In the first of a wave of weddings this year, Stephen and Shannon's ceremony proved a difficult act to follow. I have never been to a wedding more surreal. I'm going to try and capture the day here for posterity, but it will be hard to do.

As you can read here, the wedding was outdoors on Steve and Shannon's new land. The furthest meadow was the setting for the ceremony, backed up into the woods, with a huge stone wall spanning the surroundings that Rebecca (his sister) had worked on and landcaped. It was beautiful.

Irish/Celtic music was playing on a crystal clear sound system (being a Mackey wedding, I pretty much knew it would be amazing) and when things got quiet and a flute played. Just as I was starting to think what CD I could find this song on, I looked over and a flutist was coming out of the woods, slowly playing an Irish tune as she led out the mothers of the bride and groom.

The moms lit two of the candles and took their seats. The groomsmen followed shortly (clad in kilts) when the band played another slow, Irish song, and eventually Stephen stood in the center triangular platform that was built. The bridesmaids too came slowly out of the woods in a really beautiful procession...see, there was a hill back there that we couldn't see, so everyone literally just appeared from the horizon and out of the woods into the meadow.

The rest of the ceremony was beautiful. Sounds of silence weren't silenced at all... Birds chirping and cicadas making their rhythmic noise were abound, reminding us all that if ever we were in the middle of nature, this was it. The weather had cooperated after a full day of rain, and the sun was beaming. It was a perfect day. A highlight though was "Shannon," a love song written to Shannon by Stephen, which was performed by the singer of the band, and was sung to Shannon during the ceremony. Man. That was just awesome.

When the wedding was done, we headed up to the reception tent. I was reunited with my old buddies from TruSecure, and eventually was joined by Rebecca, who got to hang out with us the whole night.

The Irish band Cherish the Ladiesperformed during the wedding and reception. And man, did I cherish them-Heidi in particular. Gah-rowl. They traditionally tour with Irish dancers who perform incredibly during some of their songs. During the wedding, they played some of the more traditionally slower Irish songs, then kicked it up a notch after dinner at the reception.

The reception was classy, but still had a slight hint of the old Mackey in there too. Everything was done really well. The cake was cut almost at the end of the night. It was an amazing reception, and I was really glad to give the new Mackey couple a big hug and express my congratulations. Truly an awesome day.

...and for them, just the beginning of a truly awesome future.

I'll have about two weeks to recover emotionally before Chris and Karen get hitched, then a few months to relax before Olivia and Jeff get hitched. Someone pass the Kleenex!