It was something of a storybook wedding. The Schooner Hindu was a vessel with history, having been deployed in the spice trade in the 1920s. It could only hold about three dozen people on its well-kept though well-traveled deck. Moored* in Provincetown, off the tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the Hindu is now employed to take tourists and other travelers for a spin around the bay. But on the afternoon of June 6, the Hindu took an enthusiastic and slightly misty-eyed throng on a spin into a new chapter of family history, as the dashing Jamie Moore (my nephew) and his gorgeous bride Andrea Adam exchanged vows in a ceremony that was intensely personal, heartwarming, funny, and engaging.
Jamie is a Francophile, having studied French for many years, taught French to American schoolchildren, taught English to French students, and in the process of developing a taste for fine French wines became a wine expert and licensed sommelier. With his language and cultural fluency, Jamie now works as an executive assistant to Professor Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Peace Laureate and Holocaust survivor. Ironically, Andrea is a native of East Germany. She works as the Executive Director of the German University Alliance and is also, by the way, a marathon runner of some distinction, who has been running in marathons throughout the world. Jamie was the person who worked with the White House to coordinate Dr. Wiesel’s journey with President Obama to Buchenwald a couple of weeks ago (just before the wedding!). We first met Andrea at my son Tim’s wedding in San Francisco two years ago. Within, oh, three to five minutes, Andrea had made her way into all our hearts and fit right in with our family.
The wedding was a civil ceremony, officiated by Meg, a high school teacher of Jamie’s who went on to become his mentor and then a close friend. She peppered the serious ceremony with words of wisdom, observations, and amusing anecdotes about Jamie and Andrea.
For her “something borrowed”, Andrea borrowed the wedding shawl that I had woven for my daughter-in-law, Sharon. Sharon and Tim had incorporated the shawl into their wedding ceremony on the beach at Crissy Field, San Francisco, two years ago. It was a generous act for Sharon to pack up the shawl and ship it to Andrea ~ and it certainly made me feel wonderful!
Following this most romantic wedding ceremony, Jamie & Andrea and members of the wedding party walked down the main street of the village to head back to the inn where they were staying. The throngs of tourists in the street parted like the Red Sea in front of Moses, and roundly applauded the beautiful bridal couple – like a scene out of a corny (but nonetheless touching) movie.
This was followed, under perfect summer skies, by a wedding feast in a vineyard in nearby Truro, Maine. Who ever knew that Cape Cod has vineyards??! Last time we were on the Cape, all they were growing was cranberries! The feast was lovely, the fine wine free-flowing, and the assemblage friendly and fascinating. Wedding guests had flown in from all over the world for this happy occasion.
The following afternoon, we all boarded another ship, the Dolphin III, to go on a whale watch. I think they must have paid the whales off to attend this event. Normally on whale watches – and I’ve been on a few – one is delighted and excited at a sighting or two or three, usually at some distance. But this was the mother of all whale watches! Jamie counted 60+ humpback sightings – some nearly within petting distance! They came so close, and stayed so long, that the captain had to cut off his engines. We were in fact over an hour late getting back to shore! The whales had us surrounded. “It’s an ambush!” cried the captain. A mom and her calf on the starboard side of the ship swam under the boat and came up on the port side. All of the watchers ran to the other side of the boat. So the rascally pair dove under the boat again and came up on the starboard side. And of course all the watchers ran back to the other side of the ship. Over and over and over again. What fun we all were having! (Good exercise, too!) Meanwhile, a trio of performers were surfacing and diving, flipping their tails, rolling over, and generally showing off their considerable repertoire of tricks.
That evening on the beach, by the dim light of a cloud-shrouded moon, we lit a big bonfire and exchanged lovely conversation and fun stories. Andrea gave a lesson in German on making that American favorite, s’mores – no English translation necessary!
What a lovely way for Jamie & Andrea to begin their married life together! And what a lovely and inspiring treat for us to be a part of it.
*No pun intended.
Well yeah, maybe it was. Of course a boatful of Moores would be moored in its harbor!
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