On August the 2nd, 2008, after just under 23 1/2 years of life on this earth, our daughter, Beth, was married to Jacob Lancaster of Toccoa, GA. I cannot even tell how many people have asked, “Well, how are you doing?” I am doing fine!
Beth and Jacob did a wonderful job of having a beautiful yet simple wedding. Not surprisingly, the father of the bride had limited funds requiring a very thoughtful planning process in order to get the most for her money. Being the frugal gal that she is, Beth was able to stretch her meager funds to a beautiful site for the outside ceremony, an amazing reception featuring a fajita bar and a 4 layer wedding cake composed of a key lime layer, strawberry, butter pound cake and pumpkin spice layers. Quite amazing.
Those who know Beth and Jacob would not be surprised to note that the only traditional elements of the wedding were a dress, a preacher and walking down an aisle. Parents and grandparents were seated to Time Has Told Me, by Nick Drake, while the wedding party entered to Sigur Ros’, Hippopolli. For the first time that I am aware a wedding party had not only bridesmaids, but also a bridesman, Joey Holman, a friend of Beth’s since middle school. All the bridesmaids wore green dresses with red shoes and Joey wore a green shirt and red Keds. 
The groom and groomsmen wore simple white shirts and ties with gray pants and black Keds. The newly married husband and wife exited to “It’s the End of the World as We Know It,” by R.E.M.
During the ceremony, I reminded Beth and Jacob that they had been held in prayer from about May of 1984, as soon as we learned that we were expecting our first child and the God had prepared them for each other. Having seen them come together as an answer to prayer, how could I be anything but thrilled for them? I’m so happy that they have begun their life together and have no regrets.
The wedding was held at the Cornelia (GA) Community House, a charming log and stone building built by the Kiwanis in 1936. It has a massive fireplace, hardwood floors, vaulted ceilings stone arches and beautiful grounds. A gorgeous canopy of oak trees shades the front lawn where the chairs were set up. A moss covered fountain provided a scenic backdrop for the wedding party and many of the photos.
We had prayed for weeks for cool weather which, in a Georgian August, is rather hard to come by. The weather had been hot and dry all week long and the day of the wedding was no exception. There was a nice breeze in the morning, but it rose to about 90 degrees with little air movement by the early afternoon. About 4:30 or so my Dad noticed that clouds were forming to the north and the sky was darkening. I really didn’t think that it would come south from that area, but soon the skies above us were clouding over as well. Within minutes, people all over were accessing radar on Blackberries, iPhones and televisions. It was almost without a doubt: a major thunderstorm was coming from the west and had high winds, thunder and lightening. Sometime between 5:00 and 5:30 the first drops fell and in short order there was a huge downpour near to a flash flood.
As we watched through the windows, most folks felt that it would blow over quickly and then the rain would stop and we could start at or near the 6:30 ceremony time. What nobody wanted to face was the horrible Georgia humidity that follows those summer thunderstorms. By about 5:45 the storm was gone, some faithful friends dried out all the plastic chairs and we set up the sound equipment. But how God answered our temperature prayer was pretty amazing. When the storm was over, the temperature had dropped from 90 degrees to 70 degrees and the sun never came out from behind the clouds to it stayed cool and 
comfortable with low humidity the rest of the evening.
As an aside, if you are getting ready for marriage and need a photographer, we would highly recommend Shannon Wright from Covington, GA. Shannon is an amazing photographer, really an artist using photography as a medium. She took all the photos on this page and can be found at Photography by Shannon. Her blog is here.
