A wedding soundtrack

I've needed a while to be ready to write a few blog entries about Sarah's and Ben's wedding, but now I'm there.  I think.

I thought I'd start with a little soundtrack.

The processional songs began with Phil Cook's "Ain't It Sweet," to which parents and grandparents entered.



Ben joined to a song I wholeheartedly believe he deserves, Josh Ritter's "Good Man."  I could not be happier to have Ben in our family, though I feel he's been a part of it for years.



Sarah and I entered--yes, I had the privilege of walking her down the aisle--to Tom Petty's "Wildflowers."  Trite as it is to say, I will never hear this song again without returning to that moment and to a love for Sarah so powerful that I am continually amazed my body can hold it.  The song is true for me: no other will ever compare with Sarah.

Oh, yeah:  we were walking outside, which made it only better.



After the ceremony, the recessional was the lovely "My Whole Life Long," one of many great songs from local wonder Delta Rae.  Sarah, Ben, I, and many others in our extended family all love this group.



At the dinner afterward, Sarah's and Ben's first dance was to a song, "My Favorite Place," from another family favorite, Stephen Kellogg.



Last in what I'll play--the evening contained a great deal more music than what I'm including here--was the song to which I danced with Sarah in the traditional father/daughter dance.  Even typing these words, my feelings about those moments with her are so intense that I am tearing up.  The story behind her choice of this song is a whole blog entry on its own; I may even have written it.  I could write another whole entry about that dance, and maybe I will.

The song was John Hiatt's "Have a Little Faith In Me."  I can tell you that from the moment she was born I have had for Sarah all the faith I am capable of mustering, and then some.



I have said it for all of Sarah's life, and I will keep saying it until the day I die:  I have the best daughter in the world, and I am the luckiest father in the world to have her.  I have spent every day since her birth trying to be worthy of her.

My face is now wet, so I have no more to give tonight save this:  Sarah, I will always reward any faith you give me.  I love you.