I attended a wedding last week. It was a ‘grand wedding’, a ‘lovely wedding’ or a ‘great wedding’ – depending on who you were talking. What I do know for sure is that the wedding of Karen and Nigel was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone present. I love weddings and this one ranked up there among my favourite such occasions.
You will all agree that weddings are first and foremost about the bride. It is more the bride’s day than anybody else’s – including the groom. The bride’s dress comes under a lot of scrutiny – and in this regard, it is fair to say that that Karen’s magnificent dress did her justice.
There was a big society wedding somewhere a few years ago, where a well-known family of the bride had promised some advance information to a local newspaper reporter. The promised details did not materialise despite the best efforts of the reporter and so the aggrieved scribe wrote his piece after going to the church for a ‘peek’.
The coverage of the wedding went into extraordinary detail of the groom’s suit, his hair, his handsome smiling face and so on. This was followed by a line which read; ‘The bride wore the customary white!’
For the record, Nigel certainly looked the part last week and his suit did him justice too!
Maybe I am just soft and sentimental, but weddings do it for me. Unquestionably, the day belongs to the bride and groom – but there is much more to a wedding than the ring thing. It is a happy day for the two families involved and for the friends of the couple. I always regard it as an honour to be asked to a wedding where you ‘don’t have to be invited’. (I did ‘have to be invited’ to the one above!)
Marriage is a beginning. It is the start of a new family and the greatest vote of optimism in the future. This belief in a future for the human race is contagious and adds so much to the unique atmosphere of the occasion. It’s as if two cuttings have been taken from two families and grafted together to create a new growth. Happiness abounds and spreads like a soft tide over all of the guests. For those of us ‘spectators’ on the day, we cannot but be uplifted by the goodness of it all
Whether it is a religious or a civil wedding, there is very much a spiritual dimension. Wedding ceremonies and wedding celebrations take place in every religion and every culture since the beginning of time. It is here where the marriage officially starts, where the couple declare their vows and exchange chosen promises and aspirations together.
This is the most important part of the wedding ceremony – whether the wedding goes on for a week; as it does in some cultures, or concludes next day with catch-up stories among the guests. I don’t know what type of music was played at the Marriage feast of Cana, but I doubt if it got them out on the floor with as much urgency as today’s wedding band hitting ‘Da Do Ron Ron’ – to a scattering of chairs in the seated area!
I was seated in a waiting room a few weeks back. A lady came in and recognised a friend or neighbour. Obviously we could all hear their conversation in the confined space of the room. ‘Have you any holiday planned?’ asked one of the other. ‘No, of course we have the wedding in June and none of us are thinking any further than that.’ The lady was obviously the mother of either the bride or the groom, but all she needed to say was, ‘we have the wedding!’ ‘The wedding’ – just two words, but it shows the importance of the wedding in the family bosom.
Couples are waiting longer before tying the knot these day (Yea …. I do know the reason, Lads!) and some couples choose not to get married at all. Thankfully all have the right to choose as to what is best for them and it is never the right of others to judge.
But somehow, the fact that a couple doesn’t have to get married to become partners does add something very special to those who do opt for ‘Here comes the bride’. This decision is surely the greatest expression of love and of a lifetime commitment. The bride and groom have being preparing over several months or even years for their big day and they are entitled to every ounce of joy that it brings.
Marriage may not be as popular as it once was; but I for one am glad that people are still getting married … because I love weddings!
Don’t Forget
The honeymoon is a period of doting between dating and debating.
