I Do.

I love weddings. I adore them. I cherish them. I wish there were a word stronger than cherish, because I’d totally use it. I love weddings that much.

Now in my twenties, weddings were thick on the ground. We had weddings to the tune of one or two a month, sometimes a couple in a single weekend. You couldn’t toss a bouquet without hitting a wedding back in the day.

The wedding cycle slowed down in my thirties, of course. But then we started going to baby showers instead, & guess what? Most folks didn’t have just one baby; they had two! Sometimes three! Throw in the occasional baptism, & I was happy for an entire decade.

But I’m in my forties now, & my peer group is in a lull. At least weddings-and-babies-wise. Now we’re too busy maintaining the marriages that come from weddings, & the babies that come from baby showers to throw a decent party. Plus we’re too poor. (I blame the children.)

Now I love my kids, but man do I miss weddings. I was reminded of this recently when, in defiance of our age bracket, we went to three weddings in the space of six weeks.

And suddenly I remembered how much I’ve missed dressing up & going dancing.

How much I’ve missed fancy flowers & white cakes & those funny candied almonds.

How much I’ve missed watching little kids take to the dance floor to boogey with the bride & get down with their own bad selves.

But most of all, I remembered how much I’ve missed the magic. Because what else can you call it when two people walk into a room as individuals & leave as a family? To me, that’s the most powerful brand of magic we humans have access to, & witnessing it takes my breath away every single time. It doesn’t matter if I’ve known the couple my whole life, or if I just happened to stumble upon them in a hotel lobby. The magic is there & they’re radiant with it.