Peggy's Blog

Saturday was a beautiful day... bright and sunny with a comforting breeze - the perfect day for an out-door wedding. Chuck and I drove from our home in Spring (just north of Houston) to Cat Spring TX to provide music for a wedding in a beautiful oak grove behind a ranch house that is part of a real, working cattle ranch, but also welcomes guests and hosts weddings. The sounds of the dulcimer swirled through the breeze under the expansive canopy of oak branches across a carpet of fallen leaves. Guests gathered to join the couple in offering their vows of love and devotion. 

The bride was Debbie Bergen, and the groom was Dave Grote and they had a unique idea about creating a new identity as a couple– they BOTH changed their names. They created a new name which combined both names, and took his name first and added a varient of her name by using the ending first.... the result was "Grotenberg." The father of the bride introduced the newly wed couple for the first time, "Ladies and gentlemen, I present Mr. and Mrs. Grotenberg."

The strains of "Trumpet Voluntary" emerged from the dulcimer as the couple exited down the center isle to the punch table and were soon joined by the rest of the guests. Lively and pensive music continued as the guests mingled and the wedding party and families posed for pictures designed to last a lifetime.

As I played the music and watched the bridal party and the guests I reminisced about the day Chuck and I spoke our vows way back when, and prayed that the pictures and the love would last, as our's had, and that their union would be blessed by the addition of new lives to form a strong new family that would build their lives and their home together.