If I were to get married now...................

from Stephanie of even*cleveland

I was lucky when it came to my wedding - the weather was beautiful, everyone had fun (including me), and most importantly, it took. Nearly nine years later, I'm still crazy about the guy I married. 

It was an unconventional conventional wedding. Most of the usual elements were there - wedding party, reception and dancing, dress and veil - but slightly tweaked. I was young and stubborn and happy enough not to care what anyone thought, and it was a perfect moment. I've always liked that about weddings. They are ephemeral moments we want to so fill with love and beauty that they become permanent. That's a rare thing. When you think about it, there are very few days where you know in advance that you want to remember them forever, but a wedding is. Everyone responds to that in touching and funny ways. We pick out the things we think will make the memory and obsess over them - the right dress, the perfect flowers, charming invitations, fantastic photos - but the thing is that emotion wins in the end. It is either a happy day or it isn't. I am grateful mine was.

If I was getting married today, my wedding would be different because my life is different. It would be a much more private event - only the very nearest and dearest included, invited by handwritten note on starry cards. We'd be married somewhere in the city, very late on a winter's night. I'd wear an ivory velvet dress and blue for luck, like countless brides before, but it would be a dress I could wear year after year on anniversary fêtes (it is too sad to think of wearing something so lovely only once). I'd pair it with silvery shoes made for dancing and a fantastic coat encrusted with silver embroidery. There would be feathers in my hair and jewels in just the right amount. I would scout for the perfect perfume - something distinctive and evocative, to match the moment - and beautiful wine dark flowers.  After the ceremony, we'd sit down to a glamorous midnight supper, dance and drink champagne, and in the morning we'd jet off to St. Petersburg or Montreal or somewhere else cold and snowy, where we could have a hotel room with a fireplace and reason to stay inside. And I'd be looking forward. Weddings are only beginnings, after all. The good stuff is what comes after.

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