Daryl and Laura did the deed last Saturday (October 18, 2008) in a beautiful, traditional wedding ceremony. The service was held at the First United Methodist Church in Dalton, Georgia. It started promptly at 4 p.m. and lasted a bit under 25 minutes. Laura was stunning in her wedding dress and Daryl looked quite handsome in his tuxedo. Everything proceeded without a problem and they are now husband and wife.

The events of the weekend started on Wednesday evening. We arrived at the campground north of Dalton in the early afternoon and did some sightseeing at the Chickamauga National Military Park, the scene of the Confederacy’s last victory in the Civil War (and the turning point where the North won the war). We then took the twins with us to dinner with Daryl, Laura, her parents, Nina, and me. Nina has previously met Laura’s mother when they were in Philadelphia for the bridal shower. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Robert (goes by Bob) and Dorothy (goes by Dot) at dinner. She’s the department head for the humanities at a college in Chattanooga. He’s a retired professor from a college in Dalton. They’re both well known and respected in the town. He’s been working on the genealogy for his family and has been recently published on the first of a two-part series on his grandfather’s experiences in World War One. Then evening ended much too quickly. Then, just as I was settling into sleep, Nina’s cell phone rang. It was her two sisters standing outside the camper door. They had both arrived a day early and wanted to surprise her. They succeeded!

Friday afternoon was the wedding rehearsal. Further, Jim and LeeAnn arrived from Missouri, Dawnmarie and Kirk arrived from Pennsylvania, Heather and Ty arrived from Salt Lake (via England), and Jared and Arlene arrived from Seattle. Our contingent for the wedding was complete. Nina says that we had 32 people from our family present for the wedding.

The rehearsal went very well. I think the lady at the church responsible for weddings was quite pleased with our promptness, soberness (often a problem, both she and the minister told us), and attention to detail. After that we retired to the rehearsal dinner. Nina had been working on and arranging this dinner for a couple of months. It was to include not only the bridal party, but all family members on both sides of the family who had come from out of town. In total 63 people were there from 14 states. It was truly a family gathering. Nina had arranged for the Spiced Apple restaurant to provide the dinner. We had the restaurant to ourselves and the buffet they provided was delicious. We had a delightful time.

Friday Nina and her sisters did some playing and we met at the wedding hotel (the La Quinta in Dalton) in time to go to the church at 2:30 p.m. for pictures. The pictures went well and at 3:55 pm (right on schedule), Daryl escorted Nina and me to our seats. Promptly at 4 the organist started playing the march and Laura’s father escorted her down the aisle to numerous oohs and aahs from the congregation. They’ve lived in Dalton for close to 30 years and there were a lot of friends and neighbors at the wedding.

After more pictures we went to the reception in downtown Dalton. The reception included a buffet-style sit-down dinner, cake cutting, bouquet toss, and a garter toss (which our son Jared deftly snagged in a NFL style catch). There was a City of Dalton celebration happening as well (some kind of a Liberty Tree commemoration), so about 8 p.m. the sky lit up with fireworks. What a delightful (free) show! The videographer was able to get a lot of video with the sky lighting up with fireworks behind the bride and groom. More reasons to buy the video!

Congratulations, Laura and Daryl!