Sunday Collection, Wedding Special

My sister L got married yesterday so this Sunday Collection is dedicated to weddings and to marriage itself. After all, getting married is relatively easy, staying married can be another matter.

Her new husband is pretty unconventional in his beliefs. Although it’s like a rebirth for her after some tough years, I admit I’ve had reservations (she knows that, I’m not betraying confidences). I really hope she’ll continue to be happy.

So, the wedding was great, a bit like going to a circus. First to the register office (which was rather a production line). They kept the words simple, but even so there were tears. Including mine, which was a surprise to me. Then a bring-your-own picnic at a local playground, where we were blessed with a few hours’ sunshine.

The rainbow of guests included our older brothers and their wives. L’s ex was there, which was a bit weird but it was great to see him, and nice for her son to have his dad there. That son, my nephew S, was one of the happy couple’s witnesses. He arrived in a white linen suit that we picked out together, and he could have given George Clooney a run for his money.

(Just to explain Maya’s comment below: when I first published this post, I included a slideshow of photographs at this point. I think it looked great, but I’ve been feeling increasingly uneasy about putting pictures of everyone on the internet without their consent and without even asking, so I’ve taken it out. Shame, but it feels better this way.)

Mind you, weddings can be pretty damn depressing. Just Google ‘wedding plans’ and you have to wade through a virtual sea of pink, soft-focus, tasteless tackiness, all adding up to a wad of money spent on one day. A bit like spending hours making a three-chocolate bavarois dessert (which I do superbly by the way) and then everyone gobbles it down in 30 seconds.

I suppose it’s the commercialism of it all that I object to. And now that same-sex partnerships are legal in the UK, the expensive wedding juggernaut has expanded to include them as well. The wedding industry isn’t prejudiced, it’ll take anybody’s money.

I like a simple wedding with the focus on the commitment. But then I suspect I might be a bit of a party-pooper sometimes…

Wedding photos can be a huge expense and it’s often the casual grab shots that are the best. I loved this one of Jen and her friend Josh on the occasion of his wedding.

People sometimes read rather hackneyed love poetry at their weddings. If, after they’ve been married for a few years, a couple could write about each other from the heart as Milton writes here, that would be the true test.

And couples and families go through all kinds of testing together over the years, but happiness often comes from simple things. I really enjoyed this post from Maya talking about the satisfactions of family and domestic life.

Moving back to the wacky side of weddings, I hope you all caught Joyce’s recent party extravaganza. If you didn’t you can take a look here, here and here. I never did really figure this one out, but it looked like a hell of a lot of fun.

Finally, those of you blogging friends who’ve been reading this for a while will have figured out that I’m a sucker for bitter-sweet moments, so to end, here’s the wedding scene from Fiddler on the Roof. Get your hankies out.