4 Weddings and My Failure

It's wedding season and naturally, Peter and I have been on the wedding circuit for the past month. We've attended four weddings in five weeks. Four blushing brides, four proud grooms, four first kisses, first dances, cake cuttings, open bars, and inviting dance floors. Despite the wedding formula - the agenda that every pair of newlyweds has to check off before Donna Summer belts out 'Last Dance,' remarkably, each wedding is so different.

It's not just the colors, the bridesmaids dresses or the hour at which the bride trades in her heels for flip flops that changes, it's the style and culture of the bride and groom that makes each celebration unique.

Holly and Ryan's wedding, set at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association last night didn't disappoint. It was a wedding about family, Pittsburgh and a very visible love, expressed so poignantly, passionately and picture perfectly all night long.

The elements: the emotional, eloquent vows composed and read by the bride and groom, the best ever wedding cake - homemade by Aunt Joyce, housed by me, topped with icing that tasted like buttery perfection, not vanilla scented shellac, Uncle Mike - the speech, dance moves, hearty laugh, the interpretive shout dancer, the burgeoning cookie table complete with Eat N Park cookies, the very cute DJ, the Sarris surprises at our places, the extended families coming together on the dance floor: each signature detail made this wedding their own. 

The only thing that was painfully the same, was my failure, yet again, to get a wedding gift in time. The most tardy wedding gift giver struck again. On average, our gifts have been running between two weeks and five months late. Which is becoming, ugh, embarrassing.

But ... one of the things I've learned over the past three weddings, is that the best gift I can give the the morning after the big night, are photos to remember the special details of a very special day. So before your blue box arrives, here are my snapshots.

Congrats to my cousin Ryan, and his beautiful, glowing new bride, Holly. Wishing you a lifetime of happiness, love, and unexpected dances.

Lo.