Picking up some wedding favors for my husband’s daughter was my tiny contribution to the major undertaking of her out-of-State wedding, bridal shower, graduation from college, and move to the Chicagoland area.  I was grateful to be able to contribute something, albeit small in the scheme of things.  Isn’t it true that if something goes wrong in the wedding process then all will be well in the marriage to follow?  I do pray so.

So check this snafu off the list of the journey to bliss.  Rebekah and Pancho will be fine.  But their precious wedding cake-shaped designer chocolates from our neighborhood chocolatier almost fell flat.  Literally.  My husband’s oldest daughter, Christina, and I needed to “go bumming” together Monday morning in order to coordinate her “to do” list and mine with one vehicle.  No problem.  Then my usual a.m. spaciness became our friend when I accidentally turned out of our neighborhood the wrong way.  With most of our minutes scheduled closely, I quickly dropped to the bottom of the errand list and it turned out to be a Divine re-ordering of things.  We “gotter done” and before long I was dropping Christina off somewhat early to her 2:15 p.m. appointment and headed to the chocolatier on the other side of the parking lot.  Yeah God.

I shopped for my own chocolate gifts then signed off on the bounty of wedding favors.  Strangely the invoice was marked, “100% donation per Cathy,” the owner.  Not wanting to pry (as you just don’t do when you are not the mom), I did not say anything at first.  The insulated bags seemed kind of light for 178 wedding favors of any size or substance.  Hmmm.  All I could think about was needing to rush them home so they would not melt in the car before my own appointments scheduled in the afternoon.  The smell of cocoa was intoxicating.  Yes, even I swooned although I cannot imbibe for medical reasons.  Sigh.

I pushed protocol aside and inquired, “what would prompt a donation of wedding favors?”  Rebekah had talked about touring their adjacent manufacturing facility but never working there.  Even as an employee, I had witnessed at least one gal having to buy her own chocolates at a paltry discount for a private party!  I unzipped the insulated bag and peered inside:  a gorgeous tower of several sizes and varieties of boxed confectionary with a golden bow taunted from within.  For a wedding?  Well, it’s not my business, right?  Maybe it is for the head table or something.  I paused.  Somehow it all still seemed weird.

The cashier blushed and confessed that there might be TWO orders under the name, “Rebekah Ho——-” She would double check behind the counter.  I had already signed my life away on the invoice and had slowly started to turn to walk out the door with my precious cargo.  Maybe the tissue paper under the tower of decadence was the actual favors?

This gal’s blushing probably flushed brighter as she found the two LARGE BOXES of wedding favors for our Rebekah.  I really could not see all that was going on in the dark, chocolate-colored showroom adjacent to the plush lounge next to the baby grand piano nearby.  Yes, I had signed for the wrong order!  I almost took home and rode with hubby-n-Christina 200 miles to the wedding with the wrong order!  The staff scrambled as I politely requested to inspect the contents of the new boxes.  My confidence now soared with the significance of my contribution to the wedding.  We almost had to share:  bite a tasting bar and pass it around instead of the more customary tradition of gorgeous table favors.  My heart raced with the possibilities. It would be so very wrong.  Thankfully the disaster was thwarted!

Yes, it’s the little things that can mean a lot in something so important as a wedding celebration.  I hope that this is all that goes wrong . . . and that Rebekah finds her wedding shoes now displaced in her cross-country move 1/2 day after graduation from college.  Such a dear lady after my own heart.  I moved 200 miles and got married to her dad 5 days later 7 1/2 years ago.  Crazy things happen when the best schedule meets the human spaciness of trying to execute all the tasks successfully.

Rebekah and Pancho will be fine.  They are beginning their married life with white-n-milk chocolate and we all know that chocolate makes everything better, eh?  JJ