Wedding Redux

Recently I had my second chance to officiate at a friend's wedding.  As we discussed last year one of the pleasant oddities of life in Vermont is that anyone can marry anyone - as long as they fill out the temporary officiant form and pay the $100 fee.  You are then empowered to marry two specific people on one specific day.  The first time I did it was last 22 June for my excellent friends Andy and Heidi.  During that event my friend Sandy met a lovely woman by the name of Debbie, and now, huzzah, a year later they were married - on the exact same day (which increased the chances that Sandy would remember his anniversary).  This wedding took place at the prestigious Saint John's Club, at which most members of the Gentlemen of Excellence are a member (at the exorbitant fee of $50 a year).  It was a lovely day and everything went off brilliantly, even my clumsily worded sermon (which I may or may not publish here on the blog - although I guess I should because Andy and Heidi are still trying to get me to publish theirs a year later).  This one had a Denis Diderot theme, who is Sandy's favorite philosopher - it made sense to me anyway.

The happy couple.  It's now been two weeks and they're still married, so I'm 2-2 in weddings/marriages.

And the lovely set-up on the banks of Lake Champlain.  It is easy to forget how beautiful Vermont is.

And excellent friends.  There were many factors that went into last year's Hong Kong decision, but not the least of them was the depressing prospect of giving up some extraordinary friends.  I find that I'm even more persistent about carving off time to spend with them.