The Upper Ridgewood Community Church

     It's been five years since Ana and I were married in the Upper Ridgewood Community Church. Of all things, we were married on a 70 degree afternoon in late January. It was so warm we took our wedding photographs outside without our coats! This is the very same church I was confirmed in and attended while living in Ridgewood. We held our reception in one of its rooms that had been recently expanded and renovated and used to hold my Sunday School classes. They even gave us permission to drink wine and champagne to go with the reception for the 50 or so invited guests. All in all it was what one guest called a "grown-up wedding reception" as we did it simply yet elegantly, and in an environment that was convenient for all. What could have been easier than to leave the church, walk down a hall, then be handed a glass of champagne with a strawberry floating in it? If you had told me all those years ago while I was attending Sunday School that I would one day be married and drinking inside those same four walls I never would have believed it. The best part is that I still smile when I think of the fun we had that day, and the fun we continue to have in our married life.