicing the lemons and oranges to put in the water, Aaron comes to me and asks if I need help making the orange juice that he assumed I was making!  I quickly told him to leave for the church and to go get married, because this was all being taken care of.

While in the car he texted me the instructions for the potatoes. Like, long instructions. I told him not to worry, it was all taken care of, and that he needed to go get married.


Rich called me when they were headed back to the house for the reception. Tears filled their eyes as they came in and saw what Stephanie and I had done (mostly stephanie!) His mom came to us and told us that Alexis was just like her, getting married at such a young age with no support, but that she didn't have anyone who helped her like this. She was overcome with emotion because of what we had done. The sister missionaries said the service was amazing and they were so thankful for our help and for Rich.  It truly was an answer to their prayers. This literally took 4 hours of my day.  4 hours I was able to help someone have a day that they could proudly remember. I am not posting this to brag or boast, but to say how something so insignificant as me going to safeway instead of target changed the way this new family celebrated their marriage. Even from the humblest of beginnings this family will always know that someone loved them and that someone cared enough about them to celebrate with them.

I am so thankful for this opportunity I had to help be an instrument in the Lord's hands. It was such a blessing to me... way more than to them I am sure... because I know that the Lord is blessing us for all of these things that we do without hesitation. I am also so thankful for these women in my life who are able to be so supportive and loving to this couple that they didn't even know.

1 comment:

  1. This is so sweet. You and your friends are truly angels. XO

    ReplyDelete