I thee wed

Weddings can be spectacular and memorable expositions of love. Often they go off without a hitch, but emotional—and sometimes strange—human beings are involved, so anything can happen. You have your freaked out brides, grooms, and family members, of course, but if you ask Bev Bedard, who has been officiating at weddings at Lake Tahoe for more than 20 years, what really sticks in her mind are the unusual and the funny.

For example, Bedard remembers a large formal wedding at Northstar-at-Tahoe.

“There were 12 bridesmaids, 12 groomsman, a flower girl and ring bearer, and about 150 guests,” she says. “I stood in the front ready to perform the wedding as the bridesmaids and groomsman came down the aisle, then the ring bearer, followed by the flower girl.

“She was an incredibly cute 5-year-old, all decked out in a beautiful outfit. Just as I was about to give the signal for the father to begin his walk with the bride, I felt this tug on my robe. I look down and it is the flower girl who loudly proclaims to everyone in the room, ‘I have to poop!’ Everything stopped. While the mother of the flower girl rushed out with the girl to let nature take its course, everyone else waited quietly—except for the laughter—for her to return.”

Often what makes it interesting is when a bride and a groom just do not seem to be on the same page.

“This middle-aged guy comes into our chapel along the Truckee River in Tahoe City,” said Bedard. “He was dressed to the nines. He had on a top hat, a tux with vest and a tie. He looked quite debonair. Then he went out to get his fiancée.

“She was at least 20 years younger, had on red stilettos with five-inch heels, black fishnet stockings and a black velvet mini-skirt that was about as short as you could get. She had a cream colored bustier, laced so tight that everything that should have been a 36A now looked like a 40G. Over the bustier, she had a red bolero top that just barely comes to the middle of her waist. When I finished the paperwork for her license, she says, ‘Would you mind if we bring our puppy in for the ceremony?’

“Soon the ‘puppy’ comes bounding in the door, and he was the biggest dog I’d ever seen, and he didn’t look happy to see me. Without thinking I yelled, ‘Holy shit.’ The groom attempted to make me feel more comfortable by saying, “Don’t worry, he won’t bother you, as long as you don’t make any quick moves.”

And then you have the Kardashians and Britney Spears of the world, where the question comes to mind: What were they thinking?

“I had a couple from Oklahoma that came in and got married,” Bedard says. “The next day the bride called. He had taken the car, left her alone in Tahoe and went back to Oklahoma. Apparently, he had talked to his mother, who said if he stayed with that woman she would never allow him back in the family. He chose Mom.

“Then there was this couple that drove all the way from Minnesota to get married in Lake Tahoe. They came in, got their license with plans to get married the next day. A few hours later, the prospective bride called in tears to say that the wedding was off. So they got back in the car and drove all the way back to Minnesota together. At least she had a ride home.”

While it was a source of much merriment, Bedard gave up her chapel a few years ago and now specializes in estate weddings on the shores of North Lake Tahoe. Her company is known as North Tahoe Weddings and she can be reached at www.laketahoe.com/weddings.