Weddings are reminders

We have a wedding to attend this weekend. It will require a very long drive across half of Ohio and at least one overnight stay before we return home. Gracie, the calico cat, will probably think we have abandoned her. The last time we left she started stockpiling food as we found a dead mouse when we returned home. Apparently having someone come in every day and make sure she had food and water did nothing to allay her fears of abandonment. Either that, or she wanted fresh meat.
We have met the bride a few times and do not know the groom at all. The bride is our sister-in-law’s daughter and so she is as much a part of the family as the rest of us even if she wouldn’t recognize us if she passed us on the street. Therefore, we will travel for hours and hours so that we might witness the joining of two lives into one. Besides, every wedding needs a few relatives that neither the bride nor groom knows personally.
The last wedding we attended was for a different niece. We expect to see her and her husband there along with the rest of the family.
I believe that weddings are symbols of hope and love. It is two people declaring to the world that they are now a team. They may have different interests and opinions but have realized that their lives are not complete without each other.
Couples enter into marriage with the fervent belief that they will defy the odds and stay married and be in love for the rest of their lives. This is as it should be. It doesn’t always work out that way and sometimes it takes awhile to discover the person who loves you as much as you love them. Sometimes it takes even longer to find somebody you can put up with who will tolerate your own shortcomings.
At some point in the ceremony I will trip over the Lord’s Prayer. Thank goodness they are merely Catholic. If they practiced a non-Christian religion I would really be lost during the marriage rites. You would think that after all the Catholic services I have attended in the last 32 years I would be more comfortable with their rituals. Alas, it is not to be.
It seems like the only time we see that branch of the family is at church for either a wedding or a funeral. That is the downside of living so far apart. We do keep somewhat connected through e-mail and other electronic communication but it is not the same as seeing people face to face.
We are sure that the mother of the bride will be far too busy to chat with us and that is all right. The rest of the family will enjoy a bit of a reunion as they gather together. Stories will be exchanged and promises will be made to keep in touch more often.
The bride will be beautiful, as all brides are. And we who are married will remember our own weddings and the promises we made so long ago. A part of me will wonder how it is that we have been married so long when it seems like it was yesterday that we were young and hopeful and just starting out in our married lives.
We are going to a wedding this weekend to witness the joining of two souls and to remind ourselves of how it was when our love was new.[[In-content Ad]]