The Wedding,Christine and Mike

Well where do I start....?

We were looking for the right day. Christine's first pick was Halloween, I said no, that wasn't right. I said April fools day, that is my Grandfathers birthday, she said no, I don't want to be a big joke. I said Valentine's day, she said no, we will always be cooking. We were stuck! I wanted to be the first couple married in the new house, "Casa Somerset". If we didn't do this soon, it would get too cold and we would have to wait until late Spring '09.

I then looked at the calendar for a proper date. I thought of December 1st, I have two children and 1 granddaughter born that day. Easy to remember. But it needed to be on a weekend.

Then I saw November 1st, All Saints Day, the Day of the Feast. I told Christine that was the day. She started crying. Oh my gosh, what did I say??? She said that was her Father's Birthday. I said that is the day.

Well, we talked about the wedding, she said don't invite any more than 15 to 20. I said ok, so every day I invited 15 to 20, I am so agreeable :-) It was all done via e-mail. The wedding was to be in two weeks.

I contacted Jasper in Italy, to see if he would be my best man. He was so excited about our wedding. Christine and I first met at his restaurant at a Slowfood board meeting. January 5th, 2004. Hilary Cooley brought us together. Our first kiss was there in his parking lot, several weeks later. He just had to be part of this.

We went to the county court house to get the marriage license, and on the way out I said "Wow, now we will have a name for the baby". (LOL...LOL...) We walked out the courthouse door and were greeted by the loudest clap of thunder and a huge bolt of lightening that hit the sky. Hmmm... was that a sign?????

We worked very hard getting ready for the big event in two weeks. I kept sending out the invites everyday 15 to 20. Hilary and Christine spent many hours decorating the new house and the house across the street for the big day. Christine said she could not have done this without Hilary's help!

The day of the wedding, Nov. 1st, Hilary showed up early to help us get ready. We got all of the food ready and about 1:15 Christine said she was going to get ready, the wedding was at 3.

I start getting ready about 1:30, complete by 1:45. Well I went back to help Hilary finish up. Then people started to arrive. Jasper and Lisa were first. Jasper was helping with the food. Then others started trickling in. I went over to the new house and start touring with people. Then I went back to see where Christine was. She still was not ready, she was talking to her son, Mark. So, I got in my tux, got on my riding mower and drove back up to the wedding site at the new house. Three of my grandchildren jumped in the trailer and off we went.

Many people had arrived by then, about 100. Oh, was Christine going to be surprised. Well about 3:00 Christine arrived. Her knee had been hurting, and she took some medicine so they would feel better. Well they felt pretty good by then. She then had to greet every one who came. This took another 20 minutes. Finally we get to the altar. Pastor Kirk was ready and we began.

It was a beautiful ceremony, Christine looking deeply into my eyes, each of us taking our vows to heart. I was thinking I was a lucky man. Pastor Kirk Johnson explained to her I was a gift from God. This will be brought up often. Then he pronounced us Husband And Wife. *(Pastor Kirk also said that I was a gift from God for Mike...he seems to have forgotten that part already...Christine... :-).

After the wedding, we had a blessing of the house and a blessing of the vines. This we will write of in another story. We wanted that to happen for some time, and as this was such a special day, we decided to include it. The Sister's of Ursuline performed this. They are great people.

We then went across the road to celebrate with our friends. We had so many special people there. It was a joyous occasion. We all laughed so hard over the events of the day, and of the stories from the past. We ate pasta and all of the great foods brought by our friends, and celebrated with a little vino. Many thanks to Kelly and Brad for helping us clean up on Saturday and Sunday!

Many people commented that we had so many friends from different groups. They came from our food groups, work, neighbors, and just friends. We loved having every one of them there! Christine and I reflected on this last Sunday; how lucky we are to have so many friends and that they all are so light hearted and such good people.

Life is about good friends, family, and memories. Food and Vino help too.

Love to all, Christine and Mike Hursey