The Wedding Ceremony

Pretty dresses, pretty hair,
Pretty flowers here and there.
Pretty girls, smiling wide,
Prettiest of all, though, is the bride.

















Joel tried not to make eye contact with a single soul.


















Here come the tears. I never knew I looked so silly when I'm on the verge of crying.

















Dee's precious Uncle Ron walked her down and aisle.


































Her veil got a bit stuck as her uncle lifted it to kiss her, and there was a cute, awkward laugh in the house.

The minister spoke about
how this wedding marks
both the end and the beginning.
The end of the waiting,
the longing, the tearful
goodbyes on Sunday nights,
the end of being
incomplete without each
other.

And the beginning of a new life, new memories, new traditions,
new sacrifices, new joys. (Of course I was thinking, "And please, Lord, if you will, many new grandbabies.")





The beginning of being complete.



Ben and Dee read sweet words that they'd written for each other. When he started out, "Little One, I've always prayed for a godly, sweet, beautiful woman to be my wife..." he choked up, and I choked up, and she wiped a tear or thirty. His heartfelt eloquence moved us deeply. The love and passion he has for this woman! It so much felt to me like Jesus speaking to me. To each of his beloved. God has written His love letter to those of us whom He has chosen as His own and for whom He paid the greatest price for the joy set before Him!

Never before has a wedding moved me so symbolically as this one, because I was privy to the pain and suffering they went through in the waiting and separation, and the acts of kindness and bright-eyed enthusiasm and gratitude they oozed when together. We watched him plan for their future. With a lot of prayer and counsel, Ben planned his steps toward marriage once he knew he loved her. 1. Finish college. 2. Get a job that will support a family. 3. Ask her mom for Dee's hand in marriage. 4. Buy the prettiest, most valuable ring he could afford. (This took almost 2 years of saving.) 5. Propose to her when she least expected it, but in a romantic setting. 6. Leave father and mother (aka move out of their house!) 7. Support himself in his own place, preparing it for her. 8. Save up vacation time for a tropical weeklong honeymoon plus an additional week for setting up house together. 9. Show up for the wedding (at times was quite tempted to elope, believe me, and skip all the stress imposed by "all the women" involved, and 10. Cleave to his wife. (He likes the cleavage part, I'm sure.) Live happily ever after starting March 10th.





I, Deirdra, take you, Benjamin, to be my lawfully wedded husband, in sunshine and shadow...













































Unity sand. (They couldn't have candles in the old, old church.)
The song being sung during this part was "Great is Thy Faithfulness."


















Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time in public, I present to you

Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Paul Zubrowski.







"Yes! Finally! We made it! We did it! Woo-hoo, baby!"

That indescribable feeling of finally being united after 23 months of traveling back and forth from Maryland to New Jersey to see each other for weekends. Oh, there awas the occasional spring break or Christmas break, but the aching to spend every day together was becoming almost like grief. Their wedding really and truly reminded me of the feeling we have to look forward to, as believers, the Bride of Christ, when we finally shed the shackles of earth and this mortal body, getting rid of miles and miles of sin, so to speak, and in the arms of our Bridegroom. Joy forevermore!









And now, let's eat, drink, and be merry!

Siobhan, Dee's twin sister, and Stephen, Ben's younger brother.























Katie and Dan.






















Ben's friend, Ben, and Dee's friend Melissa.
Did I mention there was a third Ben, the minister?






















Our Sarah with Ben's friend Sam.






















This beautiful red velvet cake is not covered in fondant. Amazing! Smooth and creamy. Dee's friend's mother made it.






















Luke, Ben's friend and teammate for several sports since childhood, walked with Kerry, Dee's friend. My brother-in-law Jay ran video, which I can't wait to see!






















It looks like I'm strutting my "I'm all that" stuff,
but honestly ,I was just really
happy and also trying not to lose my left shoe.























Give Steve a mic and he is in.his.element. He can't resist telling stories on his kinfolk. When sisters give toasts,
they give toasts, but when
brothers give toasts, they give roasts.

He poked fun at their Facebook countdowns.
"Dee's status: Only 83 more days till I get to
marry the man of my dreams! I love you, Baby!"
"Ben's status: Enough lies from the White House!
Go Ron Paul!"

He poked fun at Ben's youthful
folly that often landed him in the ER.

He poked fun of my waddle when eight months pregnant, trying to rescue Ben from a snowboarding-in-our-backyard accident. (Steve did some action that resembled a penguin trying to waddle his way out of a wedgie.) We laughed till we cried. And we celebrated that decisiveness and eager determination in Ben when it came time for him to woo and wed his gorgeous bride. Besides putting his faith in Jesus Christ at a very early age (just before his naptime, I still remember that day) the best decision that Ben has made was to say "I do" to
this prize of a young woman.


More pictures coming. Beautiful outdoor shots taken of his "first look" at her before the wedding. You don't want to miss them.