The Wedding

As we were preparing to move back to Blue State, an endeavor accompanied, for me at least, by significant anxiety, A’s wedding took on talismanic status. A is the middle daughter of old family friends; I’ve known her since before she was born. There was no question that we would go to her wedding.

If we had still lived in Red State, the wedding would have been the usual ordeal: scramble to get to the airport for the Friday evening flight which is almost always late or cancelled; arrive in East Coast Big City way past bedtime; borrow a car or split up our family in other people’s cars to get to the wedding on Saturday night in Ocean Town; arrive back at my mom’s way past bedtime; fly home at some inconvenient hour on Sunday, because Sunday flights are always inconvenient; be exhausted and cranky for days afterward. Oh, and did I mention that all this would cost at least $1200, unless we somehow managed to snag tickets during a fare sale, which we never manage to do, because we are not that kind of organized.

But it wouldn’t be like that this time, I thought, as I sat at my computer in Red State, perusing real estate listings in Town. On the morning of A’s wedding, we’d get up and have an everyday Saturday. Late in the afternoon, we’d take showers and dress--if we changed our minds about what to wear, we’d have our entire closets to choose from. Then we’d get in our own car and drive up to Ocean Town. When we were ready to go home, there we’d go: back to our own home, to sleep in our own beds, and get up the next day, ready to go on with our everyday lives.

A’s wedding was last night. Yesterday morning we got up and S took the girls to E’s ballet class. I met E (friend, not daughter) for pedicures, lunch, cosmopolitans, and complaints about our husbands. When I got home, S was taking a nap, so the girls and I picked up the house, made the beds for my sister and her family who were coming back to our house after the wedding, wrapped the present, had baths and showers, and put on party dresses. Then we got in our own car and drove to Ocean Town. We partied at the wedding (E and her cousin L only partied at half the wedding; then they fell asleep in their mothers’ arms and were laid down on couches where their parents took turns guarding them). Then we went back to our own home and slept in our own beds.

It was a daydream come true.