By: Jennifer Richardson Holt
This past weekend I went to a wedding. It was probably one of the most beautiful weddings that I have ever attended. I know what you’re thinking. You think that I am a sucker for elegant dresses and lovely flowers, and you would be completely correct. However, that is not, in fact, the reason that this wedding was so inherently moving. What made this an event that will stick with me for many years is the fact that it was one of the most wholesome and heartwarming things I have ever witnessed. From the beginning of the ceremony to the very end of the reception, it was all so, well, just pure. Let me elaborate.
The bride and groom were, well, are young. But they have been dating for years and they have not entered into this covenant lightly. I know that talk is cheap when it comes to this type of thing. But these two have traveled the hard road to get to where they are. They have focused on their faith and done their best to enter into their marriage with open eyes and obedient hearts. They know what they believe is the right way to do things and they have adhered to those standards even when it meant they would have to do things the less than easy way. To watch this petite, beautiful brunette look up into the eyes of her groom and know that she saw absolutely nothing and no one else, it was so precious. Their relationship was built on values and morals and real, hard fought, love. I cannot even describe to you what it looked like. It was love in the purest and most undefiled sense of the word. If you want to call me old fashioned, that is completely fine. However, considering marriage back in the day when it was looked at in this manner, rarely ended in divorce and lasted for half centuries or more, I think there is definite argument for this mindset. Seems to me, old fashioned ideologies might not be too shabby of an idea to employ when it comes to that life-long commitment type of thing.
Really though, I don’t even have to focus on the bride and groom to fall in love with this wedding. It was one of those events that was just made for the people watcher. And the watching that was done was exquisite. There was the toast by the father of the bride. Neither I, myself, nor the supply of tissue at the venue was prepared for that. But to listen to a tearful father extol the virtues of the amazing woman his daughter has become and to then welcome into his family a man that makes him proud was downright inspirational. But any daddy talking about giving away his little girl is bound to move someone. But there was so much more.
There was that same daddy, dancing with the mother of the bride. To watch these two dance and laugh and sing to each other, each absolutely intoxicated with the other’s presence even after over twenty five years of marriage; I cannot begin to describe the way that they looked at each other while dancing to both fast and slow songs alike. It was one of those adorably obvious cases of two people madly in love. I can’t even say that the way they looked into each other’s eyes was any different than the new bride and groom.
There were grandparents dancing with each other. There were twenty-somethings having just as much fun on the dancefloor as were those that were…well, not twenty something. People sang their hearts out. People socialized and visited. There was laughter and joy. There was the bride’s brother being appalled at the affection of his parents all out and about for him to see. There were wives putting in significant effort to successfully talk their husbands into dancing. There were happy pictures being taken. It was fun, joy, revelry and every speck of it was respectable and loving and glorious and downright exemplary. It was love in every virtuous moment of every aspect of the day. I would go to a wedding like this every day. This is what true love is supposed to look like and I could watch for ages, or more accurately, for happily ever after.
Prose and Possibilities 