A couple of years ago I officiated at a “green” wedding at the Fort Wayne Botanical Gardens. The couple were both college graduates and were all about getting back to nature, thus an outside wedding at the Gardens. However, Mother Nature didn’t cooperate very well. A heavy downpour began 4 minutes before the wedding was to begin and everyone ran under the reception tent.

Then violent winds kicked up and tornado sirens went off in downtown Fort Wayne. Everyone ran into the building. Then a security guard came in and ordered everyone to the basement, where there was no air conditioning. When the all clear signal came, it was still raining, so we performed the wedding ceremony in the lobby of the Botanical Gardens building. All that chaos made for great memories.

But the positive spin came when all was over and we looked out the window to the east and saw a brilliant rainbow stretching from the sky down to a cross atop the neighboring church steeple. That made it all worthwhile and was like God got one up on Mother Nature. I’ll never forget that wedding.

Tags: nature, rainbow, wedding