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Wedding ReportCharles Jeffrey Jones & Jennifer Lynne WindhamMarried on : October 17, 1998 |
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His Story |
Her Story |
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| The wedding day started out with a beautiful sunrise that I could see through my east-facing hotel window. I was curled up in the bed and contemplating what I needed to do to get ready for the rest of the day. About 7:30 AM the phone rang and as I expected it turned out to be Jennifer. She wished me a good morning, made sure I hadn't come down with something ill overnight and wished me a good day. | I was very excited to get the day started and kicked it off by giving Charles a call. There was a lot of giggling going on! |
| I got out of bed, cleaned myself up and headed down to the hotel restaurant for some breakfast. While I was sitting there I watched coaches of the Texas Tech University football team as they got their things together. They were here to play the University of Colorado team today, but my mind was not on football games. As I was finishing up breakfast I reached under the table to get my napkins and encountered the Monster Splinter of Hades. A huge splinter under the table jabbed under the fingernail of my left ring finger. Of course that's the hand and finger that would be featured in any ring photos later that day, so you can imagine how excited that made me. I ignored it as best I could, finished up breakfast and headed back to my room. Once up there I looked things over and decided that it wouldn't be too bad. | Mom and I had an appointment at 8:45 AM to get our hair fixed up. I took my veil and told the stylist to make it look like a wedding hairdo. The previous Thursday we had gone to The Nail Center in Buckingham Palace to get
acrylic nails. The man at the counter painted my nails grape, added small while dots and put on silver swirls with a little utensil. The pattern was called Bridal Lace and was really pretty. Nevertheless having nails this long was a
little disconcerting! :-) |
| I had known ahead of time that I would need something to occupy my mind while I waited for the ceremony. With that in mind I had printed out a copy of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith on Thursday. Now I sat down with that document and my Bible and commenced studying. This turned out to be a perfect decision, I studied, read, thought, talked out loud and sometimes preached to the windows for about two hours. | Mom and I headed off to Hobby Lobby to get the last pew bows we needed for decorating the sanctuary. At the same time I called my car insurance company. They had sent me a bill claiming I was past due, but I had already
canceled the policy! I explained this to the lady on the phone and all she could say was, "Why are you calling on your wedding day?" It turned out that it was really canceled anyway, so no problem. |
| About 11:00 AM I put away the literature and began getting dressed. Taking my time to get everything right I ended up using about 40 minutes to get dressed. I spent another 15 minutes fussing over details and finally just
grabbed the rings, took a last look in the mirror and headed down to the lobby. On my way to the elevator I met another couple decked out in formal wear. "Looks like we're both headed to the same thing", the lady said to me. "Yep!", I
replied, "Looks like it's a good day for weddings!" My Best Man (Erik) picked me up in front of the hotel right on time and we headed over to his condo to hang out until 2:00 PM when I was due at the church. Once we were at his condo I plopped myself down in front of the Sony Playstation and focused on MotoJet for another two hours. In the meantime Erik tried to find his black socks and Vince (Erik's roommate and one of the groomsmen) went off on a pretext of getting some Subway sandwiches to eat. We waited for Vince to return, and waited, and waited. Finally Erik's girlfriend Barbara showed up and since it was 2:00 we borrowed her car to get me to the church. |
By now I getting very nervous, pacing about the house gathering up odds and ends that I would need at the church. I had a bite to eat and finally there was nothing left to do, so I crashed in front of the television and waited for
the time to pass. As we got ready to leave I packed Dad's truck full of wedding things while Mom and Dad dressed for the wedding. |
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| Getting to the church I met my family in one of the Sunday School rooms. We hadn't seen my brother and two sisters all together in over ten years so we spent some time visiting. I put on a little slip of paper the read, "Hi! I'm the nervous, do I look groom?" Shortly thereafter the photographer showed up and we gathered up to take a number of group photos. While the photos were being taken Jennifer arrived with her family and sneaked off upstairs to get ready. Jennifer's Dad came by and mentioned that Jennifer was crying quite a bit and at that news my Mom and two sisters took off like a shot to go see her. I would have gone as well, but Jennifer's family had wanted to observe the old tradition of me not seeing Jennifer until the ceremony. | When I got to the church the full reality of what was happening hit me. Charles' Mom and Dad were waiting in from of the church for everyone to show up. I was so happy and sad at the same time that I started crying. We
went up to the bridal room and started dressing, but I was still crying. All of a sudden two ladies show up and introduce themselves as Pam and Monica, Charles' sisters. They had heard I was crying and they wanted to comfort and support me.
