cent huit

There was a wedding today.  A very dear-to-our-hearts boy (well, he is a man now) whom we have known and loved for almost 13 years and an amazing young woman who is a super-achiever, whom we have known for three years, were married.  It was held in a beautiful setting in an old stone mansion in the middle of a forest in a national park near our house. 

I always arrive at these ceremonies filled with cynical reserve, and leave with tears in my eyes, having greatly enjoyed and been touched by the public declaration of emotions and feelings.

Weddings are an industry, just like everything else, and part of me despises the fact that people are kind of tricked into spending what amounts to a small fortune, a down-payment on a house, a trip to an exotic location, a deposit for the college education of your first child.  That people are expected to find a beautiful location, then do all the extras, like the invitations, the goody-bags, the flowers, the matching dresses and suits.  For one day.  Six hours, in fact.  So odd.

But then again, it was splendid.  Janet looked exquisite in her beautiful wedding dress, and the bridesmaids wore the most beautiful shade of green and all were lovely.  The groom and groomsmen were all dressed in light suits, and their tall frames looked good and solid against the delicacy of the bride and her bridesmaids.

Janet and Jamie designed their own vows which were heartfelt and poetic and left many with a full throat and sniffing nose.   And after all the loving speeches and toasts, we ate well and danced with grace and energy and a lot of passion!  Some couples were wonderful to watch, and old and young alike shared the dance floor, fathers dancing with daughters, friends with each other, new acquaintances loving moving to the music together.

There were so many uncles and aunts and relations, little children running about and then dancing shyly with one another, this next generation.  Tim and I have no one like that here.  When we attended the boys' graduation ceremony, it was just three of us, their little support group, Tim and I and Matt Pevear, their oldest friend.  Everyone else was accompanied by entire flocks of grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, etc.

But this wedding was lovely, filled with good wishes, laughter, a long look at young love and a forgetting for a while of all the ills of the world.  For a time there was wild happiness, and joyful delight, and nostalgic reminiscences.  There was eating, and drinking and being merry. 

And so this cynical, romantic, older woman had the best time, laughed and cried, danced with her husband, and her son, and at times, just with herself.

And now, she will ignore the fact that she did not investigate anything natural, but will dance herself up the stairs, soak in the lovely lavender-scented bath, and then fall happily into bed.