I just returned from Jacksonville, FL for my friend Kelley’s wedding. First of all, I will say congrats to Kelley and Erik! It was a beautiful wedding and I want my wedding to be very similar to theirs because it was so elegant and classy.
Well, I have heard it said that every wedding has a “story”, well Erick and Kelley are no exception to this myth! I knew it was going to be a wild weekend when I was caught in traffic on the way to the airport, but thanks to Lauren and her mad driving skills, I made it on time!! So, I get on the plane safely and on time, then we take off and I try to start reading my New Testament book for my class at seminary when all of the sudden one of the flight attendants yells “Code Red” over the intercom. So, we are all freaking out because we are 33,000 ft in the air and we have no idea what “code red” is. So, we are wondering is “code red” for telling us that we are going done in a spiral descent, but who knows!! One of the flight attendants starts running down the aisle and gets a defibrillator, first aid kit, and an oxygen tank. Evidently, they thought some guy was having a heart attack. Turns out that he just passed out. Whew!!
Well, that is not nearly the end of the excitement. Upon arrival in Jacksonville, I was picked up by the bride and two other bridesmaids. On the way to the bride’s house, we witnessed a car wreck. We were only a couple of cars behind the wreck, so we stopped because it was a single car accident. As soon as we stopped the car, we all hopped out to check on the lady in the car. It was a miracle. She was in a little Toyota sports car convertible. The top was down and she spun out and hit the guard rail twice, and she was perfectly fine, except for being incredibly shaken up. We all stayed with her until the cops showed up, 30 minutes after we called 911. The lady’s husband even arrived at the scene before the cops did, way to go Jax PD! Once the police arrived, we decided to head to the bride’s house.
We got back in the car, and once we got on the interstate, we heard these really weird sounds, turns out we had a flat tire!!! We had only gone about 150 yards before we noticed. The husband of the lady in the car wreck came over and offered to change the flat for us. Turns out there was a nail in the tire, so if we hadn’t stopped to help the lady in the car wreck, we could have had a blow-out and had a wreck.
So, we thought that was gonna be the end of Erick and Kelley’s “wedding story”. Yeah right!! After the tire was changed, we went and picked up another bridesmaid at the airport and then headed safely back to the bride’s house. We had shower for Kelley that night, and during the shower we get a call from the groom. He and his groomsmen went out to eat and on the way home, one of the groomsmen was pulled over for speeding. The policeman pulled the groomsman out of the car and asked for his license. He obliged, but when he pulled out his wallet, his pocketknife fell out of his pocket and the officer completely overreacted. He thought the groomsman was “pulling a knife on him”. Which was totally not what happened. Long story short, the groomsman was arrested and was thankfully released less than 24 hours before the wedding. It was a complete misunderstanding, but still makes for a good story. We had all of these hiccups before the wedding only to have a perfect day for the wedding. The weather was perfect and everything was wonderful. I was honored to be a part of this special day and I am very happy for Kelley and Erick Peckarek!!!