This was so sweet! Charles' Mom also showed up and reported that Charles was concerned about me. |
| After the ladies returned from seeing Jennifer we goofed our way through the rest of the photos and generally hung out until it was 3:40, twenty minutes until the ceremony started. Mom came by to tell me that Jennifer was doing a lot better and that made me feel a lot better. I went out to greet guests and did so for about five minutes until I realized that they weren't going to go in and sit down if I was standing there. So I extricated myself from the crowd and bombed down the waiting area where the groomsmen were supposed to gather. That last fifteen minutes were the only slow moments of the entire day. The other groomsmen filtered in and finally 4:00 was here. | The rest of the bridesmaids showed up and got dressed. Mom came by and helped me get my veil adjusted. The photographer showed up after getting done with Charles' family and took pictures of us getting ready. All the ladies
were very helpful in keeping things moving and helping get everybody ready for this important event. At this point Cassie got back from meeting with Pastor Carl (making sure she knew what to do) and we got her dressed up as well. Now that
everyone was ready we grouped up and headed off to get this underway. |
| Erik headed back up to escort the mothers into the sanctuary and the rest of the groomsmen went up to the room where we were to await out cue to enter. Moments later Erik showed up which meant that the mothers were seated and we were ready to go. Pastor Carl asked if everyone was ready, we all were, and on cue we entered the sanctuary. I looked first for my Mom and Dad, found them and gave them a smile. Mom looked nervous and happy at the same time, the rest of my family was all smiling. We got up on the platform, positioned ourselves as we had practiced at the rehearsal and waited. | We got lined up in the order we were going to enter the sanctuary. I put my arm in Dad's and he turned to me and said, "You look beautiful." Ack! I almost started to cry again! Then I saw Erik begin seating the
mothers and then he took off to join the rest of the groom's party. |
| The harpist began to play "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" and Jilly the junior bridesmaid started down the aisle. Quinn the junior groomsman went down to meet her at the front of the pews and escorted her to her position. Then came Gabby, who was met by Derek. Then Brooke who was met by Vince and finally Kim who was met by Erik. Cassie and Cameron, the Flower Girl and Ringbearer marched down smartly after Kim. The music finished up and there was a pause. Then began Wagner's "Wedding March" and Jennifer and her Dad appeared in the doorway. She looked for a second and locked in on me. I realized she was smiling and not crying and I felt relieved. Down the aisle they came, and at the right moment Pastor Carl and I went forward to meet them. I went down the steps to stand on her Dad's other side and we all faced Pastor Carl. After a few words to the audience the pastor asked who brought this woman, her father answered "Her Mother and I" and placed Jennifer's hand in mine. My heart was racing at this point, and it is right now as well as I remember it! | Finally I saw Jilly start walking down the aisle. One by one the other bridesmaids went down the aisle. At last Cassie and Cameron where the only ones left and they too went towards the front. Now it was my turn. We
stepped to the door and faced the front of the sanctuary. There was Charles, and he was smiling! I thought he looked so handsome! The wedding coordinator adjusted my train behind me and I had a flock of butterflies in my stomach! Then we began walking down the aisle towards Charles and Pastor Carl. I now began smiling back at Charles. Charles and Pastor Carl came forward and met us at the front of the podium and Charles took his place beside Dad. Dad game me away and I felt so overjoyed and nervous. I gave Dad a hug and he placed my hand in Charles'. |
