November 6th,
2004, was Dan's younger brother's wedding at the Hermitage in Nashville, Tennesee. Jeff
Bourque was married to the love of his life, Kelly Doeppner. Most of Dan's family was
there, and we had a great family reunion as well as a great time at the wedding. Here are
some of our pictures of this great day! |
The morning started early. Although the wedding wasn't until
3:00 p.m., Jeff, Lee (Jeff and Dan's dad), the groomsmen and Dan (best man) all arrived at
the church at 11:00 for pictures. A week before the wedding, the 10-day forecast called
for solid rain on this day. Instead God gave us a GORGEOUS 60-degree fall day. |
Before getting too busy, Jeff made sure to spend a little
time with Mom. |
The church was a tiny, one-room place (with no bathroom, in
case you were wondering) about 200 years old. It was quite simple and beautiful. |
Jeff and Kelly decided to meet before the wedding and spend a
little time calming eachother's nerves. Based on their looks, it worked! In fact, I
haven't seen Jeff this relaxed in quite a while. |
While waiting for the wedding, Jeff decided to go outside and
greet all the folks coming in, including Angie and Noah. Jeff sure was happy! |
Noah got all dressed up for the occasion. |
So did
everyone else. Here are the two moms, Linda Bourque and Susie Doeppner, waiting for
everything to get started. |
The ceremony was wonderful! The best part was the singing.
One of Jeff's groomsmen, Chad Cates, led the hymns. On the first one, Be Thou My
Vision, he strummed about three lines on his guitar, and then the sanctuary filled
with the most amazing singing I've ever been a part of. Chad stopped playing and the whole
song was completed with 200 voices. It was incredible! |
Noah liked the singing but found other ways to entertain
himself during the service. |
After 3 congregational songs, a message, vows, rings,
lighting a unity candle and 2 special musics, Jeff and Kelly were "man and
wife!" Just before this moment, one of Jeff's friends sang a song Jeff wrote. Kelly
is hearing impaired and reads lips quite well, so one of the sweetest things to see was
Jeff mouthing every word while she looked intently into his face. |
After the ceremony, it was time for more pictures! I think we
did every combination of family members possible (I think the math is like 30 factorial
times the number of. . . anyway). |
Later that afternoon, we moved to a cabin on another part of
the Hermitage (Andrew Jackson's old home) for the reception. |
They had
food, drink and even a bluegrass band. Of course, there was plenty of traditional moments
like the cutting of the wedding cake. |
. . . and
the smashing of the wedding cake into eachother's faces. (I think Kelly struck first!) |
Not to be
outdone by the antics inside, the groomsmen were busy "sprucing-up" Jeff's car
outside. What this picture DOESN'T show is Dan and Greg (groomsman) washing and vacuuming
the car by hand in their tuxedos! The car was SO filthy, we couldn't in good conscience
let poor Kelly ride home in it as it was. |
When the
time came, Jeff and Kelly bolted out of the reception cabin towards the car. Jeff was
hoping to avoid being the latest victim in a long-standing tradition amongst he and his
friends. . . |
But alas,
fate caught up with him as Greg poured 8 pounds of birdseed squarely down his back!
Standing to the right is Dan's uncle, Brian, and his two kids, Tim and Paul, but they had
nothing to do with trashing the car--no really, nothing at all. . . |
Jeff and Kelly
travelled to Hawai'i the next day, and everyone else went their own way. We will always
look back at this day as one of the most joyous weddings we've seen. |