On Weddings

I was one of the many, many people around the world who attended a wedding on Saturday, 7/7/7. And it was a beautiful wedding. Both my husband and I choked up, as we almost always do at weddings, particularly when the bride and groom are both such good friends of ours. The bride is an organizational genius with a great deal of style and an eye for detail, and all of these powers were brought to bear in their wedding. We've attended far more lavish and expensive weddings, but few more elegant or beautiful. Heartfelt congratulations again.

My favorite weddings are the ones where you can tell how happy the bride and groom are to be getting married. At one wedding I was at, the bride leaned, briefly, against the groom during the minister's sermon, and he briefly put his arm around her. Immediate tears. At another wedding, the groom, normally an impassive military man, had the biggest smile on his face the whole time, particularly as he watched his bride coming down the aisle. At yet another wedding, it was the way he looked at her while the pastor prayed for them.

It's also touching when the family gets in on it. At one wedding, the groom's older brother - a tough-looking guy with a crew cut and scowl - suddenly started sobbing. This happened at my own wedding, too: I have no recollection of what the pastor said, but I vividly recall how loudly my brother-in-law was crying.

Also, there's something about hearing the vows again, for us old married people, that kind of gets you choked up too. Not only does it take you back to your own wedding, but it makes you think about the days, months, years of your marriage - the joys and hurts and all of it - and how you measure up against the solemn vows you took: "for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish 'till death do us part."