08.08.08

(image found here, and no, this isn’t Dorothy’s wedding invite,
though it is a beautiful invitation designed by Daniel Larsson)

Today we go up to Nevada City to witness the coming together of two families in marriage.  My dear friend Dorothy is marrying her beloved J, and their 5 children will become brothers and sisters, though it seems that they feel that way already.

I was thinking about marriage, or more specifically, about weddings, yesterday.  I love weddings.  I almost always cry at weddings.  (I say almost, because I didn’t cry at our wedding.  But I think every other wedding I’ve ever been at, I’ve cried.)  And while I say, and mean, that it’s not the wedding, it’s the marriage that matters, weddings are still a lot of fun.  I stopped to remember the many weddings I’ve been to in my lifetime…

• I think the first was my uncle’s second marriage, which was in a beautiful non-denominational Christian church in Stockton. It was a lovely day, and my cousin and I snuck champagne in the elevators of the hotel, where the reception was held.  Looking back, I wonder if we were as sneaky as we thought?  I think we each had two or three sips…not much at all.
• My friends David and Stephanie were married in that very same church, and Rosemary (my BFF, and David’s sister) and I were bridesmaids…we cried the whole time, and held hands to get through it.  It was a lovely ceremony, though.
• I remember a wedding in Oregon, where the bride and groom had been living together for perhaps 15-20 years, and both had grown children from other marriages.  The groom’s daughter was a witch, and performed a wiccan blessing.  They had a good friend who was Native American, and performed a ceremony from his tribe.  It was a pot luck wedding, and we all stood in a circle in a beautiful flowering field and sang, “Imagine“.  It was about as hippy of a wedding as you could get, and it was beautiful.
• Rosemary’s wedding, which was beautiful, December in Delaware.  She and her husband married twice…the first time in a civil ceremony,  in Florida, the second a church wedding in Delaware.  They were both Captains in the Air Force, and she was about to be sent to Washington State, while he was going to be stationed in Florida, I think, and the only way they could be stationed together was to get married sooner rather than later.  So they did, followed by a bbq with friends.  I very much regret not having the money to attend that first wedding.  She said it was the one she liked better…less stress, less fuss, just relaxing fun.
• My friend’s weddings, one in a winery, one in the hills of Los Altos, with deer wandering around in the background, one in a Cathedral in San Francisco.  Such beautiful days, all of them.
• Our wedding, of course, was a Hindu ceremony, and the best wedding EVER.  Totally fun.  A bit warm that day, but fun.
• My dad and step-mom’s wedding, which was in the yard of their beautiful new house.  They had a friend who was also a Buddhist priest (is that the right word) perform the ceremony, and my sisters and I all cried.  Of course.  It was a beautiful wedding, a beautiful day.
• Ted’s aunt’s sister’s wedding, which was on top of Mt. Diablo, and the view was so clear, you could see all the way to San Francisco, and beyond.
• Ted’s sister’s wedding, which was very small, in her father’s living room.  Ted’s step-dad performed the ceremony, and it was lovely and sweet.
• My brother’s wedding, when we froze in the cold November fog, and had a wonderful time nonetheless.  My mom beamed the entire day.  And my brother, shockingly, wasn’t sarcastic even once.  That’s something for him, for his humor is tres sarcastic.  But he was too happy to even go there, I think.
• My sisters’ weddings, 6 months apart from each other.  One in a field, with flower girls wearing angel wings…one in a Catholic Cathedral, with the cutest flower girl EVER (Maya, of course), stained glass and ceremony.
• Cherry’s wedding, just last year.  A beautiful ceremony, a wonderful day, with good friends, a beautiful setting, a beautiful bride and handsome groom.

I love weddings, big and small, formal and casual,Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Secular, all.  They all rock.  And as today is the 8th of August, 2008, it is considered a VERY lucky day in some cultures to be married.  So to that I say, best of luck to Dorothy and John for a wonderful, memorable day, and a long, happy, healthy marriage.