Anika Olson

the following took place June 2004

Early in June I was sent two hours north to an outdoor ceremony and reception on a farm. They had rented a massive tent for the reception to fit all 300 guests. 100 yards away were 300 white wooden folding chairs facing a shade awning for the ceremony backdropped by a row of trees.

The day was a beautiful partly cloudy, 75 degrees and no wind. Everything was setup and sound checked with three hours until the ceremony when the black clouds appeared.

Within minutes the temperature had dropped 10 degrees, the wind picked up, and rain fell from a narrow strip of thunderstorm clouds. Before panic could set in, just as quickly as in blew in, it was over and the sky cleared and it was perfect.

Until, twenty minutes later, it happened again.

And again.

Now, as guests arrived, another strip of clouds could be seen heading our way. We put everyone under the reception tent in time for the start of the final storm with 45 minutes to go when it really came down.

Hail.

And lots of it.

I ran from the ceremony spot to reception tent to the farm house making sure everything was okay. 300 people were trapped under the tenting, cars were getting pelted, and there was the bride, on the porch, sipping a Coors light as calm as anyone I can remember on their wedding day.

Fortunately, the hail cleared, we wiped the water from the chairs and even began the ceremony (almost) on time. There was no more weather and the ceremony was perfect until the couple went to light the unity candle and the soloist came to the microphone to sing Etta James' "At last."

The song is notable because as the solist approached her microphone, a faint buzzing sound started and slowly becamse louder. As the prerecorded music introduced the song and the soloist opened her mouth the bi-plane buzzed the field 20 yards from the ceremony. It was a cropduster.

Zooom...."At Last...." Zoooom... "My love has come along...." Zooom.... "my lonely days are over...." The plane passed by three times before noticing the crowd and allowing the soloist to continue unopposed.

So a hail storm and a crop duster. What else could go wrong? Well, the rain softened the ground so that the entrance to the tent became pure mud beneath the feet of 300 guests coming and going. Women left high heels stuck in the lawn like so many lawn ornaments. Then, after the night was over I got my cargo van stuck on the lawn (there was an embankment..) so without my knowledge, a groomsman woke up the groom to borrow his pickup and pull me out of the mud. But no one in that town will ever forget that wedding. (actually, the next year, one mile away we abandoned the reception because of a tornado, but thats another story).