The Wedding of Brian and Sarah Langhoff

This past weekend was one of the bigger weekends that I have ever been involved in and witnessed. It was the day that my family not only watched my brother become the head of a household but also gained a sister (Sarah Langhoff) that I have always wanted to have. The series of the wedding will be documented from my point of view from here on.

Wednesday: This is the day that I had to leave the Santa Cruz Summer Project and fly into Texas for the biggest weekend of my brothers life!! I had flown into Dallas Texas to be picked up by my Aunt Susan, and I thought and know that I missed out on some amazing Bar-B-Q that our friend Vincent had cooked for us Wednesday night. But my Aunt Allie had made up for this without knowing for smoking some ribs and brisket that were delicious to say the least. Then a wonderful nights sleep in a much more comfortable bed than the ones at project waited for me that night.

Thursday: The parents and I were able to drive down to Waco this day and see my brother and grab some last minute wedding things like the tux’s and some other gifts. Next it was time to start the drive to Austin for guess what, the Bachelor Party!! Blaine (Sarah’s brother) waited at the airport to be picked up and once that was accomplished we met another groomsman, Kyle, at the hotel. Then as men should always do when hitting the town, we suited up and went for a lovely and very manly dinner at Fogo de Chao. I am going to pause now and enlighten some of you on what the glorious Fogo de Chao is. It is a Brazilian restaurant that you pay a base fee and throughout the night you have a card and if you have it turned to green then the waiters will stop with a huge cut of different kinds of meat that you can have. It is basically a sit-down meat buffet; between the four of us guys I’d say that we out down about 3-4 steaks each. Back to the night we go as we leave we walk from the hotel and move our evening to the well-known 6^th street area. Most of the places that we went to wouldn’t allow me to come in but some with a little bit of sweet-talking and possible lying we were all able to get in. I of course was the DD for the night and was totally still having fun with my brother and all of the other guys with us. Overall night rates at about a 20 out of 10 in my book.

Friday: the morning began with what seemed to be a long drive back to Waco to get a few things prepared for the rehearsal dinner that night. Once all of those things were done it was just a day to get the last minute preparation for everything that was the next day. The Men all drove out to the rehearsal at the church and unlike what the mothers of both the bride and groom expected, we were there early AND before they were there. After a very nice and easygoing rehearsal we were on our way to the dinner that waited for us at the wonderful Clifton House in Waco. A wonderful slideshow was shown on the lives of both Brian and Sarah throughout all the years including the years that they have had together. And the catering was also amazing with some wonderful chicken parmesan and noodles. My father gave a very well written speech that included a fun story of my brother and I getting caught driving while I was only 14 and I was the one that was driving, then Big John (dad) pulled up next to us. Then the bride and groom gave gifts to both sets of parents that were a picture with a note written from both Brian and Sarah. Then it was out to Cricket’s with the wedding party waiting for their coffee time and that was of course a lovely night out!! After that it was poker night and hanging out with the guys the night before the big day!

Saturday: finally comes the time to speak on the big day and if you feel that last day was a long paragraph, get ready for this one. Okay so here we go, during the morning Brian and I actually had to go and set things up in the reception such as the microphone and some of the things for the music. After that it was relaxation and just making sure everything happens on time. Then before you know it we were getting dressed in our lovely and fine looking tux’s and began the drive to take our picture before the wedding actually happened. There was almost a surreal feeling that was in the room and in the car that almost made it feel as though my one and only brother wasn’t even getting married and because of that neither him or I were able to be nervous, well for most of it. I was able to take the pictures with the bride before the wedding and got to see Sarah in her dress and man, she looked incredible for those who weren’t able to be there. Then I was able to see some of the family between moving Brian into the church and moving Sarah into her room. Then it was time for the guests to come in and our prayer over Brian and Sarah relationship. This is when the nerves actually started to come into play and you could see the true excitement on my brother’s face, and I could definitely feel it in my own stomach. Then it was time for me to take the ring out of the box and onto my pinky finger just like the planner had told me to. Then we walk grandparents and parents down the aisles, sit them down and hide on the side door. We get the cue and walk our way into the church to see a room full of friends and family. I could really feel my heart start to beat even faster at that moment making me wonder what Brian’s heart was like. He was elated at this moment and I could totally see it in his face and body language. Then the doors opened up and the bridesmaids started to walk in, one by one down the way in their wonderful golden dresses. And then was the time when the quartet started to play that song that always happens when the bride walks down the aisle, and the doors opened. The next couple of sentences are only seen from my point, the Best Man, and can only be explained ten times better in my brothers words but here are mine anyway. Again, the doors open and a beam of light comes through the door and I see David (Sarah’s Father) and Sarah on his arm walking through that beam. Everyone stands up and turns to face her. At this moment a reach backwards to Blaine and he hands me some tissues, because this is the moment that the tears start to run down Brian’s face. Of course these are joyful tears and he was smiling from ear to ear. She doesn’t shed a tear but is on the verge the entire walk down. Then they meet, and Brian finally stops crying, and then it gets real for me again. My heart was racing and sweat dripped down my forehead and I thought to myself that this is the moment that they have been waiting for their whole lives, this is what all of the heartbreak and pain from the past boils down to and prepares us for, this is what TRUE LOVE really is. As the Pastor began to speak his words the feeling in the room was joy and love, there were some jokes to bring the mood down and back to reality. During every prayer that was said I would reach up and wipe the sweat off of my forehead. Then it was time for my one thing, my one role the entire wedding, the ring… My hands were sweating so much that I thought the ring was going to fall off, but luckily thanks to the planner and Brian’s death glares when I joked about losing the ring the hand-off to the pastor was successful. Then it was time for the vows, which I transcribed by the way so that the groom would be able to read them through the tears. The groom starts and speaks his wonderfully written words that I could tell when reading them before that were truly from the heart and overflowing with love. And then she start, not a tear shed up until this point and then, as the words begin to come through, they begin, she is so overjoyed that she can barely contain herself to get the words out, but when they are all said and done, both rings are on and now we all know what comes after this!! “I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may kiss the bride,” cheers whistles and clapping soon followed and then the bride and groom walk out of the small white church in Riesel, Texas, not two separate people as they began the day, but as one body, made by God for each other, forever and ever.

