He's Late for a Very Important Date...the Wedding!

Dimitrijs and Marina had been planning and organizing their wedding for several months. But those last two weeks can get hectic. Marina arrived from Moscow just one week before the actual date and every day her and "Dimi" were busy.... ordering her bouquet,  setting up hair appointments, buying rings, sending out Facebook invites...and working on a  myriad of minor details.  Elder and Sister Davis were in charge of decorating the apartment and hosting a luncheon for 25 people.

When it came time to plan the menu, Sister Davis asked Marina what foods she would like on her wedding day. She thought about it a minute and said, "One senior couple used to make a potato dish that I really liked with cheese and sauce all over it." 
Sister Davis asked, "Were they called funeral potatoes?"
An excited Marina, exclaimed, "Yes, they were called funeral potatoes!" 
Sister Davis said, "Well, we can't call them funeral potatoes for a wedding so we will call them 'Marriage Potatoes'. Would you like chicken with them or something else?"  
Marina thought about it...."I really like this dish that another senior couple made that was a cake made of meat with bread inside." 
Sister Davis had to think about that description for a bit...."I bet that was meal loaf."
She got a recipe book out and showed the ingredients to Marina.
Marina was very excited, "Yes, yes!  It was meat shaped like a cake."
Meat loaf and marriage potatoes were now the official wedding food.


 On Wednesday, Marina's two best friends flew in from Moscow and stayed at our apartment.  Anya and Kristine were absolute angels!  Anya on the left and Kristine
 in the middle. They are the sweetest girls and so polite. They brought Elder & Sister Davis some gifts from Russia...now how are we going to fit them in our suitcase? 
The girls had such great fun together that week and were always asking Sister Davis what they could do to help.

Dimitrijs mom told him she wanted to help with the luncheon, so Sister Davis asked him if she would be willing to do a couple of salads.  She agreed and when Sister Adams agreed to make a dish of marriage potatoes, Sister Davis thought this would be fairly simple event for her to do.

But that was before the person who agreed to make the wedding cake backed out on them.  Dimitrijs and Marina couldn't afford to buy a wedding cake.  And Sister Davis had already agreed to make cupcakes but didn't have time to add cake baking to her list. But of course every bride wants a cake so they can get pictures cutting it and serving it to their new groom.  Sister Davis recommended asking Noemi to make their cake...remember that blog post on Institute graduation and that huge chocolate cake that Noemi made?  And she made two anniversary cakes for Elder & Sister Davis.  Yep, Noemi is the person to ask to bake cakes in Riga.

Noemi agreed happily and said she would bring the cake to the apartment on Thursday so Sister Davis could help her decorate it.

The problem was that everything had to be done on Thursday.  We needed to decorate the apartment, set up tables and chairs,  make 20 cupcakes, decorate the cake, and get the meat loaf ready. And that is why Thursday became the crazy day of the week.  

That morning,  Noemi showed up with four thin cakes layers.  We started whipping cream and slicing fresh strawberries. Sister Davis has decorated her share of cakes so she showed Noemi some cake decorating tips. 

At the same time, we had Anya and Kristine blow up balloons and start decorating.  Then Dimitrijs mom showed up to make salads. Now, this would be nothing in Sister Davis's roomy kitchen back home, but in our tiny apartment kitchen we had three women all needing spoons, dishes, knives and bowls. We kept saying, "Excuse me", as we bumped into each other.  And to make things even odder,  Dimitrijs mom speaks mostly Russian!  Her only English words were: school,  dog, cat, hello, goodbye and thank you. Which was a great deal more words than Sister Davis knew in Russian... 

So, now we have a Hungarian woman, a Russian woman and an American woman sharing a kitchen.  
That sounds like the beginning of a joke doesn't it?

And yet we all managed to work together to get everything ready for the big day.
Then Sister Davis gets a phone call from Olga.  She wants to come over and visit Kristine.  Come to find out, Kristine has been a member less than a year and Olga was one of the missionaries who taught her the gospel in Moscow! It is indeed a small world.

Noemi with her beautiful wedding cake...she has a new career opportunity wouldn't you say?

Sister Davis made the cake topper out of wire, ribbon and a few boa feathers.  We bought the edible pink flowers at the restaurant supply store. The inside had three layers of cake covered with  strawberry whipped cream and a layer of fresh strawberries on each one. Sounds scrumptious doesn't it?

As we are busily engaged making the cake perfect, in walks Dimitrijs with Marina's mom, dad and little brother ...and that is how we ended up with 8 Russians in our home. Now things were starting to get surreal.  A year and a half ago, Sister Davis didn't know anyone from Russia and now she had a whole houseful of them chattering away in Russian. They were all so warm and polite.  Marina's mom joined Dimitrijs mom in the kitchen and started making salads.  They must have made five or six of them.

Elder & Sister Davis went out to dinner to relax.  When we came back everyone was gone. Ahhhh, peace at last.
  
The next day,  Marina's hair stylist arrived at 7AM and spent over an hour getting her hair just right for the wedding.

At 8:30, the makeup girl came and made Marina look like a princess. 

Marina put on her dress, shoes, jewelry, lace gloves and veil....

and was all ready for her prince charming. 

She is sweet, modest and oh so beautiful!

We took these pictures at 10:00AM just before Dimitrijs was supposed to pick her up. Elder and Sister Ballstaedt had just arrived so we could take them to the reception center to watch the wedding. Elder Davis went to get the car.  Where was Dimitrijs?  

