Maxwell 38: Forgotten Jesse and the Spinsters Have to Replace the Vests for the Wedding

[Bethy]

19 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

I just noticed there are 4 GM to 5 MOH.  I've never seen uneven numbers in a wedding before?

Oh, I have. Basically every Maxwell wedding ever, up to this point. John and Chelsy's may have been the first to include friends. I'm 99.99% sure Nate/Mel and Chris/Anna were All The Siblings And Only The Siblings. I'm not so sure about Joe and Elissa. She may have had friends. Or maybe just sisters.

[HereticHick]

oh I love a good location mystery! I went thru Cedarville United Presby's Facebook page and alas cannot identify that "chapel" of the ceremony. It certainly isn't the main sanctuary or the activities hall.

And I'm so overwhelmed by all those Facebook posts of that lady preacher preaching, and the congregational food banking and mask making that now I need to lie down because my faith in Steve-o-vahism has been shook.

 

[Giraffe]

About Joe - isn’t he the one who doesn’t appear on the blog much? It’s possible they were there and off to the side so the public pictures don’t show them. 

[PennySycamore]

28 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

I just noticed there are 4 GM to 5 MOH.  I've never seen uneven numbers in a wedding before?

While it's common for there to be equal numbers of women and men attendants, it's not necessary and I even read one comment before (Miss Manners maybe) that having equal numbers and pairing them off in the recessional makes them into couples which is not likely the case.  

Edited May 29, 2020 by PennySycamore
minor riffle

[HerNameIsBuffy]

3 minutes ago, Giraffe said:

About Joe - isn’t he the one who doesn’t appear on the blog much? It’s possible they were there and off to the side so the public pictures don’t show them. 

Heh.  The Maxwells in the witness protection program.

[Bethy]

13 minutes ago, Giraffe said:

About Joe - isn’t he the one who doesn’t appear on the blog much? It’s possible they were there and off to the side so the public pictures don’t show them. 

Though he may minimize the links to his family's brand, I don't see why they'd sequester him in a wedding-party snapshot taken by his brother's MIL which, as far as I've been able to tell, doesn't even mention his brother's last name?

[HereticHick]

1 hour ago, Bethy said:

Thoughts:

I scoped out the landscape. That outdoor shot was definitely taken at the United Presbyterian church in Cedarville. I never went inside that building so I can't say whether the wedding chapel is part of it, but it's definitely NOT the main sanctuary - I did find pictures of that and it's a huge sanctuary with pews and a pipe organ. I can't imagine a Maxwell marrying into a family that has ties to that church because I looked up their website and they have (gasp) a woman minister. Plus their website makes it clear that all services and events have been canceled due to Covid. But we also know from past practice that the Maxwells are not above staging a photo shoot at some random church that they have no actual ties to, just because they like how the doors look.

I

Thanks @Bethy. If you look at sister Rachel Craig's public Instagram pics at does it still look like the same church?

  does

[ElizaB]

1 hour ago, usmcmom said:

Maybe Joseph refused to travel with his young family in the midst of a pandemic. He has three very young children.  Maybe he chose to protect them and his wife from possible exposure.  If this is the case, good for him. 
 

 

Joseph's family is also missing from all the Gigi birthday pictures. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 hour ago, PennySycamore said:

While it's common for there to be equal numbers of women and men attendants, it's not necessary and I even read one comment before (Miss Manners maybe) that having equal numbers and pairing them off in the recessional makes them into couples which is not likely the case.  

Remember when the double Boners wedding had way more groomsmen than bridesmaids because both families have more sons than daughters. They put two boys with one girl walking down the aisle. They thought it was super cute to put the opposite aged trios together.

