As a Justice of the Peace, I always try to be early. For a small wedding, most of the time the couple is there on time or a few minutes late.
Because Danbury has a beautiful park with a mansion, grape arbor and gazebo, I tend to recommend the use of the gazebo if the couple has not chosen a venue. April 1st I received a call from Joy. She and Dennie wanted to get married in late April and she wanted three children incorporated into ceremony, Leena, age 6, and twin boys Lemond and Larson, age 3. She scheduled the ceremony for noon and I suggested she call the director of the mansion to see if the gazebo was available.
I did not hear back from her and was ready to add the two names to a cancelled list that I keep in my records. The day was I working on my record updates, Joy called me back. She did call the director and the gazebo is available that afternoon but she asked if I could change the time to 2 p.m. I had an outdoor wedding at 4 p.m. at a park in Ridgefield scheduled but quickly calculated the time and distance knowing that I could still do both.
I agreed to the new time and arrived at 1:45 that afternoon. There was a women there, dressed up for a wedding in an airy, flowered sun dress, with four children in tow. She was chatting with an older woman in a deep purple dress. The children were all quite young, ranging in age from one to about ten. Two girls were in shorts and two had on dresses. The temperature was around 80 degrees and the sun was hot for April. Although there were no men in the small group, I introduced myself, hoping that one of the women was the bride.
Hope introduced herself as Joy's sister stating that she came down from Waterbury and thought she missed the wedding. I reminded her that the ceremony was to start at 2 and she said she was told to be there at 1 p.m. She introduced me to her aunt and to the girls, all were Joy's nieces. She added that thye stopped at a store on the way to Danbury so the girls could each have new outfits for the wedding. The six year old let me know they changed in the car.
Hope called Joy for me at exactly 2 p.m. and did not get an answer. I called 5 minutes later and was able to talk with Joy. I was told they are on the way. The kids played, ate candy and got messy, the aunt and sister talked, played on the phone and chided the kids. The afternoon dragged on and Joy finally arrived at 2:45 with Leena in tow. Joy was dressed in a tux, Leena had on a pretty white dress with white shoes, perfect for her mom's wedding. Joy said she talked to Dennie and that she is on the way with the boys and will be there shortly. I just continued pacing, gazebo, down sidewalk, up sidewalk, gazebo, repeat. I was a nervous wreck knowing I had to be in Ridgefield at 4 p.m. I did a quick map search on my phone and found that I can get to the park in twenty minutes.
I called the next groom, Luca, and asked if we could meet at 4:30 instead. He said no problem and that Sarah would prefer the later time. With a sigh of relief, I turned back to the problem at hand.
Dennie showed up with the two boys and the license at 3:30. Joy had paid me when she arrived. All the women tried to pull the twins outfits together, they were dressed up, black pants, white shirts, shirt tails hanging out, shoes ready to come off, suspenders falling off. I explained that I had to leave as soon as I was finished with the ceremony and suggested that we do the ceremony under the tree rather than at the gazebo because I knew moving the small crowd intact would be a difficult task.
You are now a family and I now pronounce you partners for life! I rushed back to my car to race to the next wedding in Richardson Park in Ridgefield. Not knowing exactly where I was going was even more stressful. I pulled into the parking lot at 4:15 pm, took a deep breath, found the next program, grabbed my purse to put in the trunk, picked up my robe and got out of the car. I made it there before the bride and groom.
