that sweet wedding on 6-11-16...

... last Saturday in Thomasville at the renovated train depot. They got married outside under the shed where people stood a hundred years ago and waited for arrivals, bringing family and friends. And chugging coal engines departing, taking folks to Tallahassee, Montgomery, Atlanta or Savannah, out into the world from the sheltered environment of the small country town in south Georgia. The building is brick, looking just exactly like you would expect a train station to look, with white trim, and exterior almost perfectly intact as it would have been when it was built in another century.

Chairs were set up under the shed, facing the brick building, with the bridal pair and the officiating dad framed in a boxwood swag made by the sister (who said her hedge needed trimming anyway.) Lots of family and friends in attendance, quietly profusely sweating in the humid, sticky June afternoon, while discreetly swatting at south GA gnats. Sitting in white folding chairs, witnessing the vows that I thought would be the last official act of the newly retired (cheerfully unemployed) pastor. He has apparently already scrounged up a part time job, filling a recently vacated pulpit at a church in his hometown. Just enough to keep him busy and out from underfoot a couple of days a week.

The interior of the depot was renovated to be a neat little restaurant, with a section of outdoor seating for eating under one end of the shed roof. Part of the space is designed for rental, to be an event venue for parties, receptions, meetings. That is where the reception for the wedding was held, with a full meal served after the ceremony, when the newly weds said 'I do.' Good comfort food on the menu: chicken breasts, green beans, twice-baked mashed potatoes, greens (this is the south, right?) and sweet iced tea.