Welcome to Wedding Season
It is inevitable that when one goes to college at a Christian school and makes friends those friends will start getting married as soon as you graduate, or sooner. It is also inevitable that when you have 24 first cousins alone and you’re somewhere in the middle, you’ll grow up going to weddings, and then they’ll stop for a while, and then you’ll go to some more weddings. And, of course, the second wave of cousin weddings will inevitably coincide with the wave of college friend weddings. That is the way it must be.
Welcome to wedding season, my friends! A time of year that never seems to end for us, actually. The year we got married it went right up to the end of the year. Okay, that was a very special case, but still, we go to a lot of weddings. As you all know, I came from a huge family of nine siblings on my dad’s side and seven on my moms and roughly 24 first cousins over all. So wedding season is a thing that I am very well acquainted with. I’m not sure if we ever went a summer without at least one wedding. Back in the day it was one, maybe two weddings a year. My older cousins were getting married as I was working my way through grade school, and then there was a pause of sorts. A breath between the older cousins and the younger cousins. And then I went to college at Geneva, as you know, and as you know Geneva is notorious for turning out engaged and married couples. So naturally I come out of it with a ring and watch as my friends collect their rings in turn and wedding invites start flying.
And of course it starts in April, though sometimes we get lucky and it starts in May, after graduation. We went to five weddings last year, and eight the year before. We’re back up to eight this year again, though if you count the two-parter as two wedding events then we’ve got nine wedding events total. But not nine weekends, we’d still be at eight since two of the weddings are literally back to back. Friday in Pittsburgh and then Saturday in central PA. It will be a very busy weekend. Anyway, that’s really what wedding season is all about, taking up as many weekends as possible.
We are one down in our wedding season this year. We went to a friend’s wedding at the beginning of the month and then their reception last weekend. So I guess we could count that as two down, if we want to feel better about our progress. This weekend is my cousin Brittney’s wedding, which, may be a little emotional for me. I’ve only cried at one wedding, really. I teared up a bit when my Danielle got married, but I cried at Twirly’s wedding, up there in front of everyone, and again when I made my speech. I was kind of a mess. At any rate, I haven’t cried at a wedding since, but I might at Brittney’s. She is a very special cousin to me, after all. We spent more time at her house in the summers than we did at our own some years. Her mom is basically my second mom. I spent most of yesterday making cupcakes for her wedding with a good friend of mine, who graciously finished them up after I had to go pick up my husband. We’ll be decorating them tomorrow morning like sunflowers, it’ll be grand.
Next week starts our two weeks of travel. We’ll be going out for Lauren’s graduation, coming back for a week and then leaving again for a wedding out in central PA, after going to another Geneva friend’s wedding the night before. Of course my two theater people would plan their weddings side-by-side. I was so worried when I saw Gwen’s was the same weekend as Haley’s, but then I checked the dates and was like, “Yeah, we could do that.” And my very loving husband agreed, even though it’s a little crazy. But I love these ladies too much to pass up seeing them walk down the aisle. Luckily May’s weddings will be done in one fell swoop.
June is another bookend with weddings the first and last weekends in the month. Then we get a two month break! And start up again with a trip down to DC to a) finally visit my Twirly in her natural habitat, and b) see a very special friend get married to a very special guy. From there we’ve got one last wedding and then we’re done! Unless someone else pops up with a ring and a date, which occasionally happens.
My list of things now includes two wedding gifts, and some wedding wrapping paper, since I used the last of it on a shower gift two weeks ago. Which was impressive, actually, as the last piece was the actual perfect size for the box I was wrapping. I was very pleased. Anyway, I could wrap all of our wedding presents in Ninja Turtles wrapping paper, or Christmasy Avengers, but I think we’ll splurge and buy some more shiny silver stuff for weddings. I may also take up making doilies for all of my brides, because really, what household is complete without doilies? Don’t worry, brides, I’ll get you a real present too, I promise. I just really like making doilies.
The funny thing about wedding season after having our own wedding is every time we go to one my husband looks over at me and says sometime to the effect of “I’m so glad we’re married.” And part of it is “I’m so glad we never have to do this again.” Which is valid. Weddings are intense and stressful and expensive and often times a mess. But more than that, we’re reminded at every wedding what it means to be married to the person you love most. We are reminded that we’re partners for life, that we are to uphold each other in every circumstance and that we are so blessed to be together. Before I got married weddings were nice, but they didn’t hold a lot of meaning for me. Now I understand the beauty and the blessing of marriage and every wedding is made all the more beautiful because I’m there sitting beside my other half.
So yeah, we have a lot of weddings this year, and it’s a lot of gifts to get and a lot of traveling to do and a lot of time to give, but it’s also a lot of reminders of what we got ourselves into and a lot of people to celebrate this awesome journey with. So I’m happy with our eight weddings this year, and I can’t wait to celebrate with each couple as they join us in the adventure that is marriage.
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