Homegrown Wedding

Enlarge Image Image Gallery The happy couple. George DeVault

Weddings take place in all kinds of places: country clubs, cathedrals, old mansions, museums, famous parks, city halls and even a judge’s chambers in a courthouse. Or, people may decide to stay closer to home, like our 25-year-old daughter, Ruth. She chose to have a simple ceremony – and a big party – on our small Pennsylvania farm.

Ruth and her fiancé, Eric DeLong, had been to a lot of fancy weddings. So, my wife, Melanie, and I were surprised and actually flattered when the couple announced their intention to stay at home. They wanted to get married in our backyard, and then treat friends and relatives to an old-fashioned pig roast. The pig roast was no surprise. Eric’s father, Randy, is known throughout the area as a master pig roaster and often caters special events.

The whole wedding theme was as down-to-earth as Ruth and Eric. As much as possible, the food would be organic and locally produced. Of course, the flowers – centerpieces, bridal bouquet, corsages and boutonnieres – would come from our own farm, compliments of The Flower Ladies, Melanie and her flower partner Linda Essert-Kuchar. Invitations, decorations and even name tags would be handmade. We would have chairs, but many guests would sit on bales of fresh straw. Dress would be casual.

Preparations for the wedding soon resembled an old-fashioned quilting bee or community barn raising. Everyone remotely connected with the bride and groom pitched in and helped out with whatever needed to be done.

Eric’s aunts and mother, Debbie, joined Ruth, Melanie and their friends during the spring months decorating 225 handmade invitations and stuffing envelopes.

As the August 20 wedding drew closer, outside work began with chain saws, tractors, mowers, rakes, hoes, brooms and paint brushes.

The morning of the wedding, dozens of people were busy around the farmstead. A constant stream of pickup trucks, work vans and trailers surged up and down our driveway, bringing borrowed tables and chairs, and a friend brought dozens of bales of straw that he had grown, mowed and baled just for the wedding. Electricians, plumbers, carpenters, engineers and laborers – all friends of the couple or their parents – gave of their time, tools and special talents. A young couple couldn’t ask for better wedding presents.