THE WALDBESER FAMILY: Amish Wedding & College Reunion

Yes . We went on another one. :)

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As a young girl, Mom had ashma very bad. The summer she was six, Mom went to live with her grandparents who took her to a special doctor once a week all summer. This doctor was Amish and thinking back, Mom thinks it was probably one of those you read about in Beverly Lewis novels. Yes, the strange and questionable kind...

Mom would always take her doll to the waiting room. One of the first weeks she went to the doctor, she met a young Amish girl named Mattie Marie who was at the doctor for a heart problem. Mattie Marie also brought her doll, and they had a blast in the waiting room. After their appointments that week, Mom's grandparents and Mattie Marie's mother set up all their appointments for the rest of the summer on the same days. So, they got to be very close friends.

At the end of the summer, instead of just going their separate ways, they started visiting each other. They have kept in touch through letters over the past 30+ years...

Five years ago, Mattie Marie called us and asked us to come visit them. We stayed at their house for 2 days and had a very "vonderful gut time." They let us dress Amish and took us to their Amish store and showed us how they live without electricity. Both Mom and Mattie Marie had five children, although Mattie Marie is older than Mom, so her children are also.

Earlier this summer, Mattie Marie called Mom and invited us to her daughter Susie Mae's wedding. It hadn't been publicly announced yet, so we felt quite honored. :) I was thrilled, because I have been reading Beverly Lewis's books, and the Amish people are very interesting to me. Although, the entire family did not agree with me. :)

Two weeks ago, we had a family discussion around the dinner table about whether or not we should attend the wedding. It was a 12 hour drive from our home, and we had just returned a week earlier from a 2 week trip. We ended up having a secret vote and the outcome was 4 to 3. We just barely made it. :D

Last Wednesday afternoon, we packed ourselves into our 7 passenger van, and began the journey. We arrived in Cincinnati that night and Dad stopped by to check on his work project there on Thursday. The rest of us pulled out our school books in the hotel room. Later that night, we drove to Indiana. The wedding was on Friday starting at 9:00 am.

Thursday night, Mom called Mattie Marie (they have a phone out in their shed... :D) and asked for directions to the wedding. Mattie Marie asked us to come pick her up at her house, to take her to the wedding. (I believe the wedding was about 3 miles from her house...which is a little drive by horse and buggy.)

Friday morning, we arrived at Mattie Marie's farm and were greeted by quite the buzz of busy Amish people. They were flying everywhere -- preparing food, and getting ready for the wedding. There must have been 45 people there!

Mom hadn't seen Mattie Marie in five years, and boy, do all the Amish look alike when you haven't seen someone in that long, so she asked where she could find Mattie Marie. She was directed to the basement, where 15 ladies were pouring themselves over pies.

Mattie Marie said her pie filling wasn't setting and she wasn't going to make it to the wedding until later. We were shocked -- missing your own daughter's wedding because of pie filling? After about 10 minutes more of standing there, we realized that the food was the most important part of this day - or at least the most highly regarded. They wanted the food to the perfect more than they wanted to watch a young couple be married. Woah...~

The wedding was in a friend's barn. When we arrived, there was a deadly silence in the entire barn. An "usher" (they probably call him something else, but he basically did what an usher does...) sat us on a wooden benches, in the same area as the other Mennonite and "non-Amish" friends. Right about the time I realized it had been silent for about 3 minutes, they started singing. It was in German, and I fully enjoyed the first 10 minutes of the song. One of the men would sing and then the entire congregation would join in. Then, I started to wonder when the song would end. It wasn't like the songs we sing - I'm not even sure it had a melody. And it seemed like it was never going to end. I have no idea if they just sang the entire 7 verse song over 10 times or what, but this song lasted half an hour. No joke. And yes, I was watching the clock...I have no idea what I would have done without that clock. :)

When that song ended, there was another dead silence. Then they started singing again. We followed along in the hymn book as best we could for this song and Dad figured out that one man would sing the first word of the phrase and then everyone else would join in for the rest. Thankfully this song only lasted for 15 minutes. Then the wedding party came in.

The bride had two bridesmaids and the groom two groomsmen. The bride and bridesmaids were dressed exactly alike -- a black bonnet, a dark green dress, with a white apron, and black shoes. They really didn't look any different from any of the other Amish women except for the fact that they were wearing a black bonnet instead of white. Mom and I were talking about it later and we think that they didn't wear black because the "English brides" wear white veils.

Then the preaching began. All 3 hours of it were in German. Those wooden benches were extremely hard by the end of the first hour, and they certainly didn't get any softer. :) I can't remember the last time before then I had done nothing for 3 hours. I started counting the bonnets in front of me and tried to figure out how they made their clothes...it was sooo long. I had my camera with me, but they don't let people take their picture. I was pretty sure it would never end and looking at the faces of my family members, there was no doubt whether they agreed with me or not. :) About 30 minutes before the vows were said, the family of the bride arrived. We kinda wished we had offered to help prepare the food, because they were there long enough to hear the vows, the last few minutes of the sermon, and leave. :D

So, after the sermon ended and vows were exchanged (I think there was a total of 16 English words said that entire time), we returned to the bride's house were the food was served. The food was out of this world. :0) We ate soo much. They served us (in this order) for lunch - homemade bread, vegetables, mashed potatoes, chicken 'n noodles, meatloaf, fruit, cake, peanut butter pie, and apple pie. And then we had dinner also -- homemade bread, vegetables, mashed potatoes, chicken 'n noodles, pork loin, fruit, cake, peanut butter banana pie, and strawberry pie. There was no food groups missed. :) Unfortunately, one of our family members had a protein spill...(probably from eating too fast. :D)

All in all, we were glad we went. It was quite the experience, but one we probably won't ever get again. Unless Mattie Marie invites us to her next daughter's wedding.... :)

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Saturday, 4 hours from the wedding, a group of men Dad lived with while going to college were getting together. That was another reason we decided to come up, since we enjoyed being with these men's families. We spent Saturday night and Sunday with these families, and had a blast. It was a little interesting being in one house with 22 people, 4 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms. Next time we are going to have a sign-up sheet for the bathroom..but other than that, it went very smoothly!

It was nice to be able to take pictures freely again. :)