For those of you who weren't at our wedding, I though I would let you know how it went. We had a nice day, though it was pretty humid and hot. The ceremony site (The Glessner House Museum) in Chicago was great, and the staff there were very helpful. Everything went smoothly--except that our minister didn't show up. By the time 3:30 (our scheduled start time) rolled around, and he hadn't shown up yet, I tried calling his cell phone, church, and home phones. No answer at any of them. So we tried to make other arrangements. At one time, we had 5 separate people on the phone trying to make arrangements for a minister (or anyone who could legally sign our marriage certificate). The photographer, security guard, maintenance man, another employee of the museum, and my father were all on the phone. We finally got a minister of a nearby church to come and do the ceremony. I briefly introduced myself to him, and gave him the program we had printed up. In the middle of the ceremony, he turned to me and whispered "You are Christian, right?". I said yes, and he said "that makes this a lot easier." Later on, after we had exchanged vows, he turned to us and said "You may now salute each other." We kissed anyway. And then saluted each other. In the end, it turned out just fine.

Later that day, when we were at the reception, the minister called me and said he was on his way, and that he had encountered an emergency situation. He never said exactly what happened though. I suppose this gives us some great stories to tell, if nothing else. And, the whole situation was so funny (after we actually had a minister, of course) that we couldn't stop snickering during the ceremony, we had a great time, and thank everyone who came to celebrate with us. We're off for our honeymoon tomorrow morning. Jess is hoping that telling the gate agent about our affairs will lead to some sympathy, and possibly a free upgrade to business class. We'll let you now if this actually works.