Hmmmm. Better call him. He tells us he is running late and will be there in 8 minutes.  Okay, but that is cutting it close. The wedding is scheduled to start at 10:30... but we tell Marina everything will turn out okay.

 Marina isn't smiling quite as much as she was before.... 

Eight minutes later, Anya calls Dimitrijs to find out where he is and he says, "there are complications" and he won't be there for another 10 minutes. Marina is starting to panic. It takes 10 minutes to get to the reception center and each couple is only given a half hour time slot to get married because another bride and groom are scheduled right after them.

Elder Davis says he will take Marina to the reception center and her groom can meet her there....but a call to the groom nixed that idea...he wanted to pick up his bride! Her two friends were valiantly trying to calm her down.  Anya suggested they pray for a miracle. And those faithful girls gathered us in circle and said the longest Russian prayer we have ever heard.   We tried to joke that if Dimitrijs didn't show up, we would find her another groom because she was such a beautiful bride we would make sure she got married that day. We were really trying to make sure she didn't start crying and ruin her makeup,  but inside we could tell she was hurt and upset. What was her groom doing? 
  

Elder Davis who was waiting in our car outside, called and said, "Get those girls downstairs so they can run out the door when he comes".  It had started to rain outside so we took two umbrellas. At the bottom of the stairs, the girls held hands and sang hymns...anything to calm and comfort our forlorn bride.




 Finally, Dimitrijs pulls up in a white limo.  The girls rush out and get in the car.    How can the groom look so calm and happy when the wedding was supposed to start at 10:30 and it is NOW 10:40!!

The limo pulled into traffic before we did and drove down the street.  We headed to the reception center with the Ballstaedts and as we turned onto another street we saw the limo pulled over at a business asking for directions.  Elder Davis quickly rolled down the window and said, "Follow us!"  We knew the way to the reception center because we had been there before.  We pull in just ahead of the limo at  10:50.  The bride and groom now hade 10 minutes to get the whole wedding done.  We can only imagine what was being said between the bride and groom on that short journey to the reception hall.

We ran indoors,  saw a roomful of waiting guests, took off coats and rushed into the reception room. The organist played the wedding march at an accelerated tempo, the witnesses practically ran into the room, and the bride and groom followed at a brisk pace. The wedding official wasted no time....the ceremony was in Latvian and took 5 minutes to finish.  And when the groom went to kiss his bride?.... you could see her obvious reluctance.  

Everyone lined up to congratulate the happy couple and  then were told to go into the atrium for a toast and some chocolate candy.  



It was out there that Marina finally breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed enough to begin to enjoy the rest of her wedding day.

And here they are...

 bride and groom, together and happy.

This photo: Marina's mom and step-dad on the left with her brother;
 Dimitrijs mom and dad on the right.

The first "real"  kiss as man and wife.

As the bride and groom headed off to take wedding photos around town, Sister Davis and Dimitrijs mom headed back to the apartment to get the food ready.  Sister Davis still had to cook two meat loaves, heat up some store-bought chicken and pick up the potatoes from Sister Adams. 

These are the salads that were put on the tables before everyone arrived.

We took all the flowers that were given to the bride and groom and decorated the apartment with them using every vase, pitcher and glass we could find.

The meatloaf got done, the chicken was reheated, and the potatoes arrived just before the bride and groom did.  We ended up with 26 people including Elder & Sister Davis and Sister Adams.

The bride and groom sat in their special places of honor and started eating. It was now 2:15 and they had to be on a bus at 5:00  headed to Tallin, Estonia where they were catching a ferry to Finland. Why Finland, you ask?  Because that is where the Helsinki Temple is located and Marina and Dimitrijs had an appointment the very next morning to be sealed together there.

After eating, the bride and groom were given a little quiz.  By now, you could tell that Marina was over the problems of the morning and was ready for some fun. Back to back, with two ping-pong paddles in their hands, Marina and Dimitrijs were asked questions.  Like:  Who has the best singing voice? They either held up the pink paddle to indicate Marina or the blue one to indicate Dimitrijs. Only the audience could see if they both agreed. It was a fun game and they agreed most of the time.

Then it was time to cut the cake. The cake was the only thing we could surprise Marina with. She saw the table decor and all the food we were making but we made sure the cake was hidden from her until we brought it out at the luncheon. She was so happy to see how pretty her wedding cake turned out!

No shoving cake into each others mouths in Latvia. Instead the bride and groom share a piece of wedding cake together. Such a nice, clean and dignified tradition.  Marina loved every bite of that cake. Way to go Noemi!

And just before the happy couple changed clothes to leave, they came to us with a heart shaped alarm clock and a beautifully written note to thank us for helping them get engaged and married. But the best part was the bone crushing hug Marina gave to Sister Davis and the three kisses she pasted on her cheek. Now that was a sincere thank you!  Elder Davis was getting his share of gratitude from Dimitrijs, too.  We often wonder what the parents think of their grown children showing so much love to two American missionaries. Both sets of parents were watching this scene with smiles on their faces.  And both moms came up to Sister Davis to hug her and say "Thank you" in English. We were thrilled to have been given the blessing  of serving two such faithful Latter-Day Saints as Dimitrijs and Marina. They have started their own eternal family....

What more could anyone ask to be a part of?