Edited May 29, 2020 by JermajestyDuggar

[Bethy]

26 minutes ago, HereticHick said:

Thanks @Bethy. If you look at sister Rachel Craig's public Instagram pics at does it still look like the same church?

  does

I'm looking. It's really hard to tell because the exterior shots with bricks in the background are so tightly cropped it's hard to see what building they're actually in front of. The hard part about this is that there are three churches basically in a clump right there: the Baptist church, which I personally think is the most likely site of the three, the Presbyterian church which we know they used for that wedding-party picture on the steps, and the Methodist church. Going by Rachael's post, I'm pretty sure where the car is parked in the 8th picture is the Baptist church parking lot because of the lines - no other church has that many rows of parking. The building in the background of the 5th picture (the one that has the really tall sister with a guy - is that a brother? I don't know the Craigs that well) looks like an old bank (has a drive-thru and everything) but on Google Maps it's coming up as nothing so maybe the branch closed. But judging by the overhang of that roof they'd have to be standing by the Baptist church, not the Presbyterian church. In the 7th picture, they're standing in front of a fireplace (you really can't see the fireplace) with a lit-up stained glass window above it and I DID find that setup in a photo on the Baptist church's FB page. It took a lot of digging.

I think we have a winner. The wedding happened somewhere at the Baptist church.

I can't place the chapel. It's not the big sanctuary that's in all the Baptist church's pictures. But I know from their history that they bought an existing church and the sanctuary I know from my time there in the 90s is not the original - the one I know, that's still in use today, was built in the early 80s. I vaguely recall another auditorium-ish place being there, probably the original sanctuary from the original church, but around the time I left the area they did a massive building project. If you look at Cedarville on Google maps, the Baptist church's footprint is absolutely enormous. The chapel pictured in the Craigs' IG photos fits the aesthetic and the three windows with curved tops that are visible in the one where she's sitting with her dad fit some that I can see in the exterior shots of the Baptist church online. But even though I attended many services there, I literally never went to any activities or went anywhere besides the sanctuary and the bathroom. There's a whole lot of real estate in there that I can't account for, so I couldn't begin to tell you where within that massive building that chapel exists.

[donnal]

http://www.britjaye.com/blog/2019/1/15/snowy-winter-wedding-at-grace-baptist-church-in-cedarville-ohio

 

Grace Baptist Church.  This bride's church has a couple of similar backgrounds - the alter shot and the windows/doors behind her in the walking down the aisle shot.

Edited May 29, 2020 by donnal
Hey, I'm officially a Frumper Lover! Only took 4 years, lol.

[Bethy]

This is the place!

Apparently a common wedding venue

The caption on this one identifies it as Moffat Hall and it's apparently used as a cry room during services. I remember the name Moffat Hall from the 90s but I don't remember anything that looked like this so it must have been significantly renovated.

Last one - this doesn't make it look like a very big room at all. I wonder if they'd secured the church facility for the wedding thinking they'd need the huge sanctuary (which would seat the hundreds you'd expect at a Max wedding) only to downsize to the little chapel when nobody could come because of Covid?

[JermajestyDuggar]

In one of Rachel’s saved stories on instagram is a bunch of wedding prep and wedding pics. It looks like they made mini chocolate cakes. Which is a cute idea. Curtis Bowers was the officiant. Yuck. And here is a gift that seems to tell their love story through places and dates. Jesse first met her when she was underage. Which is always strange to me in fundie land.

Edited May 29, 2020 by JermajestyDuggar

[fundiefan]

And, I called it. They met in Lansing, IA in September - Bontrager family camp is held in Lansing in September. 

Seems Steve's family getting out and engaging with other fundies actually does allow them to meet people and get married. 

There are pictures of that year on the Bontrager page, and Mary is at the center of a group of people about her age, with Anna in the circle. 

Mixing with peers - how did Steve handle that? 

It was right after Chelsy & John got engaged - so I'm sure Steve let them go with John. I wonder if he ever imagined Jesse meeting his future bride? 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

I just asked my daughter's opinion about the wedding dress and....

Now I have to explain why I'm talking to strangers online about a wedding between people people I don't know.

I sometimes forget how weird this all is  

 

[petrushka]

34 minutes ago, fundiefan said:

And, I called it. They met in Lansing, IA in September - Bontrager family camp is held in Lansing in September. 

Seems Steve's family getting out and engaging with other fundies actually does allow them to meet people and get married. 

There are pictures of that year on the Bontrager page, and Mary is at the center of a group of people about her age, with Anna in the circle. 

Mixing with peers - how did Steve handle that? 

It was right after Chelsy & John got engaged - so I'm sure Steve let them go with John. I wonder if he ever imagined Jesse meeting his future bride? 

