September 3, 2016
I need to write about several tender mercies in our lives
the last few weeks, before the vivid memories are gone.
We experienced one of the most splendid blessings a person
can have yesterday, as our son, Derek Ripplinger ,was sealed for time and all
eternity to Breanna Marcum in the Ogden Temple.
He is 22, she just turned 21 in July.
It was one of those days that you just thrill over again and again.
The weather was good, sometimes even hot, but we were
grateful, because we had passed through some rain and wind storms on the way to
Layton the evening before. It was crazy
to have rain, because we have only had rain twice the whole summer, and it was
just a light rain, then. The rain of the
night before the wedding was heavy, and when it was a dust storm, you could
barely see and it rocked our Suburban.
We took Blaine’s mother, Helen, with us. She is 83 years old. She was a “Trooper” and really seemed to
enjoy the whole trip. She was very close
to Derek – she always felt a connection with him, since he was a baby, and
since we lived less than ¼ mile from her for Derek’s whole life, since he was
about 18 moths old, they did have the chance to get to know each other well.
The wedding plans took a lot of tender care for both sides
of the families. We ended up buying the
table linens for our Luncheon online – Gaylynn Bean gave me the name of the
website. It cost us less to buy than to
rent. We borrowed white table cloths
from our ward, and then used the mint green table toppers that we had bought,
with a few table runners for the head table and coral sashes for the back of
each chair. We had ordered ahead the
food from Café Rio in Layton – homemade tortillas, black beans, sweet pork and
plain chicken, their yummy cilantro ranch salad dressing, lettuce, cheese, pico
sauce and brownies from Albertson’s that had mint green leaves with a little
coral rosebud of frosting on each square.
Breanna’s sweet family had put a lot of time and effort and
love into her wedding dress, the videographer, two photographers, they had
their beautiful reception in their backyard.
They had put new bark in their flower beds, replaced their back door,
which was wood to a nicer one, decorated their yard with white lites. The caterers had beautiful doors for a
backdrop, beautiful old looking drawers with the video playing on them, a big
central table with about five popcorn flavors and Italian ice in mango,
strawberry lemonade and one other. They
hired a DJ, who played music and kind of narrated the activities at the end –
like the bouquet toss, the cutting of the wedding cake, the first dance, the
dance with Breanna’s Dad, Derek’s dance with me, the group dance, the
sparklers, etc. Marcums went to a lot of
planning and work.
I can’t fully describe the beauty of the wedding day. Both families had put lots of tender time and
effort into the planning. Of course, the
beautiful sealing was the best part of the day.
Tracey Ripplinger works in that temple, and she had volunteered to help
us get a great sealer assigned to our wedding.
We will have to look his name up, but he is in the Ogden Temple
Presidency. He did a great job. Heather, Brandon , Blaine and I wrote down as
much of the words of the sealer, as we could remember, so they can have that.
The feeling in the temple was pure peace, love and joy for
us. Breanna’s mother, Bonnie, got to go
early with Breanna, like I did with Heather, but the rest of us could come
later. We woke up that morning at Lori
and Bruce Schiess’s home. They were kind
enough to offer to let all of us stay there – Helen, Blaine and I, Brandon and
Heather, Nikole, Elizabeth, Carl and Derek.
They are empty nesters now. It
was greatly appreciated and saved us so much money. Lori is Blaine’ first cousin. They grew up in houses right next door,
though Lori was several years older than Bruce.
We woke up that morning, Sept. 2 and the sun was out!
Carl and I actually went for a walk around Lori’s
neighborhood first thing. Then everyone
started to wake up. Blaine took us all
to McDonald’s for some breakfast – Bruce and Lori both went to work. Derek thought he was starving : )
We let him go, after breakfast, or Brandon and Heather took
him to Breanna’s home.
We stopped at WalMart, because three of our children needed
to get their “sibling” gift for the luncheon.
We all found out our feet hurt in our fancy higher than normal heeled
shoes.
We went back to Lori’s for a brief rest, and then headed
towards the Ogden Temple! Lori lives in
Kaysville, so we had a little drive.
But let me back up. A
couple of weeks ago, I made the long trip down to Marcums, so I could attend
Breanna’s second bridal shower. Her ward
friends gave her this one. So, I had
seen her neighborhood, met some of her young friends, and her neighbors and
ward members. I probably wrote about
that, but it was very nice and enjoyable.
In the two weeks since then, Derek and Breanna had their
“First Look”, which is when a hired photographer takes pictures of the groom
seeing the bride for the first time, in her wedding gown/dress. They did this at a park in Salt Lake.
Those photos are gorgeous.