TO: Brian and Sarah Langhoff

“May your days be blessed by one another’s company, laughter, and love, for the rest of your life.”

I love the both of you with all of my heart and am so happy that you found one another, you mean the world to me and cannot wait to see you at Christmas and Thanksgiving, and all other FAMILY occasions.

Fun News!!

There is so much that I need to say and I am aware from a number of people as to my writing in one big paragraph and how that’s not very fun to read. So I will be trying space things out as most people have asked.

June 28th was a very nice day actually and a lot of things happened today. For example, I was able to go out and play basketball with the staff men. First of all, who ever knew that these guys could play ball!? A couple of guys have three kids and may be a few of the better ones out there! Anyhow, there happened to be an odd number of us that were out there playing so we picked up a guy named Jimmy. Now Jimmy was not some little guy, he was in reference to my best friend “ripped up like Rambo,” and there was some tension during a couple of points during the games. I was able to see though how to handle the situation maturely and calmly. Overall though the games were very fun I was making my threes as though I didn’t take a year off since MCS. After that I went and helped in making dinner and then we had our big meeting called Monday Night Live (MNL). It went very well and the worship was incredible as always, there was an opening skit that I was in called Good Idea Bad Idea, which showed the proper ways to ask girl on the creative dates that the guy rooms do with the girl rooms.

Once the meeting was over I had another meeting that I was to attend for the Servant Team leaders. There are several teams within the project that are in charge of different areas of the project, there is: Prayer, Outreach, Special Projects, Housing/Administration, Monday Meetings, and a Socials Team. I have been asked to co-lead the Monday meetings team and in doing ask all of you to pray for not only me and my team, but also for all of the leaders in other groups and that we may have a calm head and an open heart in our meetings.

I have been to almost all of the touristy spots in this area of California; by far San Francisco was my favorite of them all. The big city mixed with community all around within the city is just so much fun to walk around and see it work in everyday life. We went down to see Alcatraz, we weren’t able to go out onto it but we did see it from Pier 39 and it didn’t seem too far away. Which makes me think that those guys who escaped probably did make it across, or maybe not, I guess we’ll never know. We did a lot of walking through the city though and a lot of shopping as well. I must admit though that I did have a little spree on the discounts in GAP, but the deals were just so good!! A friend of mine got 8 shirts and 5 pants and other things.

Now it is July 7, 2010 and I was looking through my computer as I sit in the airport, waiting going back to Texas and the 100-degree weather. Well this is now truly the midway point and the staff has just left yesterday leaving 58 college students alone in California. Four of us have been placed as the Director and co-Director of the project with an assistant under both of those and then the other jobs of action group (bible study) leaders and the Servant teams as I have mentioned above. This is a very exciting and very scary time for all of us, we are the contacts and responsible for getting the speakers and staying in contact with boss’s and everything else to everyday life. Pray that all of those in a leadership positions and those who aren’t as well. Pray that there will be cool heads and kind words, respect and honesty with all of those on project, and strength and encouragement in the stressful times.

I would also like to ask of you that y’all would pray that I may be open in who I talk to and be able to allow the Holy Spirit to use me when I talk to these people. Continue praying for the project as a whole and for those on the job and that the Lord would put us all in situations that we may share Him with more and more daily.

Thank you very much for the read…..