The Wedding of Zachariah and Cassidy
COVID 19 changed so many things for this couple. Their numbers had to go from 150 guests to a select few 50. Then there was this whole thing of social distancing, and wearing masks. Would the wedding even happen? Who gets to come and who doesn't? And if that was not enough to think about, now we were also being told to self isolate and stay home and if you were going to get out, you needed to walk 6 feet apart and you were better off being outside than inside. We learned about social bubbles and Zach was in our social family bubble with Cass being in her social family bubble. This proved to be too much for this couple in love. By mid April Zach moved out of our home and into a tent in Cassidy's Dad's work warehouse. He needed to be there for 14 days before he could finally kiss his love and give her a hug. This happened just on time for her 25th birthday.
The wedding was fast approaching. Typically with a wedding upcoming you have showers for the bride but with this COVID thing we were not permitted these sort of things. Her Mom threw her a Zoom shower with a number of friends and relatives and we threw her a Social Distant Tailgate Party, which was a smashing success! The weather was awesome and we had about 35 ladies show up.
All the snacks needed to be prepackaged which was a little more work but so worth it. The couple was spoiled.
The wedding day was fast approaching. Zach's best man was coming all the way from Germany for the wedding so he had to be sure he was there early enough to self isolate for 14 days. Zach and Cass were very DIY with the wedding and had many little projects that needed doing. Tables for the bridal party needed making from scratch, signs needed to be made, a caterer who could supply a nice individually packaged meal needed to be found and the list went on.
Rehearsal day was beautiful. The sun shone. Things were getting set up for the big day. My girls and I needed to supply the rehearsal dinner which was a challenge. We had to come up with something portable. Wraps with Salad was a hit. We were busy packing everything up and as I sat waiting for my girls to load things in the car, I saw in the field beside the driveway, this farmer driving his tractor around spraying this brown substance on his field. It only took a matter of seconds to know what it was that he was spraying. I think he had seen that there was something happening like the setup of a wedding and he drove off. Zach and his bestman went off to hunt him down however to no avail. (I later learned that he had gone over on the morning of the wedding to ask him to please hold off with spraying the field for the rest. The farmer obliged and told Zach that he could just shoot him a text when he wanted the wedding to end and he's be right over to finish spraying) Thank you Farmer Severinski!
Around noon the boys and Miki (Miki is one of the grooms people. Zach and Miki co-lead a missions trip to Africa the previous year and he wanted her to be part of his wedding party) all showed up back at the house to have lunch and get ready. Unlike the mother of the bride, the mother of the groom does not have much to do to help the grooms people other than maybe some quick ironing of rolled into a ball dress pants and shirts. Zach looked dapper with that handsome smile and he was off with his group.
In the meantime Cassidy was all ready with her girls and they were off to the nieghbours garden for a photoshoot.
Meanwhile back at the venue, people were scrambling to whip down the chairs from the drizzle that was now falling. This couple had really thought everything out with their wedding. Knowing that the great Dr. Bonnie Henry kept saying that we needed to keep socially distant, they were to oblige. Every chair was methodically placed, exactly 6 feet apart with people 6 feet behind you.
After the regular wedding stuff like the vows, exchanging of the rings, signing the register, pronouncing them husband and wife and that first married kiss, the service part was complete. The drizzle now turned to a little harder drizzle. I personally was wondering how in the world were we going to have a reception outdoors if this was going to keep up, however, we had a lot of praying people there praying for a break in the weather, and that's just what happened.
As the bridal party and a few others scrambled around to set up for the reception, the families were getting family photos done. In the end, the rain had stopped and the reception area looked absolutely beautiful. The vision that Zach and Cass had came together and then some.
(As I had mentioned earlier, Zach and Cass made the head tables - the two where the grooms people all sat, the two where the bridesmaids sat and their table.) It was so beautiful and at one point the clouds opened and the sun shone down on Zach and Cass.
Catering for a covid type wedding was a little bit of a challenge. You could not have your typical buffet as that would mean extra people on the property. You could not have people coming in to service food since buffets were not even allowed because that too meant more people on the property. There is a local restaurant here in Maple Ridge that managed to stay open during the whole pandemic with his take out/curbside menu. As a family, we had ordered from them a couple of time and on Easter and Fathers Day we decided to try their family feasts. The prices were great and the food was excellent. Mike at Big Feast gave two options for meals, one was a pasta dish and the other was a chicken/mashed potato dish. Each guest had preordered their meal. As the reception set up was happening, Mike dropped off these huge hot boxes with the food in them. I was a tad skeptical with just how warm these meals would be once they were finally going to be served to us but to my delight, they were hot! The quantity of food for each serving was perfect and if you had left overs, your container was a to go one, so you could take it home.
Cassidy's Grandma made their wedding cake and it was the most beautiful cake. The two roses on the top were from our garden. We had recently purchased two rose bushes to commemorate David's parents who had recently passed away. It was so cool when Cass came to ask if she could use two of the roses for the cake. It meant the world to David. In the middle section, her grandma Shona had put a few more roses and some tiny little lights. It was truly very beautiful! She has such a gift for decorating.
Along with the cake for the dessert, any one who really knows Zach, knows that this boy LOVES his cinnamon buns. Now there is a place in Vancouver called Grounds for coffee which Zach was introduced to by the wedding pastor and his family. This place has absolutely the best cinnamon buns. For the wedding, they had ordered one cinnamon bun for each person which came individually wrapped in a little to go box.
I'm not one much for listening to a lot of speeches however the ones shared at Zach and Cass's wedding were heartfelt and meaningful. The one that got the best laugh was ours. I told David that I would be more than happy to write our parent speech however he had to deliver it. Cassidy kept telling David it needed to have a few good Dad jokes in it. David got up to the mic and opened his speech and he began reading as it flapped in the breeze. He had stapled about 5 extra pages to his speech and rolled it up like a scroll.
The sun was setting and the wedding was winding down. It was hard to believe that 5 hours had passed. The bride shared a dance with her dad which was followed by a first dance by the newlyweds.
The couple had put together a small video called a Second a day since the day they got engaged. They invited the group to come watch the video before they were to drive away.
With that the couple drove off in the Westi, into the sunset.
Cassidy and Zachariah, I will end with the blessing that was in our speech to you both.
May you always have plenty and
never lack
May you both always have each
other’s back
May you always be healthy and
rarely ill
May you, in each other, feel
loved and fulfilled
May your lives be long and full
of grace
May you always seek the Lord’s
face
May both your hearts and your
home be warm
May peace and joy always be your
norm.
We wish you Zach and your new bride
Cassidy all the love and happiness in the world.
A HUGE thank you to Tory Matthys from Tori Spencer Photo for capturing this special day in photos. Thank you to Sheila and Greg for throwing an awesome wedding for your daughter. You were so hands on, with your family getting everything set up and looking so beautifully. Sheila, your Mom Shona did such a beautiful job with the flowers and the cake and your Dad "Skip" did a wonderful job with the message. Also a huge thanks to Grandma Whistler for making masks for everyone at the wedding and for making sure that Zach's Oma Winkel got to the wedding and home again. To the whole bridal party a huge THANK YOU - Zach and Cass could not have a better friend group than they have with you. Each and every one of you stepped up to the plate, moving those heavy tables, setting up for the reception and just taking care of the couple on their special day! And last but not least a very big thank you to Arnie and Janet. Without you this beautiful space would not have been possible.
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