They have spent a lot of time in our home or with Marcums,
so we’ve had the chance to get to know her really well. We adore and love her. Her family is great, as well.
So, the five weeks somehow passed by, with them seeing each
other most of the time. They were so fun
and sweet to have near. They are one of
those few, beloved couples that you can just tell really, really, really love
each other. They remind me of the pictures
of my mother and father, when they got married.
They’re both stunningly good-looking, and they just look beautiful
together. They also remind me of President
Eyring and his wife – both tall and thin.
The best part is that they are beautiful on the inside, as well – they
both have beautiful spirits.
Derek was sure time would not move fast enough, even when we
said, “Only one week to go, or only three days, or only two days”. It was too long for him to wait for him to be
with his beloved Breannna.
Derek was really receptive to my ideas. I had dreams of a wonderful gentlemanly
courtship, proposal and marriage. He did
not disappoint me. Nor did she.
So, Breanna left our home on Monday, for the last time, as a
single lady.
Our sweet Heather flew into Jackson on Tuesday evening. I have the tender mercy of having my work be
nice to let me use my PTO Paid Time Off to take all but Monday off this week,
for my Heather’s visit and Derek’s wedding.
So, we picked her up at 8:30 Tuesday evening – Derek, Nikole and I while
Blaine took Carl to his scout review. We
had never been to the Jackson airport, so that was a nice, new experience. The Easterneres that were on Heathe’rs flight
coldn’t get over the huge mountains, that were right by the airport.
Of course it was thrilling to have Heather back home – she’s
so beautiful, mature, and wise for her young age. We enjoyed her company, and she helped us
with wedding last day advice, opinnions nad plans.
Brandon had been attending a conference for his Nielsen
business in Chicago. Because his
conference was kind of in the way for his brother in law’s wedding, that
awesome company offered to fly him home to us on Wednesday night, into Jackson,
again, and they will fly him home to Cincinnati on Monday! That is another tender mercy!
Heather’s flight was covered under their frequent flyer
miles, so it didn’t cost them anything, so that is another tender mercy! Heather got a promotion in her Macy’s
company, so she ended her last job there and will begin her new assignment
there on Tuesday.
I can’t say enough about these two helping us with
everything. I had everything planned and
ordered and made for the wedding, but they just helped in so many ways. They are good emotional support, the
appreciate everything we do.
So, we spent Tuesday and Wednesday, first with Heather, then
with Brandon, too, and our Derek. All
five of our children were home together, for the first time in quite a
while. It was wonderful.
Thursday morning, Derek, Brandon and Heather headed out
together, to go spend a little time meeting Breanna – this was B&H’s first
time to meet her. They gave the engaged
couple a “Go-Pro”, which is fairly new technology, at this time. It’s a camera, that you hold on a long, long
stick, which can get wet and it will take pictures of you doing all kinds of
things and record video, so it will be perfect for Derek and Breanna’s
honeymoon, as they are going on a cruise to the Cayman Islands and Jamaica and
Cozumel, Mexico. Brandon and Heather also
helped Marcums put up some lights in the trees in their yard.
So, we arrived at the temple grounds. Mike and Sherry kind of took over helping Mom Ripp, so that
helped us a lot
Our three youngest waited outside, with the Marcums. I guess Nikole did take Elizabeth and Carl to
get ice cream, about a block away, while we were at the sealing.
So, as we went into the temple, I just felt this peaceful,
wonderful feeling. The temple was
gorgeous, outside and inside. We all
were led to an open room, like a huge waiting room. We were able to greet family and friends
there. We met the Marcum grandparents
and great grandpa again. We met Bonnie’s
Glen Parents. They were all
wonderful. All of Blaine’s siblings and
their spouses came. My sweet mom and dad
were there, Bishop and Kayleen Moulton, many of Derek’s Ripplinger cousins,
Christian and Jennifer, David and Alene Breckenridge and many of Breanna’s
relatives.
There is so much symbolism.
When it was our wedding party’s turn, the female worker comes in, she
announced our last name wrong, but after she was corrected, she said it
right. She asked for the mothers of the
bride and groom first, then the fathers, then the grandparents to lead the
company to the sealing room.
Bonnie and I stood in the room, by our special chairs, by
the couch where our bride and groom would sit, until everyone had come into the
sealing room and were seated. Then the
sealer brought the bride and groom in, the sealer came over and greeted me and
Bonnie, then over to the witness’ side to greet Blaine and Bryant. He then met the grandparents.
The room was filled with Heaven’s Light. There was such a sweet, good feeling in the
room. The room itself is so beautiful
and light, that you just feel like you are in Heaven.
No comments:
Post a Comment