We arrived home last night after a brief trip back to Ohio. We drove up north to attend the wedding of a cousin on Bob's side of the family. The groom is a young man of just 22 and his bride is 20. He chose to get married at 4 pm on a Tuesday which isn't the most guest friendly time or day considering that most people would have to take time off of work to attend, but it was what he and his bride wanted, and so those of us that attended made the appropriate arrangements to be there.
The young couple had a small wedding budget, so I knew that this was not going to be a traditional American wedding where gobs of money is spent on a party that lasts just a few hours, but I wasn't sure if it was going to a very guest friendly wedding having only the inconvenience of the day and time of the wedding to try and foretell what the rest of the event was going be like.
I am happy to report that their wedding was a beautiful, perfect event made of all of the things that a wedding should be - family and fun, love and laughter. The young couple was glowing - especially the groom - and it was evident that they will make a good match for life if they should choose to grow together and commit to life as a married couple.
The vibe of the wedding was great. There were times during the afternoon where most of the guests were up on the dance floor enjoying themselves immensely - which says something considering that it was a dry wedding, and most people did not have the liquid courage we usually rely on at weddings to get ourselves out on the dance floor.
The bride looked so beautiful. Her wedding gown made her look like a princess. The decor was rustic which fit perfectly with the venue which was a lodge surrounded by woods. White lights hung in the dark wooden rafters both at the ceremony space and the reception area. Burlap and mason jars with origami birds made up the table decor completed with greenery snaking its way among the mason jars. The groom's sister made the cupcakes and the single tiered wedding cake that the bride and groom cut.
There was no garter toss or bouquet toss - which I don't think anyone missed or even noticed the absence of. There was a father-of-the-bride dance and a mother-of-the-groom dance along with a maid-of-honor speech (given by the bride's sister) and a best man speech (given by the groom's brother) all of which was sweet to watch and listen to.
The wedding was exactly what a wedding should be. It was a celebration of the beginning of a new life for the young couple without all of the unnecessary frills and expenses that make up most American weddings today. Nothing was over the top, but it was still a comfortable guest experience - which I think is equally important.
The crazy thing, for me, about this wedding is that this young man is the oldest of four children all about 2 years apart - the same as my children. My kids and their cousins spent a good amount of time together when we lived in Ohio - especially when they were all toddlers and preschoolers. The groom was born one month after Josh, Sarah and the groom's oldest younger brother are nine months apart, Elizabeth and the groom's sister are two months apart, and the groom's youngest brother came two and a half years after the girls were born. Their family and ours spent many an afternoon playing together, hiking, accessing nature parks all the while expanding our families together until they were complete.
To see the groom side-by-side with his three siblings - all grown up - was pretty emotional for me. He is now going to go on and create his own nucleus - his own family - and will leave behind the one in which he was raised by. This hit me so hard because I know that this journey will also happen in my own nuclear family sooner rather than later. To look up at those four kiddos all grown up was such a visual reminder that time does indeed march on. So often time seems invisible until we come face to face with something like a wedding, and we can see very clearly, that while time seemed hidden, it was very much there growing these babies into children, and now young adults ready to begin their own lives in their own ways. And while I may think that time only affected these four cousins, I know that my children have also grown, and one day it will be my four children standing side-by-side at a wedding or commitment ceremony for one of their own.
I cannot believe how they have grown. It seems like just yesterday they were babies, and in the blink of an eye they have grown into these eight unique, amazing humans. It is such a bittersweet thing for this mama heart. I am both so happy for these eight children and yet, so very, very sad that this part of our lives is coming to a close. These eight little babies are getting ready to fly the nest and take some of their mamas' hearts with them.
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