Last year, a few of my cousins and a bunch of the friends I made growing up in church, in high school and during my time studying at Canadian Mennonite University got engaged. And when I say “a bunch,” I mean 20. Ten couples, all planning weddings for the spring and summer of 2012.
When I realized I was going to be invited to all of those weddings (including one on each weekend in July, and two on May long weekend—one in Steinbach, Man., and the other the next day in Calgary, Alta.—yeah, I made it to both), I was not looking forward to it.
I thought I would lose all my weekends and I would have to spend a lot of money on gifts. I thought I would have to wear a bunch of nice clothes that I would end up drenching with sweat while sitting in non-air-conditioned churches on hot, sunny Saturday afternoons when I’d rather be at the beach.
That did happen—I did sweat through a lot of really nice clothes this past summer. But once I realized that these weddings were about my friends and not me, it was a lot of fun attending 10 weddings between the start of May and the end of August.
I played guitar and sang at Breanne and Nic’s wedding. I watched the congregants work together to get the chairs inside as rain threatened to ruin Kerri and Tim’s outdoor wedding. I laughed at Heather’s excited gasp after Michael slipped the ring on her finger during their vows. I enjoyed a beautiful sunset over Camp Valaqua after Megan and Francis tied the knot. I danced with my mom, dad and others to ABBA’s classic song “Dancing Queen” at Ryan and Julia’s wedding. Zach and Julie served me and the rest of their guests communion.
It’s great to share in your friends’ joy as they make promises to each other that will impact the rest of their lives. With a lot of the couples, I had seen their relationships grow from the beginning. It’s nice when you see a relationship work out and make it that far.
It’s also fun to spend a day with friends and family, in some cases catching up with people you haven’t seen in a long time.
It was interesting to see how each couple made their wedding their own by giving it characteristics that were unique to them, whether it was the venue or the music or something else. There was an emphasis on making the day special, but I could tell in each case, the people getting married had thought hard about what the day meant, and they had spent the months leading up to the wedding preparing not only for the day itself, but for the marriage that would follow it.
There was so much support from the families of the couples. Parents were visibly happy for their sons and daughters.
As many of the officiants noted in their sermons, there was a community of people to support each couple getting married. That was the best part of all the weddings I attended this summer—getting a chance to see and be a part of the community that surrounds each couple.
Truth be told, I’m still slightly miffed I had to miss so many long weekends. Having attended all of these weddings, I’d like to offer some advice to anyone out there who is planning to get married:
- Try to keep the ceremony short. No one likes long ceremonies.
- There shouldn’t be too much time in between the ceremony and the reception.
- Keep the day moving!
- Check with me so I can OK which weekend you have your wedding on. I can already tell you, the May, July and August long weekends are out.
- Weddings outside are awesome.
- Having good music at your wedding is also awesome.
- See #3.
Finally, my seventh tip: Don’t worry about what people are going to think about your wedding day. So in other words, ignore my whole list.
It’s your day. Do whatever you want with it.
Add new comment
Canadian Mennonite invites comments and encourages constructive discussion about our content. Actual full names (first and last) are required. Comments are moderated and may be edited. They will not appear online until approved and will be posted during business hours. Some comments may be reproduced in print.