The Willaca Wedding Ceremony

It's a done deal! Will and Monaca Brown have now been pronounced husband and wife! Friday was an amazing day. They were married in the same MSU Alumni Chapel where Cathie and I were married. It was such a cool experience and great honor to stand up at the front of the church and watch Monaca walk down the aisle from Will's perspective. It reminded me of seeing Cathie walk down the aisle. I think I had almost as big of a smile seeing these two come together. I also had a front row seat to seeing my amazingly beautiful wife stand at the altar as Monaca's matron of honor - and it was tough to take my eyes off of my wife to watch the ceremony. Maddie was a junior bridesmaid and Em was a flower girl, all looking beautiful.

Nate was the junior groomsman who also presented the rings. Asking Nate to stand still through the ceremony was apparently a little taller task than you would think as he squirmed and climbed throughout the ceremony. Brad was supposed to be my wing man helping keep Nate still but apparently the job was bigger than the two of us.

Noel did a great job with the whole service and the "preaching" (as Nate put it). Noel and I have known Will for 12 years and had the privilege of being able to play a role in finding Jesus (for the record, Jesus wasn't the one who was lost).

The wedding went off flawlessly, short of minor technical glitch - mine. I had turned my cell phone to silent mode and placed it in my breast pocket. What I didn't realize is that "silent" doesn't really mean silent. At a key moment in the service, my arm hit a button on the phone and it yelled loudly, "Say a command", followed seconds later by "Please say a command." I tried to brush the first one off as an accident and look over at Brad, hoping to redirect to him. Didn't work once the second "Please say a command" came out of my cell phone.

I've been hoping and praying for this moment for Will for ten years. To see Will married to a woman like Monaca was a dream come true.

What made it even more of an honor was to have my whole family involved. Noel kicked off the ceremony talking for a minute about my Mom and her role with Will and Monaca. Two days before my Mom died, my Mom called Will and Monaca into her bedroom and kicked us out. As we listened with ears at the door, my Mom point blank asked them if they were going to be married, and that she thought they were perfect for each other. Her ask was that they place a rose on the altar in her memory, which they did.

Cathie, myself and our three kids were in the wedding party, and my Dad spoke at the end of the ceremony about what makes a strong marriage and prayed a blessing over them. I think it's fair to say that my whole family was as excited for this as wedding as we were for any of our family members' weddings. Jon and Beth and the girls flew in from Memphis, not wanting to miss it for the whole world.