I’ve been privileged enough to be at three very unique weddings in three countries this year. The first; set in the heartland of Pennsylvania Dutch country, joining a French/dutch family to an American Mennonite clan (http://groetjes-ks.blogspot.com/).
The third; a true Scottish ceilidh in a stone-walled labyrinth of chambers under Edinburgh, complete with boys in kilts raising sparks on the flagstone dance-floor, bacon-rolls at half-time, and whisky to close with (just enoo to keep oot tha cold ye ken?).But the second was the long-awaited party, the culmination of the proposal I witnessed 12 months previously at a surprise birthday party in Romania. Three cultures influenced the day; traditional Romanian, Australian, and international protestant missionary Romanian-style. The result was a wedding like no other in my experience!
‘All brides look beautiful on their wedding day’. This has been true in my experience, but none have looked so beautiful as my dearest friend.
Isn’t she lovely? And still the familiar dear friend we know and love; no unnatural or unrecognisable glamour here, but everything as she is naturally, only more so for this day. The subtle sheen of the dress, perfectly fitted to J’s figure by her skillful sister, was offset with the gleam of pearls at her hair, throat, neckline and waist, carefully wrought and embroidered by her mum. ‘Simple elegance’ has no better example.
Every guest, bridal party included, enjoyed a wonderful party, with good food, good fellowship, lively entertainment, good service, and the gift of the bride and groom’s loving attention and care. Thanks to the efforts of the bride and groom we all had a better time than we deserved, and perhaps a better time than they did. What with the language barrier and simply not being there until immediately before the big day, there was a lot that only they could handle/organise/deal with, right down to milk for the coffee not being included in the reception-venue’s price quoted (which the staff took the trouble to inform us in the midst of the whole affair). They were excellent hosts; we all can’t thank them enough.
I can imagine that for some brides of the ‘bridezilla’ type, if they’d had to deal with just one of the many things that happened at this wedding their special day would have been ‘ruined’. But my dear friend has the amazing flexibility to be able to move straight on with the next step instead of melting into a noisome puddle on the floor as I would have. Of course we would have preferred various things not to happen (such as the waiting staff deciding to start bringing out food during the wedding ceremony!), but the mantra for a westerner living in this country of ‘take nothing for granted’ was well-proved in this situation, and the attitude to chaos of ‘deal with it, move onto the next thing’ stood my friend in good stead. It was a wonderful but very real day. Rather than the bridal-magazine fairy-tale, this was day one of marriage for my friends; the good, the bad, the joy, the frustration, and the adrenalin-producing crazy unexpectedness that characterises my friend’s life in this country, that brings out her most vivid beauty.
‘All brides look beautiful on their wedding day’. This has been true in my experience, but none have looked so beautiful as my dearest friend.
Isn’t she lovely? And still the familiar dear friend we know and love; no unnatural or unrecognisable glamour here, but everything as she is naturally, only more so for this day. The subtle sheen of the dress, perfectly fitted to J’s figure by her skillful sister, was offset with the gleam of pearls at her hair, throat, neckline and waist, carefully wrought and embroidered by her mum. ‘Simple elegance’ has no better example.Every guest, bridal party included, enjoyed a wonderful party, with good food, good fellowship, lively entertainment, good service, and the gift of the bride and groom’s loving attention and care. Thanks to the efforts of the bride and groom we all had a better time than we deserved, and perhaps a better time than they did. What with the language barrier and simply not being there until immediately before the big day, there was a lot that only they could handle/organise/deal with, right down to milk for the coffee not being included in the reception-venue’s price quoted (which the staff took the trouble to inform us in the midst of the whole affair). They were excellent hosts; we all can’t thank them enough.
I can imagine that for some brides of the ‘bridezilla’ type, if they’d had to deal with just one of the many things that happened at this wedding their special day would have been ‘ruined’. But my dear friend has the amazing flexibility to be able to move straight on with the next step instead of melting into a noisome puddle on the floor as I would have. Of course we would have preferred various things not to happen (such as the waiting staff deciding to start bringing out food during the wedding ceremony!), but the mantra for a westerner living in this country of ‘take nothing for granted’ was well-proved in this situation, and the attitude to chaos of ‘deal with it, move onto the next thing’ stood my friend in good stead. It was a wonderful but very real day. Rather than the bridal-magazine fairy-tale, this was day one of marriage for my friends; the good, the bad, the joy, the frustration, and the adrenalin-producing crazy unexpectedness that characterises my friend’s life in this country, that brings out her most vivid beauty.
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