Thos and Delaina's wedding day, part 4 (final): the ring ceremony, Rex and I must skip the reception
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 4:20PM 
Okay - it is time to finish this up, to let Thos and Delaina get out of Utah and on to their honeymoon in Vermont, and for me to catch this blog up with myself and return it to Alaska.
So, I am going to move quickly.
After the lunch, two more functions remained - the ring ceremony and the reception.
To be absolutely clear, Thos and Delaina had been fully married and had exchanged their vows rings in the Draper Temple, during the actual morning ceremony. The ring ceremony would be held for the benefit of those of us who had not been allowed to attend the temple ceremony, which included the children too young to receive temple recommends and pretty much all of the family on Thos's side.
I am not certain, but I think all, and if not all, nearly all of the family present on Delaina's side had received recommends and had attended the service, where no cameras or recording devices are allowed.
To receive a temple recommend, one must:
be a Mormon in good standing with the church...
be fully paid up on tithing ten percent of his/her income to the church...
be having intimate relations with no one other than one's own spouse...
be living a life free from the consumption of alcohol, tabacco, illegal drugs, coffee and tea...
be an active church goer and participant...
express a testimony that the Church is true...
and more, to be sure...
For those of us who could not meet these requirements, they would again exchange their rings in a setting where we could be present.
It was scheduled to begin at 5:00, but family was asked to come at 4:00, so that we could pose for pictures. Rex and I arrived at 4:00 and found Thos and Delaina, resting a bit.
Wedding days may be cherished and special, but they are also exhausting.
A young staff member came rolling by on a Segway. This got us to talking about how the owner of the Segway company had recently been killed after accidently driving his Segway off a cliff in England.
Soon, we were on the elevator, headed up to the floor where the ring ceremony would take place.
A beautiful little girl was getting her hair fixed.
Boys were laughing.
;)
Not everybody was there for the group pictures, so people began to dance a little bit.
This was the setting. Thanksgiving Point. I felt as though I had come to Shangri La.
When Mom was alive and healthy, she liked to sing the Mormon hymn, "There is Beauty All Around..."
...and some of that beauty has roots in India.
The couple enter, as the bride's father smiles in approval. As they are already married, he does not march down the aisle with her and will not be giving her away.
I decided just to stay put in my chair on the front row where family sat and not jump up and down to run around and take pictures. I would leave that to the wedding photographer. I did not have a good angle when Thos once again placed his ring on Delaina's finger, but I had a pretty decent one when Delaina placed hers on his.
I could swear that I stayed riveted in my seat throughout, but judging from the angle of this image, I must have stood up when the groom kissed the bride.
I didn't leave my seat, though.
The parents and grandmother were the first invited to come up and congratulate Thos and Delaina, but someone beat them to the head of the line.
Remember - one week before, I had been in the Arctic. The ground had been covered in snow, the temperature near zero.
Down below, I saw the photographer, hard at work taking family shots. They must have turned out grand. Look how beautiful the light is... kind of like a dream.
Then we were told that our pictures were going to be taken in front of the hall. So we hiked back up to the top of the hill and to the front of the hall.
We did pause, though, so that Ada could watch an airplane fly over the moon. Ada loves airplanes. This is a trait she gets from her great-grandfather Hess and shares with her Uncle Bill.
I would love to teach her to fly one day - if only I can get another airplane by the time she is ready to learn.
Hell. I'll be an old man by then, if I am alive at all - but that doesn't that I won't be able to fly.
;)
After we got to the front, they told us the plan had changed and we would be photographed at the bottom of the hill. So we marched around and headed back down.
We found the photographer, busily photographing Thos and Delaina.
I also found my brother Rex, who had also hiked up and down the hill twice. Remember - he has pig valves in his heart - the second set of pig valves, as the first set failed a year after Dad died.
He was clutching his fist, and holding it close to his chest below his heart.
I became worried.
Soon, the bride came to join us.
The photographer gave us the final instructions and then photographed us all together. Soon, it would be dark. I was very worried about Rex. He admitted that he was not doing good.
Now we had to hike back up the hill. He said he could make it and he did, but he was very weak.
I took him home. I missed the reception. He apologized to me later, but he needn't have. I had attended three good wedding functions that day. The reception would have been nice, and there was one photo that I really wanted to get but missed, but a brother is more important than a reception or a photo.
The photo that I missed was of them with the family of Bishop and Janet Webber, because without this family and Facebook, Thos and Delaina may never have come together. As I did not get the picture, I will not try to tell the story, but I will let readers mull over it, and wonder about it - the Webber family, Facebook and the marital union of Thos and Delaina Swallow.
This does it for my coverage of the wedding day. I said that I would leave the previous story at the top of the blog for about half-a-dozen hours so that I could see how many extra hits would be brought in by having the word "Palin" in the title. That post has now been up just over five hours. So far, I have had a little more than twice the average number of hits for a full day.
That's enough. I will go ahead and post this now.
Reader Comments (2)
Thanks for sharing all your adventures Bill, always a welcome respite from the noise of Palin and company. Beautiful pictures, hope the honeymooners enjoy Vermont, we've had some beautiful fall weather here in New England recently. Also hope your brother is feeling better.
Hmm. I didn't notice any reference to "Palin" until I got to the end of the blog. I just read fro coverage of the wedding. Some very nice photos, brother!