A Tale of Two Weddings

June is the wedding month and rightly so. June has much to offer (around here anyway) with its mild temps, cool breezes, fresh blooming flowers and promise of relaxed summer months to come. On a side note, for my own wedding Dear Hubby and I chose December, the exact opposite month from June. I wonder what this says about me…

In this post, I’d like to share a tale of two weddings. One of them took place over sixty years ago and one took place just this past weekend.

Here’s a bit about the first…

Over half a century ago, my parents met in a tiny town in North Dakota where they were both busy getting their teaching careers off the ground. My mother was teaching first grade and my dad was in the same building teaching history to high school kids who weren’t that much younger than he was. The two young teachers met in that rural school (I think there’s an interesting love story in there…they’ve always been very hush hush), fell in love and soon after began building a life together.

My mother and father were married in a small intimate ceremony at the home of my grandparents in Park River, North Dakota on June 8, 1950. Here’s a photo of them and the rest of the wedding party which included my dad’s brother and my mom’s best friend from college. Not much fanfare at that wedding, but lots of love.

Really, what else do you need?

I enjoy looking at all old photos, but old wedding photos like this one are even more intriguing to me. No matter who the people in the photos were or when or where they were taken, the special occasion filled with so much love and promise stays captured forever.

When I look at this old photo of my parents on their wedding day, I’m filled with awe. They look incredibly young, of course, but as with most photos of young couples on their wedding day, what strikes me is how they appear so unscathed and untarnished by life.

My parents probably weren’t thinking about mortgages and bills to pay, kids they would soon need to feed and clothe or growing old. They certainly weren’t thinking about breast cancer or one of them someday living without the other.

And that’s as it should have been.

There’s a beautiful innocence to wedding day photos. Perhaps that’s why they draw us in.

Wedding days are days for dreaming about and planning for the future.

Part of that future for my family turned out to be another wedding in June…

Sixty-two years later on that exact date in June, another special wedding took place.

June 8, 2012 was the wedding day of my daughter and new son-in-law.

When daughter and then fiancé announced this was to be their chosen date, I knew it would be extra emotional for me and it was. You see June 8^th was not only my parents’ wedding anniversary; it was also my mother’s birthday.

So many memories wrapped up in a single day in June.

My mother would have been so excited, proud and pleased about her first granddaughter’s wedding no matter what day it had been on. She would have felt honored and humbled had she known the date was the same one she had chosen.

In a sense, it was almost as if my mother was there.

Daughter’s wedding was a lovely and intimate ceremony attended by only a few family members and friends. And of course, that big black and white mutt Ace was there looking dapper in his ready-made tuxedo, drool and all.

Like the wedding long ago, this one was also a wedding without great fanfare, but once again, with an abundance of love. It was small, relaxed, elegantly simple and held outdoors in a lovely park setting which seemed fitting for this young couple that loves the outdoors so much.

Vows and rings were exchanged, as were many hugs and good wishes. A delicious tasting meal was served and wedding cake was devoured by all. Photos were taken capturing yet another young couple’s day of promises.

And of course, a few tears were shed. What’s a wedding without a few tears?

Weddings are filled with joy, but also mixed in is a touch of sadness and nostalgia, and that’s as it should be as well. People shed tears at weddings for countless personal reasons.

Some tears are shed by parents who marvel at their grown-up children taking this giant step into marriage. Some tears are shed by friends and other loved ones who ponder about the relationship they have with the one they know so well saying I do. Some tears are shed for people we have loved and lost, like my mother and Dear Hubby’s father, among others. Some tears are shed for the sheer joy and beauty of such a day. And some are shed for reasons those shedding them don’t even fully understand.

I shed a few of those myself.

It was a lovely wedding rich with memories, dreams for the future and plenty of love.

What more could a mother ask for?

So there you have it; my tale of two weddings separated by some sixty-two years, but forever connected by a day in June, family ties and of course love.

If you are (or ever have been) married, what wedding date did you choose and why did you choose it? 

Do you cry at weddings?

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