Weddings Are Back
And They Have Been Worth The Wait
The speeches, the tears, the jokes, the dad dancing are all back and after months of missing out on social events its all wonderful writes Helen Sanderson
I went to a wedding in the summer. That shouldn’t be a remarkable statement, but of course it is. It’s been another strange summer and we waited with baited breath whilst the lockdown rules changed time and time again to see if this wedding would go ahead, at last.
The wedding of my cousin to her beloved fiancé did go ahead. There was no cap on numbers, no social distancing, no miserable insistence of masks. The sun shone, we danced, we ate and drank, we celebrated, and it was wonderful!
It was a ‘proper wedding’ and a day my family will never forget.
The bride and groom had had their wedding day cancelled twice before, their hen and stag parties had been paired back but they held their nerve as their big day approached for a third time and pulled off a huge celebration of love with family and friends.
The bride wore a traditional dress that echoed Grace Kelly on her wedding day. It was a dress that didn’t compromise. I was lucky enough to be part of the bridal party with my daughters and my nieces. They looked absolutely beautiful (of course I’m biased) and took their role on the day and in the preparation before, extremely seriously.
At the wedding emotion was magnified and many struggled to hold it together. One of the lessons of the pandemic has been the importance of family and friends in our lives, and of telling people how much you love them while they are still here. Those at this celebration seemed to have taken it to heart.
People were out to have a good time. The subsequent euphoria I felt on the dancefloor was like being high. There were precious few multigenerational social events before the pandemic, and I’ve always loved the inclusivity of the wedding disco, the grandmas dancing alongside the teenagers, the toddlers held high in the air and the dad dancing. These days it feels even more meaningful, because we’ve spent months apart. To dance and laugh and drink together was awesome.
Weddings are back and after months feeing like I’ve been in some sort of weird scientific experiment, they feel better than ever. Of course this wedding was particularly meaningful because of the love I feel for the bride, my cousin.
I hope if you are planning a wedding or attending one soon, that it’s filled with as much love as this one.
