Yesterday, my friend Lesa sent me a link to this YouTube video (and then of course my mother sent it to me again, since she is not want to read the to: line on any email message – I think her motto is, “anything worth seeing once is worth seeing twice” or even three times.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0&feature=player_embedded
I sat down on the couch with Andrew this evening, along with the more needy of our two new kittens, Maddy’s Twila (she’s also been christened MixTape by Sam, and Andrew calls her Debby, short for Debussy; he nicknamed the more jazzy, brutish kit-sister Star, Ellington, or Ellie for short; Sam’s name for Star/Ellie is M.Schneek – I’m absolutely certain I’ve spelled that wrong) and we watched the video. All I have to say, is: Anjelica and Steven Wiens, if I had only known you then... When the groomsmen in their tan tuxes and jouncy moves started jamming down the aisle, and the ladies in their salmon-pink dresses did their best to follow with a few rhythmic moves, we were hooting with laughter and joy. “Welcome to the YouTube generation!” I shouted to Andrew. Seriously, you have to watch this video, preferably with a glass of wine.
Me, I was moved immediately by nostalgia.
In five short months Steve and I will celebrate twenty years of wedded bliss. I well remember the day. I was at the church early with my whole family, setting up poinsettias around the alter and tying rich, green grosgrain bows onto the pews (I’d learned to make them with my godfather’s sister just the week before – Dear Daisy, she ended up making most of the bows, but I was proud of the few I turned out on my own). Steve was good enough to breeze in about 15 minutes before the ceremony, going on about something with plumbing and showers at our new (fixer-upper) house. My friend Heid will remember I was a little stressed and may have flipped him a bird or two…
The men wore classic black tuxedos (it was December and Seattle blessed us with a nice smattering of snowflakes during the ceremony on Capitol Hill) and the ladies wore merlot and evergreen ensembles. I wore my Grandma’s satin wedding dress, feeling the weight of time and memory and the future, heavy around me. To the powerful tones of Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntary, we waited for our cue. (Joe, please don’t remind me how the church speakers somehow simultaneously picked up a local radio station.) It was beautiful, I remember. As we stood waiting outside the sanctuary doors, we heard the solo trumpet soar above it all and my dad and I looked at each other, “Let’s get this over with,” he said and smiled. We held hands as we walked down the aisle, the church packed full of relatives and friends, all wishing Steve and me well as we started on this big adventure at our young age.
Steve was waiting for me at the end of the aisle, his eyes glistening with tears. “Hey Mister,” I said and squeezed his arm. “Let’s get on with it.” And so we have. For nearly twenty years.
Jill and Kevin, I don’t know you, but hey, Congratulations to you both – and kudos to your friends and family for inviting all 9 million (as of today) of us YouTube viewers to join in the fun of your wedding. We loved it and we’ll say a toast to you as we celebrate twenty years and then some.
Oh dear. That was schmaltzy after all, wasn’t it!? I’ll do better next time, I promise.
It WAS beautiful and a very special day. So maybe there was a little stress before the ceremony but it all melted away when the important stuff began. I knew that you would be celebrating 20, 30.....60 years together.
ReplyDelete-Heidi