Yesterday I attended the wedding of a friend of mine. Now I have been to quite a few weddings over the year (I've even been in a number of them), but this one stood out against the rest. It was amazing. Not because it was completely lavishly extravagant, but because of the overall aura radiating from it. That's the best way I can describe it.
First off, the wedding ceremony itself was more personal than any I've been to before. Most seem like a wedding version of MadLibs, where you simply fill in the name of the Bride and Groom and you're good to go. This was completely different and tailored to the Bride and Groom. It was held at a church where they had grown up since they were kids and was presided over by the priest who had been guiding them as they grew up. There was this level of personal significance and support that I've never seen at a wedding before. But this wasn't even the best part of the wedding. The best part was watching the couple through the ceremony.
Let me first state that I met the Groom for the first time this year and I've only even met the bride once or twice, so I know absolutely nothing about the pair as a couple or what their relationship is like. However, watching them stand before the alter I could see all that I needed to know that they deserved to be right there. I was sitting on the Grooms side, so during the ceremony I had a clear shot of the brides face. The entire time the bride just stared into her [soon to be] husband's eyes with the most intense, amazing, deep, intimate stare that I've ever seen before. Though I couldn't see the grooms face from my seat, his body language, the way he held her hand, and the way her never broke her gaze, implied that he was every bit as tuned into her emotions.
Now in my past relationship, I had every intension of marrying my girlfriend. I loved her more than I had ever loved anything in my life, and I was every bit as infatuated with her a year later as I was when we first got together. I wore a promise ring on my ring finger and every time I was asked if I was married I always replied by stating I wasn't yet, but was planning to after I graduated. Now you'd think that being at the wedding would make me think about the wedding that I had hoped would be my own. Instead, all I could think about was the fact that I've never been looked at they way the Bride was looking at her Groom and how if I'm ever to get married, I want my Bride to look at me with that same passion. It was just an amazing and moving experience and it was the first time I actually enjoyed being at a wedding.
posted by Christopher SchneseÂ