A Beautiful Wedding

 This weekend I had the immense pleasure of attending a beautiful wedding. The bride and I became friends in nursing school after we were placed in the same suite and then in the same clinical group. She is one of the most trustworthy people I know, and a genuinely wonderful person, as is her now-husband. Whenever he visited Linfield, he would ask after each of her friends and actually listened to whatever they had to talk about. Without divulging too much personal information about their relationship, I will say that they are a highly suitable match and their marriage will be an amazing one.

The seating was not assigned which made it easier to mingle with friends and family.

The wedding itself was very well put together. It was held in a park, in the shade of ridiculously tall trees. The reception tent was to one side of the ceremony area and there were games on the other side. The trellises marking the front of the ceremony area and the entrance to the ceremony were simply adorned with strands of cloth. 

The reception tent was large enough to accommodate many tables, two buffet lines, a dance floor, a DJ, and a bar. There were also plenty of group games to play in the designated area. Off to one side of the reception tent was a small snow cone station where a group of kids were in charge of mixing the various flavored syrups with the shaved ice for the guests. 

According to various announcements throughout the reception, it was a community effort that the happy couple were more than grateful for. For instance, both the bride and groom’s employers catered the event. The bride’s employer provided alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and the groom’s employer provided the dinner and dessert.

Quite possibly my favorite edible item at the wedding.

What made the wedding beautiful for me was the fact that there was so much love surrounding the event. Every person in attendance truly loved and cared for the bride and groom and only wanted the best for them. It was easy to get along with guests despite not knowing most of them because of our shared opinions of the couple.

Some people get married for different reasons, but sometimes there is a couple who are so right for each other that it only makes sense that they are married. My friend and her husband are one of the latter. Their marriage makes me think of the phrases “soul mate” and “sanctity of marriage.”

The thing is, there is so much more to marriage from a legal perspective that it can get in the way of what marriage really is. Love. Their wedding was full of love – from friends, family, the bride and groom, and so on – and it was hard not to be moved by it all. 

Hearing the stories about their early relationship, whether or not I had heard the story personally, made me appreciate them so much more as people and respect their decision to marry. I am so grateful I was able to attend, not only for their sakes, but for mine. I would happily drive another 5 hours, so long as they married and shared their love with everyone.