Amish Wedding Invitation; An eShort Account of a Real Amish Wedding

Amish fiction author Serena B. Miller takes you 'behind the barn door' in this true e-short account of her experience of attending an Amish wedding.In her years of researching her Amish novels, Serena Miller has gotten to know several Amish families in Holmes County, Ohio. When she was invited to attend the wedding of one of her friends daughters, she expected it to be a casual affair: muck out the barn, throw a potluck together, send the bride and groom off on their honeymoon in a buggy with a Just Married sign hung on the back. But when the young bride shyly brings her a formal, professionally printed invitation, she realized everything she thought she knew about Amish weddings was wrong. From the hand-arranged centerpiecesmade from flowers the bride grew herselfto the portable kitchens the family rents to the elaborate and formally served meal, she realized that every detail of this wedding has been carefully and beautifully orchestrated by a bride and a society that cares very deeply about marriage. On the day of the wedding, Serena sits through the three-hour sermon preached entirely in German, after which the ceremony itself lasts under two minutes. She sees the grace with which the bride cooks for and serves her guests, and then stays to clean up after everyone has gone home. She is inspired by the way every member of the community seems to have some role to play in the event. Serena, a pastors wife, has attended hundreds of weddings, and draws comparisons between the overblown weddings she normally attends and this simple wedding. She is inspired by the immensity of the vows this young couple is makingnot just to each other, but to their communityand the faithfulness of the community that puts the focus on the marriage far more than the wedding itself.