The Reception

At long last! The final installment of the fabulous Hull-Perrotti Wedding. My apologies for being so tardy but, in the immortal words of Paul McCartney, "The kettle's on the boil and I'm so easy called away." (I think this is the queen's English for "I've been busy.")

Anyway, here is the last of the pictures. They are from the reception at Apple Tree Resort. I am happy to report that no one got drunk, there were no fistfights and everyone was on their best behavior. Well mostly. The bride was accosted by an out-of-towner on the dance floor but she handled it with grace and aplomb and fortunately for him all firearms were checked at the door.

The parents of the bride out did themselves and a finer party was never seen in the little town of Yukimoo. The food was scrumptious, the decorations were fab and the cake was delightful being flown in all the way from Spokane! After the bride and groom scraped the cake off their faces it was enjoyed by all. There was dancing, (mostly by the females--an occasional male was dragged to the dance floor against his will) there was a DJ with disco ball, and there were hordes of paparazzi.

As you will soon see in the pictures the event brought family and friends from all points of the compass. The Maid of Honor was from Pennsylvania, the Best Man was from Chicago and friends and relatives came from Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Colorado, North Dakota, Nebraska and California. I'm still not sure whether they all came for the wedding or the famous Yukimoo nightlife.

In any case everyone enjoyed themselves immensely and Mrs. Yak and I are forever grateful to our dear friends and family who came and made the whole celebration so special. We will cherish those memories with you forever.

Click here to see The Reception pictures.

The Wedding Ceremony

At long last Peter's Ashtray is pleased to present the pictures from Andrew and Erin's wedding ceremony. Many of you have been waiting a long time I know. (This sounds like lyrics from Supertramp.) Anyway, here is the latest installment.

It was a storybook wedding. The church was beautiful and everything happened as planned. I was worried about the two mothers going up and down the stairs to light the candles but they did so without a hitch (or a fall). The music was incredibly beautiful thanks to our good friends Marvin and Linda from Greeley, Colorado. I was worried that I would blubber during the songs but it turned out I was too worried about the mothers. The ring bearer made it all the way down the isle without running to his dad. What a great little guy he was, and brave too! The rose petal toss at the church entrance was a smashing success. Everyone had a blast, especially me, after witnessing the successful candle lighting by the aforementioned moms. Then the bride and groom were whisked off to the reception at the golf course in a stretch limo. I will post a link to the reception pictures soon. For now, enjoy the pictures of the Wedding Ceremony.
Thanks for dropping by.

Pictures are by Joli Design of Yakima and courtesy of the mother of the bride.

The Pre-ceremony

Alright, I didn't know what else to call it. There are so many beautiful pictures that I had to divide them up. This set shows the activities of the wedding day up to the ceremony.

Everyone showed up on time. Well almost everyone. But no harm done, everyone was there in time for pictures. Mrs Yak and I had some anxious hours during the night worrying about some of the details, loose ends and unpleasant possibilities. The rehearsal itself could have gone better. The order of service the minister had did not match the program. There was some uncertainty about the number of songs to be sung and their order. Worst of all the minister kept referring to Andrew as "Andy," a name he hates. We asked the wedding hostess to speak with the minister. We wondered if he would get it right. We wondered if the ceremony itself would be in the right order. It turned out we were just worrying. More about that in the next installment.

As we all started dressing I realized everyone was there, the tuxes and dresses fit, the photographers seemed to know what they were doing, the soloists were ready, the church was beautiful, the flowers were incredible and the hostess was in command. Sure there were some nerves but things were going swimmingly! Did I mention the groom was handsome and the bride was gorgeous? Well take a look!

Pre-ceremony

The wedding pictures are by Joli Design of Yakima.
The picture above is by the YB of the Yak.

The Rehearsal Dinner

The link below will take you to a photo site where I have posted the first installment of pictures from Andrew and Erin's wedding. They are from the rehearsal dinner and provided royalty free from the YB of the Yak. Many thanks to him! These pictures are pretty much self explanatory but I will say that it was one of the nicest evenings I have ever attended.

