Love Out Loud 5

Smoothing Out The Rough Edges

A relaxing morning for Marc quickly changed tempos after lunch, as he had moved into wedding mode and wanted to spend time in Bonhoeffer thinking through the rehearsal and ceremony before going to Niemoller for the women's soccer team's scrimmage against Lawrence. Coming through to the chapel from Siebert, he walked across the narthex and saw someone up at the altar. Marc entered the sanctuary and realized it was Steph, who apparently had the same idea as the chaplain in doing a run-through before the official run-through tomorrow evening.

Marc: Looks like great minds think alike. How long have you been in here?

Steph: Just a few minutes. I REALLY need to make sure I have my parts for Saturday down pat so I'm not ending up being overrun with thoughts and freezing as I did before that chapel in January.

Marc: I understand. I'm in here to get the moving parts in my head plotted out so tomorrow will be easy and then Saturday is a breeze. This is the first wedding where I actually have TIME to work in the space prior to the rehearsal, so I'm taking advantage of it. Go on with what you're doing. Ignore me. I'll just be wandering around and sketching.

Steph returned to her preparations while Marc walked across the chancel and then up and down each of the five aisles (far right, middle right, center, middle left, and far left, with four sections of pews lying between them). He writes down several things based on his previous weddings and the procession from yesterday's worship service.

Marc (internal monologue): We should block off the outside aisles, since the attendees should be able to fit into the two middle sections. Also means making sure those doors are locked. Processional and pre-processional look to have no inherent snags, but we'll want to run that tomorrow, even if we're using additional persons to approximate how the families' entrance will play out. I know the boys are doing "Jesu" for the processional. Need to find out ahead of time what they have in store for the prelude and pre-processional. Also would like to know if they have ideas for the recessional given the song is pretty peppy.

After getting his thoughts together for what happens inside the sanctuary, he exited and took in the space and walking paths in the narthex and how he wanted it to be laid out. Again, he put a few notes into his memo book so the suggestions would be at the ready come tomorrow and Saturday. Returning to the altar, Marc sat back and watched Steph do her work. When she got to a stopping point, Steph looked over at Marc and asked his opinion.

Marc: I know your reading is a pretty standard Gospel passage for weddings (John 15:9-12), but I feel one of the important parts of that chapter gets cut off by stopping at verse 12.

Steph: Should I take it through 17 then?

Marc: 17 should be in there, but if you tack 13 onto the end of 9-12, 17 is redundant as it says the same thing as 12.

Steph: So 9-13 instead of 9-12?

Marc: That'd be my choice. Put it in your notes for tomorrow.

Steph: Done. Any work we need to do on transitions?

Marc: You and I have done two weddings together already, both of which were similar to what we'll be doing on Saturday. I'm not worried, and if there is a small stumble, just move along to the next thing in the liturgy.

As Marc and Steph were about to leave the altar, Charlie, Matt Olson, and Matt Benning came walking into the sanctuary.

Matt O.: Uncle Marc, what are you doing here?

Marc: Same thing that I'm guessing has the three of you coming in. Preparation for Saturday.

Matt B.: That's correct. We have been working on the pieces separately until now and want to test out the acoustics in here before the rehearsal, plus try out a couple of ideas I have for the pre-ceremony portions. Mind sticking around and offering your opinion?