If you’ve never been to a wedding on the beach, that is something you need to fix. Put it on your bucket list. Crash one if you have to. Stand in the sand, just beyond the white folding chairs, and watch the veil fly in the wind, mingling with the clouds and the sky and the foamy white waves. Listen to the man and woman vow to honor and love one another through sickness and health as their toes curl around the sand, even if they are complete strangers. Just be there and you won’t regret it. Beach weddings are truly magical.
Weddings are transcendent things for me. Each one reminds me of my wedding, no matter how different the venue, how varied the circumstances. They remind me of the vows I made. And they reveal just how much life has passed since the day I stood in a white dress and promised that my hand would always be there when he reached for it. They remind me that those vows you make on that day are so hard to keep. It takes work. So much effort. So much more than love. Somehow, watching a couple start down that road reminds me how worth it all of it is. The work, the effort, how deep you have to reach to keep going and hold on. I come away from a wedding wanting to go back. All the way back these eight and a half years to that day when we started. And then, since you can’t go back, I vow to go forward and remember that we promised. We vowed. And it is worth the effort.
I need more weddings in my life.
And more sunrises like this one.
We made a mommy-daughter road trip to be there. 4 hours there one day and 4 hours back the next. To watch my cousin marry her love.
It was my girl’s first wedding. And she was fascinated. I explained the wedding party to her as the men and women processed in. I called out for her the moment when it was official. They were married. And she stared, her eyes glued to them the whole time. To her, the bride was a princess and the whole event magical. As they danced her first dance, she didn’t miss a step.
That she got to wear a fancy blue dress that made her feel like a princess made it all the more magical. That it was at the beach, that she got to dip her toes in the water, a gigantic added bonus. How she managed to stand in the water, which must have been below freezing, is beyond me. But she loved every second.
Right below ‘attend beach wedding’ on your bucket list, you should add ‘dance in the ocean in your fanciest dress.’ These things, friends, will be the memories that keep you smiling and warm for the rest of your life.
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