Mrs. Yak worked very hard on all the preparations: the food was fabulous, the tables were beautiful and everything was organized perfectly. Everyone was well-behaved and had a great time. Please note that the beverage you will observe in all the pictures is non-alcoholic sparkling cider (a severe disappointment to some but a great relief to others). Last minute curve balls were handled with grace and aplomb. The cliffhanger glitch in the video presentation was conquered with good ol' Yankee ingenuity (and many last-minute prayers and sweating yet minimal cursing). Even the out of town party crashers from California and Indiana/Colorado were warmly welcomed allowing them full participation after they promised to pay the gratuity.

Hopefully the link will work as advertised. If not please let me know. Please click on the link below. (Avoid clicking on the "Watch Show" button unless you want some obnoxious jazz music with a slide show.) I'm still working on this. All your comments are appreciated.
Enjoy.

Rehearsal Dinner

Coming soon...!

The Wedding.
(Well at least the wedding pictures anyway.)

Now known as the "Wedding of the Century," the Hull-Perrotti wedding was an event like no other. Stay tuned for a blow by blow account of the star-studded events of wedding week and a link to all the exciting pictures.

Yak

Picture credit: Many thanks to the YB of the Yak for this marvelous picture. It is a flying rose petal tour de force!

The End of Meaning

I searched for myself on Google

And found nothing


...

Take Them To The Cross. On Easter.

On Wednesday our beloved Shilohparson posted this on his blog,
“I was working on my Easter Sunday sermon today. You know what? When you’ve been preaching Easter sermons for as long as I have it sometimes seems like there is no new way to go about it!”

While many Fight’n Fundies will bristle at such a comment, I very much appreciate his candor. I take him to mean that he is striving mightily to communicate the resurrection story in a vibrant and relevant way. I am not the least bit concerned that he might have gone over to the side of those who strive mightily to give it a new meaning.

Still the issue is a good one. We have all heard the Easter messages in search of a point or the homilies that devolve into a celebration of the rite of spring. I have left my church lots of Easter afternoons frustrated and angry. In fact, I myself, have had to be restrained from throwing my Bible at many a clueless minister and from yelling at the top of my lungs, “Hey! If you can't do any better than that, just read the text and sit down! We can figure it out!”
(I am trying to shorten this down to make it more impactful—as if my three-pound Promise Keeper’s Full Reference Study Bible bouncing off his forehead weren’t impactful enough. So I’m now thinking I will yell, “Hey Bonehead! Let the donkey speak!”)

In a more constructive vein, my standard advice for all pastors trying to make their well-worn Easter sermons fresh is, “Preach Christ and Him crucified.” That's right! Preach on the crucifixion! Shake 'em up!

In the passion calendar we go from the Triumphal Entry straight to the Resurrection. Yes I know all about Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. I’m talking about Sunday to Sunday. First we hear a happy talk titled, “Hosanna! Ride on King Jesus!” and then we hear another titled, “Glory! He Is Risen!” with no gut wrenching, guilt-inducing, blood splattering, face to face encounter with Calvary—and ourselves. What is up with that?

Well for starters it lets everyone off the hook. The timid, insipid clergy types can feel good about their presentation of the gospel according to Norman Vincent Peale and the pew-sitters can likewise go to their Easter dinner feeling good about themselves and their standing with God.
Also it presents the church and its pastor in a favorable light. Maybe they will return before the next Easter and maybe, just maybe, glory to God, they will become giving units!

But we can’t do anything about the calendar. And so here is my next piece of advice, like unto the first: What those one-time-a-year-attenders need is a good dose of the cross. The cross is offensive so don’t miss the opportunity to offend as many as you can. Make them look into God’s mirror. Jesus died in the most brutal and horrific way and they/we all participated. Ask them why he had to suffer and die in such a ghastly way and then tell them how God views their brutal and ghastly sins. Tell them about the utter despair of his followers and the ruin of their hopes. Tell them about the complete victory of evil and of the triumph of envy, deceit, intrigue, hate and murder. Tell them about the death of compassion and justice. Tell them about the darkness at midday and the earthquake and the unearthly rending of the veil. Tell them about an old man on a lonely, wind-swept mountain with a knife poised at throat of his only son.

Now tell them about the resurrection! Now tell them about a new life raised up from what was hopelessly and irretrievably dead. You have taken them to hell now lift them up to unimaginable joy! Let them experience it. They will get it. I dare say most of them will get it.

Happy Easter.
Christ is risen!