I saw that picture of Anna and Mary also.  I can't get over the fact that Steve and Teri allowed them to attend. Jesse would have gone as his brother's accountability partner and had the chance to be introduced to the available young women.  I'd like to think maybe there was some hope the "girls" would meet a nice potential headship at the camp.

[Granwych]

in the picture where Sarah is in the rear of the church, she looks like she's about to cry.

 

 

 

 

[anjulibai]

It's interesting that Sarah wasn't a bridesmaid. Did she not want to be? 

I really do not like the bows on the bridesmaid dresses. They don't look like they were originally part of the dress, just added using a spool of ribbon from Michael's. 

Edited May 29, 2020 by anjulibai

[NancyDrewFan1989]

On 5/28/2020 at 1:05 PM, TISH ADAMS said:

And by Lord you mean Steve

yup

[Bethy]

14 minutes ago, anjulibai said:

It's interesting that Sarah wasn't a bridesmaid. Did she not want to be? 

It's hard to say. I've been a bridesmaid and I've been a photographer. I'd take photographer any day. No dress fittings, nobody cares about your hair or makeup, and you get to wear shoes that don't make your toes go numb. You don't have to take stupid pictures where you're jumping in the air or holding your bouquet out at arm's length. And you can smile or not smile - it's up to you.

[ElizaB]

2 hours ago, fundiefan said:

And, I called it. They met in Lansing, IA in September - Bontrager family camp is held in Lansing in September. 

Seems Steve's family getting out and engaging with other fundies actually does allow them to meet people and get married. 

There are pictures of that year on the Bontrager page, and Mary is at the center of a group of people about her age, with Anna in the circle. 

Mixing with peers - how did Steve handle that? 

It was right after Chelsy & John got engaged - so I'm sure Steve let them go with John. I wonder if he ever imagined Jesse meeting his future bride? 

I wonder how many marriages have taken place between people who met at Bontrager Family Camp. I imagine for a lot of fundie families trying to marry their kids off this is a really good place for this to happen. I also imagine a lot of young fundie girls go to camp with butterflies in their stomach hoping this will be the year. They have no idea what they are getting themselves in to. 

[JanasTattooParlor]

So I was looking at the comments on the series of photos that Anna’s sister Rachel posted and it appears that they videoed the wedding and will be posting a link on YouTube at some point. I wonder how Steve feels about Anna’s family posting all these pictures and potentially releasing a video of the wedding all before they’ve gotten to pull together a blog post about it on Tits2. This would be two weddings in a row that he tried to keep secret where the bride’s family released info about it before he got to. 

Edited May 29, 2020 by JanasTattooParlor

[JermajestyDuggar]

I need to keep reminding myself that it’s normal in fundieland for a man in his 20s to meet a 17 year old girl and marry her when she’s only a week away from her 20th birthday. I keep thinking fundies will pick similar age godly young ladies as mates. But that’s not always the case. Wasn’t Austin interested in Joy before she had turned 18? And wasn’t Kelton interested in Josie when she was 16? I can’t help but think of 16 year old Liz Bontrager and wonder if some 20 something guy is already interested. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

Remember the picture I posted on FJ a few months ago with the Bowers boys, Craig girls, and Jesse all in Tennessee? I’m guessing that’s when they got engaged based on that craft project. So here’s my question... why were the Bowers boys there? When did the Bowers family become so close with Jesse and/or the Craig’s? It makes me wonder if the Bowers are trying to set up Charlie with Celia Craig like they set up Lina and Cass with the Bon brothers. 

Edited May 30, 2020 by JermajestyDuggar

[fundiefan]

Oh, I can’t wait for the video. I do hope it’s up before Sarah begins her blog posts. I’m sure Steve doesn’t like that the bride’s families have their own plans & friends, but in truth he can’t do anything about it. They all managed to keep the engagement under wraps, but now-too bad, so sad.

I also noticed in Rachael Craig’s pics that they did an ‘after party’ with the Bons & Bowers’-but the Maxwells drove home. Maxwells are not a social bunch, that’s for sure. Too much fun, I guess. Or a boy might get too close to one of the girls.