How can anyone bring themselves to affirm that they will care for another person twenty years from now?  It is one thing to promise your girlfriend that you will pick her up at eight o’clock; it is quite another to give her your pledge that you will love her for the rest of your life.  The marriage vows are simple ones, but remarkable both for the extremity of their selflessness, and also for the fact that in most cases they turn out to be the only true vows either partner will ever make, let alone hold to, in their entire lives.

On behalf of the couple…and on behalf of all those who have thought and planned and worked to make this fantastic event possible, it is my pleasure to welcome you this Sunday afternoon to the NOT wedding.

Let’s make no mistake about it: this is a party, a celebration. And today we celebrate not just all that which goes into making the wedding occasion unique among all others, but also marriage itself. For the NOT wedding celebrates both essence and experience…beauty and virtue.

We celebrate flowers and music and apparel and décor and dance and fine food. And we honor the pledge that couples make as they throw all natural caution and defensiveness to the winds and put themselves entirely in the hands of love by an act of the will. The NOT wedding celebrates falling in love…as well as marching into it boldly.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I now present to you for the first time…

MR. AND MRS. NOT COUPLE!

photo: Callie Murray

Actually, no, I made that up. 

But I want to say this: Jameson, you’re a special guy. You are a very talented individual. You’re super organized with an entrepreneurial spirit. You’re a role model for young people, an inspiration to your friends. You are someone on whom others gladly depend. And you’re a dancing fool. And…Mallory is a lucky girl. 

Mallory, you, too, are the real deal.  You love well and you live well. You’re also super organized. You have a sensitive and caring heart, a passion for God and for the things of God. People love your presence; it is, for them, a good thing to be around you. And, truly, Jameson is a lucky man. 

I say these things to you both not to puff you up or to make you feel good.  But I know that the support and encouragement of family and friends is extremely valuable to you. Well, you’ve got it. I want to say publicly what I am convinced all of us already are thinking: We love you.  We support you. We’re proud of you both.  And we’re so honored to be your family and friends.

photo: Tec Petaja

But the choice of a marriage partner (combined with the choice to get married in the first place, for the two cannot really be separated) is one of the very freest choices we make as human beings.  And if anything has been made clear to me, it is that you, Chad, have chosen Bethany…and you, Bethany, have chosen Chad.  And so…although today is not your beginning, today is the beginning of a new way of living; it is for you the dawn of newness.  …Today is a beautiful day.

photo: Tec Petaja

I want to emphasize celebration. Krista and Thad have communicated to me their hopes that this ceremony be reverent and at the same time casual, important yet informal, worshipful and at the same time fun. They also wanted the ceremony to be personal, capturing who they are. And from the events of yesterday and from the looks of things today, I’d say that they’ve done a good job.

Krista and Thad, we know that in the depths of your beings you are celebrating. In fact, more than one person has said that when they think about your personality, Krista, their mental image of you is one where you are dancing, spinning in circles, and laughing. Thad, many people have told me that their mental image of you is one where you’re running in the Boston Marathon, and it’s raining, and you’re in first place…and you’re naked. And all of your friends are cheering you on. I don’t know where that image comes from, but that’s what they’ve told me.

Anyway, I want to communicate that with everything inside of us, we celebrate with you. We are so profoundly pleased and excited about your marriage. And we consider ourselves blessed to know you and to call you our friends.

photos: Joy Thigpen 

photo: Joy Thigpen

Josh, I think I speak for all of the Atlanta community, that when you left for Orlando nearly two years ago, we thought for sure you would find an apartment, some new friends, and we hoped a degree. But we did not know for sure that you would find a wife. And we had no idea that you find someone as fantastic as Jen.

Congrats, guys!