Wedding Day

I went to a wedding yesterday. It was beautiful. The atmosphere was both fun and elegant. The bride & groom's wedding vows (which they wrote themselves) and their thank you speeches at the end of the dinner reception were the best ones I've heard in a long time.

 Throughout the evening I kept thinking about my wedding 18 years ago. I was trying to remember details of it but was having difficulty doing so. But I do remember some things. I remember feeling so loved by the Big Oh - the joy, excitement, and anticipation that I'll be spending the rest of my life with this wonderful man and how lucky I was to be his wife.

I remember my friends who were there. We were young when we got married, both only 25 years old, and we were the first to be married in our group of friends so it was a great party for all of us. There was no wedding planner, no engagement photos or a video montage to share. We didn't have fancy centre pieces, professional bouquets or a designer wedding cake served with a dessert table & midnight buffet. Instead, my girlfriends stayed up late the night before making my bouquets, we played silly Chinese wedding games, we drank, we took lots of pictures (the old fashion way and not with a photobooth), and my cake was an afterthought from a cheap Chinese bakery, that if my memory serves me correct, we forgot to served!

 I remember my mom and my grandmother serving traditional Chinese dumplings the night before and a Chinese ritual of combing my hair to bless my marriage. We read generic wedding vows and I don't remember exactly what I said in my thank you speech (I suppose I could dig up my old wedding video but I'd also have to find a VHS Machine to play it on). I’m sure my speech was clumsy and immature, and I spoke mostly of superficial things in my life up to that point when it really should have been about deeper gratitude to my family - particularly to my mother for the love, sacrifices and heartaches that she had while raising us.

 I also thought about my children. I admit the tears that I had during the ceremony and speeches were not entirely for the bride and groom last night - they were also for my girls. Of course I hope to be here to witness each of my daughters wedding days but the reality is that I may not be. I hope their special day will be filled with as much happiness, love and gratitude as there was last night.

Y.C.