Vivian and I attended another wedding over the weekend, this one for two very old friends of ours, Venche and Ben. Vivian’s known them both longer than I have (particularly Venche, who she met at a bible study some 15 years ago, I think), but they both were some of the first Mutual Friends in Omaha I met ten years ago, when I first started swing dancing.

The ceremony and reception were held at Peace Presbyterian Church way, way west in Elkhorn. Our role in the wedding mostly involved guarding the gift table and delivering everything to the happy couples’ house after the wedding, so I didn’t have much to keep me busy other than taking pictures of everyone (of course).

Then we had the rehearsal dinner over at the Hilton Garden Inn, and the theme of the party combined the ethnic backgrounds of both families. Ben is a Missionary Kid from Costa Rica, and Venche’s Family was from Norway, so that meant getting to have chewy Norwegian almond cookies for dessert and bottles of strong Costa Rican vanilla to take home. We had a long evening of food and selfies, and I even gave the groom a bottle of Scotch as a wedding gift (after the bartender accidentally poured me a quadruple).

The wedding itself happened Saturday afternoon. The ceremony was short, and followed by lots and lots of picture-taking afterward. The reception dinner somehow involved burning popcorn, which set off the alarms and summoned the local fire department, providing even more hilarious photo opportunities than we expected. I got a few family pictures of our friends in attendance and captured plenty of the dancing, roasting, and goofy photo-ops inside the reception hall as well.

I did have time to dance, visit with guests, and actually enjoy the wedding without taking pictures, but when we went out to decorate the groom’s yellow truck, I had to get more pictures — particularly when Vivian posed the two stuffed animals on the dash. The official photographer and videographer took off sometime before the bouquet toss, so I hung around the document everything that followed before the bride and groom headed off to their honeymoon.

Congratulations, Ben and Venche! I hope we’ll still see you after you return.