The co-curricular activities that I have become involved in during my time at Tufts have defined my experience as an undergraduate. Some of these co-curriculars match my personality: 1) I am the president of the Tufts Democrats, 2) I am a leader for the Tufts Wilderness Orientation program, and 3) I do community service through the Leonard Carmichael Society. But - what I didn’t expect to become involved in during my time at Tufts was wedding planning. Wedding planning, you ask? Yes! Wedding planning.
I, along with my other half, mi media naranja (Spanish), my b'sheret (Hebew) my Emily, are the Chapel Sextons here at Tufts University. And if you knew the second thing about me, it’d be that weddings really aren’t my thing (the first thing you’d need to know about me is that I absolutely love country music). But alas, I am here to tell the story of how I became a wedding planner and all the journey’s I’ve had along the way that have shaped my experience at Tufts.
So, I am a wedding planner. Officially, I am the Tufts University Goddard Chapel Sexton (but who knows what a sexton is anyway?). So what’s a wedding planner do here anyway? Well, once two people decide that they want to be married in Goddard, they head on over to the chapel and set up a date. Once the date is set, I get an email telling me where I need to be and when. Sometimes, they email me a lot. Sometimes, the couple asks me to paint the cannon for them (I politely decline but say I can outsource to my more artisticly inclined friends). Sometimes they have hundreds of questions (like where to stand and how to cross their arms, and who to give the roses to, and on and on and on), other times, no questions asked (these are the easy ones). Sometimes there are bridezillas, sometimes there are groomzillas (like this one time when a couple argued over what cross to use on the alter for twenty minutes). And we get along and I snap some pictures and I listen to the couple and encourage them to go on and on about how they met and why Tufts is special to them and yadda yadda. And I love it. It's a truly special thing.
On the day before the wedding, I head to the chapel a solid hour early because more couples are over-eager for their rehearsal. Usually, we wait for the officiant (sometimes we wait a long time (like this one time we waited over two hours)). In about an hour its over and I lock up and go home. Then, the next day is the big day. Usually I wake up, putz around my house, do some homework, and then in the afternoon I think - oh my gosh, there are two people out there somewhere getting married today, yeesh, and I’m just casually doing homework. I arrive at the chapel (again ridiculously early because this one time a florist somehow got in the chapel two hours early, set off the fire alarm, and I arrived to a firetruck outside the building). Eventually the wedding starts and people sing and recite parts of the bible and then they kiss and wah-la, I’ve done my job, I’ve organized it. I’ve dealt with the questions and the people and the whining and the crying and the reading and the walking and the smooching. I congratulate the couple, snap a few shots, and I’m on my way. And as I lock up and leave a little piece of each wedding back in Goddard, I think, this place is so cool, that I can get involved with strangers’ weddings and the Tufts Chaplaincy trusts me to do that. Wow I love what I’ve found here.