| We followed Pastor Carl up the steps, got to our spots and turned to face one another. I finally got to look at Jennifer's face through her veil and could see one little mascara tear mark. "Awww", I thought, "How cute!" As the harpist was finishing playing Jennifer was standing there tense and rigid, her eye's boring into mine. Pastor Carl leaned over towards her a little and whispered, "Breathe!" No reaction, she was too focused on me. I mimicked a deep breath and she caught that and took a deep breath herself. Whew! We avoided the fainting bride scene. | We got up on the podium and turned to face one another. Now I look in Charles' eyes and I locked into them. I was unaware of the audience, Pastor Carl or anyone else. All I could think of was that Charles was here and
that he was about to marry me! I saw Charles take a deep breath and I decided that that would be a good idea! |
| I had written a poem to be read during the ceremony and my Father had volunteered to read it. He had practiced it many times, but he found that during the ceremony it had a lot more emotional impact! A couple times I got concerned that his voice was going to crack, but he soldiered on through and made it. Jennifer smiled at several points during the poem as she caught various references I made to things that happened during our courtship. I breathed a sigh of relief at the end, it had been a success. | Charles' father read the poem that Charles had written. He had put a lot of beautiful things in it, and it was really neat that his Dad could read it. I thought it was special that he had a part in this wedding as well. |
| Pastor Carl spoke a short piece which I'll have to watch the video tape to remember anything from, then we exchanged our vows. I almost stumbled at one point where Pastor Carl repeated a very long sentence and I had to close my eyes and pull that sentence from memory. | The vows went well until the very end. Pastor Carl said, "cherish, honor and respect." But I was really wanting to say love first and so I repeated "love", (pause) "cherish and honor". There was bunch of giggling from the audience and Pastor Carl smiled and said, "I don't think anyone would object to that" |
| During the ring exchange Cameron successfully delivered the rings to both Erik and Kim, Jennifer and I exchanged rings and nobody dropped anything. | While Cameron carried the rings from side to side he was very careful not to step on the train, just like he had been told and practiced! |
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| Now it was time for the unity candle. We stepped up to the table, I took out my candle and I saw Jennifer's candle go out. I thought at first that she had moved it too fast and the flame had been snuffed. Looking closer I realized that the spring loaded metal case the candle was in had come undone and she was trying mightily to keep it all together! We relit her candle, lit the family candle and then tried to put the candles back. Mine went in okay, but hers was still trying to come apart. Finally, with visions of the candle launching into the baptistery, I helped out and got it back together and into the holder. Whew! Another disaster averted! | The unity candle proved to be exciting. I pulled the candle out of the stand and it started to come apart, trying to shoot out of my hand! I had visions of the case going flying through the air like a Fourth of July rocket and
everybody going "Oooo!" We managed to get candle lit and Charles was a very big help in getting the thing put back in the holder correctly. |
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and now it is " Their Story..." |
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| Once again we faced one another, Pastor Carl pronounced us man and wife and I kissed my Bride. We faced the audience, were proclaimed as Mr. and Mrs. and we marched out of the sanctuary. Once outside we hugged each other in relief, waited for the rest of the wedding party to exit and headed back in to dismiss all of our wonderful guests. | |
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| After the guests were all on their way to the reception we took all the posed wedding shots. While these were going on my Dad stopped by: "Do you know anything about a limo?", he asked. "Um, well, no", I replied, "As far as I know Erik is taking us to the reception in his truck." "Well", he replied, "A limo has just shown up." "Hmm, well don't tell Jennifer it's probably a surprise." Sure enough as we left there was a big white limo and the entire bridal party piled in. It was a gift from Erik, and we loved it! People honked and we waved back. The sun had come out from behind the clouds and we were finally married! |
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