Last Saturday was a love-themed day. In the afternoon, Mer and I got to go to a friend’s wedding. Mer has known Megan for about thirty-five years, and Megan is an absolute sweetheart. She is especially good with kids. Megan got married to a co-worker named Joe. Joe and Megan both work at the Haven of Rest, a ministry designed to help the homeless and very poor. So, they certainly have good compatibility there!
The ceremony was fairly long, but I like long weddings. It really seems as if a wedding should be longer than fifteen minutes if you want to capture some of the personality of the people in the wedding. In the case of Megan and Joe, they had a video message to their families (played before the ceremony actually started). They had two pastors speak, gave individualized vows, and had a fairly large group of people who came up to the alter to pray for the newly married couple. It was quite touching. Mer really liked Megan’s vows, where she cited how she liked to play with Joe – to just have fun. Mer and I try to pull that off as well, so that was great.
The opening pastor did a great job of stressing the seriousness of marriage. He pointed out that when we live up to our marriage vows, God blesses us and is for us. But, when we break our marriage vows, it brings us into opposition to God, and that causes pain and grief. I had never heard that balance before at a wedding, and I thought it was wise.
There was a dessert reception in the church fellowship hall after the wedding, and I got to visit with Aunt Mary and the Bakers. There were a lot of other people from church there, and so I got so at least say hi to them as well. The desserts were excellent, and plentiful.
After the reception, I tried to swing by a friend’s house since he only lived three blocks away from the church, but he and his family were not home. We headed toward home, and on the way I swung by Zach’s house, but he also was not at home. I decided to take Mer to a restaurant on the north side of Akron for which we had seen the sign many times, but to which we had not actually been. We got there and found the place closed and for sale. I was not having too much luck this evening. We headed the rest of the way into Akron to the Spaghetti Warehouse, where we had great service but only okay food – it was not very hot for either of us. I had leftovers, so we had to drive home and then right back to Akron for the play we were seeing that night.
As is usually the case, we headed to Actors’ Summit Theater, so see their production of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change!, a play of skits about dating, marriage, kids, and retiring. Mer and I were both pleased that it was playing on the day of a wedding. Normally, I’m not a big fan of musical reviews, but because this play was a string of skits, the songs worked for each skit, and they were thus a lot of fun. The play played off a number of stereotypes about men and women and dating, but did so in a lighthearted and funny way. I generally laughed at the two guys in the play mocking men over the two women who were poking fun at girls, so I was buying into the cultural norms, at any rate.
The first act is very funny, and the humor continues in the second act, but is toned down by some serious issues about loving in the long term and even outliving your spouse. The cast kept up a very high level of energy for the whole show, which helped carry the show along. The set was simple – almost nonexistent: it was made up of two arches for entrances – one pink and one blue. It was a lovely way to end a day devoted to love.