The original purpose for our vacation trip was to attend the wedding of Lars and Amy.  The wedding was in Ellsworth, Wisconsin, and it was lovely.

We ate dinner Friday night at a lovely little local restaurant, Shady Grove, or Chez D'Grove.  The food was wonderful, and the company sublime. Jack brought a huge bottle of the Prisoner wine for sharing. 

Ellsworth is the cheese curd capital of the world, and we bought and ate a whole bunch of cheese curds.  ** Hindsight note, we also regretted all those cheese curds.

There was a baby.  Andrew.  Tony and Rebecca's most adorable offspring.  We pretended he was part of our family.



Their wedding made me think of a lot of things.  I don't know if I was just wide awake, or why I was paying such close attention, but, here were a few key things I noted at their wedding.

It is a good thing we mostly get married quite young.  It is good to get married before we really know what the heck we are doing, or we might just be so terrified we would run scared. 

When they exchanged rings, the priest noted that the rings were a sign of the giver's fidelity, not the receiver's.  I have always thought of a ring as a binding thing for the wearer - my ring reminds me of my promise.  But interestingly enough, his emphasis was that the ring was on the giver.  So my ring is a sign of Phil's faithfulness.  It changes things, I think.

Johnny Cash?  Totally stealing from church in his "When the Man Comes Around"  Almost verbatim.  Of course the problem was that as the priest was saying the words, I just heard Johnny Cash wailing them, and it was a little distracting.

And finally, I was very aware of the concept of community.  There is a closeness in a small town, where everyone knows you, where you grew up, where you can't hide from your youth and past.  It turns out, it is a good feeling.  We wish Lars and Amy all the best for their new life together, and are so glad they invited us.