"Wedding at the Botanical Gardens," also titled "The Wedding Feast," is based on the parable in Matthew 22:1-14 and was painted at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. McClung captures the gardens dressed for a wedding in autumn—rows of white chairs forming an aisle, the conservatory and a flower-covered gazebo set among red and orange foliage, and guests gathered along the paths and stairs.
The painting grew out of something she noticed on a walk there: chairs had been set out by the lily pool for a wedding, everything beautiful, but when she came back only the first three of the fifteen rows had filled, and the rest sat empty. That sight brought to mind Jesus's parable of the man who invited guests to a wedding and, when no one came, sent his servants out to the highway to bring in others.
McClung lets the half-empty rows carry the parable's admonition, summed up in her own reflection: "If only we had not been too busy to come to the wedding."