Here Comes the Bride

Because this blog is a journal of my life, and something I hope will eventually become a family document, sometimes the things I include will be highly personal. Like today's entry. Because I'm literally over the moon with joy, I want to document my younger daughter's wedding this past weekend in Lake Tahoe. The wedding was big on sentiment, but very small on cost - an excellent reminder that at heart, the day is really about the bride and the groom and the lifelong commitment they are preparing to make.


My dream for my daughters during their growing up years was that they go to college. I harbored no dreams about their getting married, and certainly no dreams whatsoever about throwing some great big, elaborate ceremony. I simply wanted them educated and happy, not necessarily in that order. Whether or not they chose to get married was entirely up to them. (As does whether or not they choose to have children, but that's a separate discussion altogether.)


But I do yearn for their happiness, very much so, and there was no question  my younger daughter was deeply, madly in love and yearning to marry her young man, and so I yearned for it right along with her.


And he did it the right way. He flew down and asked my husband and myself for permission to ask our daughter to marry him. We were impressed, very impressed, and he will get lifelong brownie points from the two of us as a result. A few weeks later he then got down on one knee in front of my daughter's entire sixth period class, and asked their teacher to marry him. He gets more brownie points for that one too.


Originally they wanted a no-fuss wedding, and were discussing eloping. When I learned of their plans I was heartbroken, and explained to my daughter that her dad and I didn't care if they got married at city hall, a church or at a chapel in Las Vegas, we just wanted to be there to share the event with them.


Thankfully, my pleas did not fall on deaf ears. They kindly altered their plans to accommodate both sets of immediate family, 13 people in all, and this last Saturday we were guests at a lovely, intimate wedding on a spot of land overlooking lush, beautiful Emerald Bay at Lake Tahoe.


The bride was radiant, the groom extremely handsome in his naval uniform. The parents of the bride? Unbelievably happy. Sometimes life is very, very sweet.

The view from the wedding ceremony location.

My husband walking our daughter down the aisle.

The waiting groom.

The happy and newly married couple.

The joyous parents of the bride.