My husband and I have attended four weddings this summer, a clear indication that the institution of marriage is alive and well, despite dire predictions that may lead one to believe otherwise.
The weddings were as varied and interesting as the brides and grooms themselves.
The first wedding took place at this huge campground, which conveniently included a hall where a few chairs had been placed in rows of anticipation.
The chairs were soon filled with family and friends, us among them.
There was lots of hugging and kissing and raising of wine glasses and people being all happy like they are at weddings.
The bride wore three quarter length white pants and a pretty white top, but the most amazing and notable thing about her attire was her happiness.
It surrounded her like a really cool halo!
The second wedding we attended was in Leoville, Saskatchewan, population; 300 or so. Leoville’s claim to fame is it actually has two First Streets, and our friend’s mom lives at the end of the other one.
“Come to mom’s house,” our friend texted us when we arrived. “Where does mom live?” I texted back. “At the end of First Street,” the text said.
Weeks later we are still chuckling over her directions and how we became the first people in the entire world to be lost in Leoville.
The wedding in Leoville was also filled with family and friends and the star of the evening was the bride’s mom, a beautiful eighty something lady, who managed to be light on her feet, gracious and a beautiful dancer all at once.
The bride herself was lovely in a simple short black and white dress, and once again, her most outstanding adornment was her happiness which she wore cloaked in a veil of tears and laughter.
Our third wedding took place near Cochrane, but not as near to Cochrane as we thought. Consequently, we were late, creeping shamefacedly into a back pew just as they were signing the register.
“We almost missed the wedding,” I told my daughter later. “Really,” she said, feigning surprise.
This wedding, or at least what we saw of it, took place in a very old, historical church, somehow very fitting for such a ceremony.
The bride wore blue which matched her eyes and the skies and her smile was as sunny as the day itself.
A good omen, no doubt.
We arrived at the last wedding an hour early, surprising everyone, mostly ourselves.
It was an outdoor wedding. For what seemed like forever, we sat all alone in these chairs in the bride’s parents’ yard feeling kind of weird and out of place and decidedly early.
It was really hot, stuck out there in the middle of the yard, seated in two folding chairs, looking all conspicuous, like maybe we were wedding crashers, or something undesirable like that. It was at this time we came to the unspoken agreement being early was almost as bad as being late, but in a weird, uncomfortable sort of way.
But, eventually, other guests arrived and the green grass was dotted with ladies in pretty dresses, fluttering about like birds of summer, and men, handsome and somewhat uncomfortable in their dress up clothes, hovering nearby.
It turned out to be a wonderful summer wedding, filled with family, friends and love.
The bride and groom looked like they could have come down off the top of a wedding cake; so young, so perfect and so in love were they.
It was good. Four weddings in a summer! Something to be grateful for, for sure!
ON THE OTHER SIDE