I met Mary years ago in France. Paul and I were interns at this old chateau in a little village in France, and Mary came over to help for a few months. It was the most beautiful place in the world. To this day, it is still my favorite place I’ve ever been. At that time I actually had dreadlocks. Yes, you read that right. I had dreadlocks. I had 101 glorious, small, amazing dreadlocks and Mary wanted to get dreads as well. One of the things I remember about Mary is that she was quiet. And she asked me if I could give her dreads. Dreads are a pretty unique look, a TON of work to take care of well, and I wasn’t sure I wanted the responsibility of giving that over to someone. Also, what if I screwed them up? Yikes. But she kept asking me for them and I realized that if this quiet girl keeps asking me for something then she must really want them! So we did it and they looked great on her and she rocked them out. And she came back to the US and did dreads on a friend who still has them to this day!
Another crazy story about our time together in France is about this guy named Jared. The place we worked at was called Le Chateau de Saint Albain. It was run as a retreat center for church groups by an American based mission organization. We cooked and cleaned for groups that came, and worked on maintenance projects. It is settled in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. It is not an easy place to find, not a tourist attraction at all. You have to know where you are going to get there. One day this American guy named Jared shows up out of the blue and wants to help out. He had a Europe trip planned that didn’t pan out but he was already in France. His pastor in the US knew of the Chateau so he found his way to us and worked there for a few weeks. He actually was around the week I put dreads in Mary’s hair. Super random, I know.
Jump forward 5 years to the day Mary and I are discussing her wedding. Guess what? Jay, her fiancé , knew Jared when he was a kid. I mean WHAT THE WHAT!?!?! I’ve had a ton of CRAZY coincidences happen to me, and I love when I hear a good one. So this just made my day to hear this. How cool and random!
Ok, but really I should probably tell you about Jay and Mary now right?
Mary and Jay’s wedding day was relaxed, rainy, and so much fun. They ran around with me in the rain, braved the cold, and laughed the whole time. Then they had a pizza food truck at their reception and some amazing local donuts. Those things happen to be two of my favorite foods, so I was pretty much a happy camper by the end of the night.
Mary and Jay: Thank you for letting me be a part of your beautiful wedding day. You both were so wonderful to hang out with and I loved how relaxed you both were the whole day. I hope you continue to fill your lives with laughter, pizza, and donuts. I promise it will make life much better! 🙂
