The Wedding Planner
It was probably the most decadent wedding cake I had ever tasted.
I had been a mobile deejay for several years when I performed at a wedding reception in Central Ohio. The cake had been made by a woman who also baked for Les Wexner, the founder of The Limited clothing stores.
The stuff was pure ambrosia—like the Greek mythological food of the gods. The cake had four layers, each a different flavor, with a different filling, with a different fondant topping it. There was a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache, a white cake with raspberry filling and fresh raspberries, and a couple other flavors which I can’t remember, but was probably dreamed up somewhere in France.
I do remember I went back for seconds that night.
I was so impressed by the cake that I took the baker’s business card; I thought if I ever needed an amazing cake I would give the woman a call.
I tucked the business card away with a dozen or so others I had saved during my years as a deejay; business cards for a photographer in Dublin, a Florist in Reynoldsburg, a Caterer in Cincinnati and several others.
When my wife and I got engaged in early spring of 1996 we began planning for a Thanksgiving weekend wedding. I was still performing as a deejay at the time and I told my wife-to-be that if she would take care of her wedding dress and the Bridesmaid’s dresses I would do everything else for the wedding and reception. And that’s kind of how our wedding went.
I called the Florist in Reynoldsburg for flowers, I called the Caterer in Cincinnati to cater the meal at the reception, I called the photographer in Dublin and I called the baker to make our cake. We too had a four layer cake with those same fillings and fondant; the cost was an arm and a leg, a kidney, my spleen and the big toe on my left foot.
As a deejay there were many instances I would be the Wedding Planner—at least for the reception. The Bride and Groom often had an idea of what they wanted to do at the wedding reception, but didn’t really know how to bring it all together—it wasn’t going to be a frat party. So, I would meet a few months ahead of time with the couple and walk them through the entire wedding reception.
They would handle the banquet facility, the food and getting the photographer there, but I helped them to choreograph everything else; the arrival of the Bridal Party, the introduction of the Bride and Groom as they entered, emceeing the meal, providing dinner music, conducting traditional events like cutting of the wedding cake (shoved into noses and all), throwing of the Bride’s bouquet (only to be caught by 8-year-old niece Susie or 88-year-old widowed Aunt Mildred), the Groom removing the Bride’s garter (with his teeth) and an assortment of dances with the Bride and Groom, parents and Bridal Party.
Once all of that had been accomplished I emceed the rest of the evening and provided all of the dance music. I recall playing at a Wedding Reception at The Confluence Park Restaurant in the room that is built on pilings over the river and the dancing was so raucous to REM’s song The End of the World As We Know It that the entire room was moving up and down so much it caused my CD player to skip. I was hitting so much base on my Bose system that sawdust was falling from the wood beams that the room had been constructed of. Now that’s dancing!
I had never planned on being a Wedding Planner for receptions; it just came with the job. On many occasions I would sit with the Bride-to-be and the Groom-to-be, and as we were planning and it seemed as if we were planning the mother of the Bride’s wedding, not the Bride-to-be. I even got fired one time from a gig during the planning stages when I suggested to a mother that it was her daughter’s wedding and she needed to let the daughter do the things she wanted to do. Mom was paying for the reception and took exception to my suggestion. Imagine that!
Often the couple would tell me what music to play and what music to absolutely not play under any circumstances. Some couples hated country music and refused to have it played at their reception, even if Uncle Ralph wanted to hear Garth Brooks’ The Dance for the 87th time. Other couples hated certain artists, like Jimmy Buffet, it must have reminded them of their fathers or something, or they’d had an ex-girlfriend who loved Jimmy Buffet. There were certain songs they didn’t want played, like Old Time Rock-n-Roll by Bob Seger; songs that make your ears bleed when you hear them.
I’m kind of like that, there are certain songs when I hear I have to turn the radio to a different channel or I’ll throw up across my dashboard—one such song for me is Black Water by the Doobie Brothers.
I figured it’s the Bride and Groom’s wedding though, they’re paying for it, they can tell me what to play or not to play. Thankfully, nobody ever requested Black Water.
Sometimes I referred couples to Florists and Caterers and Photographers when they needed them.
By the time the Wedding Reception rolls around I’d be the first to arrive and the last to go home. Most nights the reception flew by quickly with the Bride and Groom caught up in the whirlwind of it all.
I was reminded of my years as a deejay this week during a series of meetings our churches were having. I originally called the meetings a mini revival, but the more I thought about it, mini revival didn’t sound right. What sounded right was a Come-Alive-al. I was sensing that God wanted us to come alive to how incredible Jesus is.
For five nights I attempted to provoke us to focus on Jesus; to focus on his supreme worth.
The first night I spoke on what God’s ultimate purpose was in creating everything, including human beings. God has always wanted to dwell with his creation, and when consummated we see God’s dwelling is in Christ and his Church.
The second night I spoke of our amazing Bridegroom—Jesus. Multiple times in scripture God refers to Jesus as his Beloved. I believe Jesus needs to be our Beloved too. We need to see and live for his infinite worth, and his glory.
On the third night I talked about the Bride of Christ; the Church, and our betrothal to Christ. I took us to the scriptures to see how God has always wanted a Bride for his Son, and that Bride is to be pure and holy.
By night four I had us looking at what the Family of God looks like and what it is and is supposed to be. And, I wrapped up on night five with a look at what Body Life in the Body of Christ might look like.
On the third night I realized that we had been looking at large chunks of scripture together and it struck me…the Bible is our Wedding Planner. It’s our Wedding Planner in that we must look deeply into it to discover what the wedding plans are—what God has in store for us—the Church, the Bride and his Son, the Bridegroom.
Each night a number of people would have to make their way over to a table where we kept a supply of Bibles to get one so that they could follow along and join in as many of us read scripture throughout each night.
Something else struck me; why didn’t some of those people think to bring their Bibles with them—their Wedding Planners? They knew we would be talking about the Bridegroom and our source for details about him is found in the Wedding Planner.
But I see the same thing each Sunday morning too; a good number of people arrive at the church’s gathering without a Bible, and they know we’re going to use it to prepare ourselves, the Bride to receive from the Bridegroom.
How little do we think of the Bridegroom, Jesus, if we don’t even think enough to bring our Wedding Planner with us to a gathering where he is supposed to be the centrality of all things?
If I bring my Wedding Planner to a gathering and hear revelation of the Bridegroom, I just might taste and see that that the Lord is good, and I might want to go back for seconds.
