At Last, The Ceremony

      Our daughter's soon-to-be husband is a kind thoughtful young man. He had arrived at out Manhattan apartment on the morning of the wedding in a limousine to carry us to our Central Park photo adventure.  The ceremony was to be at one in the afternoon, in wedding lingo we do not  use AM and PM. We use the terms  "ten o'clock in the morning", "seven o'clock in the evening", and my favorite, "half past four in the afternoon." I planned my own wedding for "half past four in the afternoon" because I loved the sound of the words. Almost poetic!
      Anyway, we walked all over Central Park and took pictures at every conceivable spot. One moment that will bring laughter to our hearts for a long time was when we asked to elderly couple passing by if they would take our picture. We held the camera out to demonstrate our desire. The couple were from China and did not speak English. Much to our delight they smiled broadly and walked toward us. Before we knew it, there they were in the family line-up ready to be a part of our memories. We all joined them in the laughter and snapped away. Think of the stories we can tell our grandchildren of our distant relatives who traveled all the way from Beijing to attend their mother's wedding!Well, back on the title of this epistle. Before we knew it, the time had flown by and we were about to be late for the reason of the day...the actual marriage ceremony.
     We had made our way to the south end of park. We darted across the street to The Plaza where a cue of those forever available Yellow Taxi's awaited our arrival. Two by two and three by three we loaded ourselves into a parade of cars. Off we went in the Manhattan traffic. I will say how wonderful it is looking back that we were all relaxed and having fun and totally forgot there was a schedule to keep.
     One by one the little yellow cars arrived at the ceremony. My husband and I had the mother of the groom with us and we were the last car to arrive. Our driver missed the spot by a block and a half but we jumped out and had no problem hurrying to the door. I have neglected to tell you that the high temperature on this beautiful sunny day was a chilling twenty eight degrees. For our Southern California blood, this was a shocker. How my daughter managed to pose for pictures by removing her warm coat is a mystery. I had a really pretty dress but you hardly ever see it because I had my long black "New York" coat on.
      Having an extremely small wedding is a commitment to forever explaining to your family and friends why you did it. Yes, this was a "destination" wedding but not a warm sunny beach where people actually wanted to come. This was New York City in the middle of winter. On the other hand, I cannot imagine a more intimate and truly meaningful ceremony. I was so close to my daughter, I could see the tears gently falling down her face and see the slight tremor in my new son-in-laws hands. The idea of family only at a ceremony and then a big reception has it's merits. But for my daughter this was what she wanted and it was the most beautiful wedding ever.
      The vows that the couple had written were so sweet and personal. They met a couple of years ago in one of the most "fun" cities in our country. I will not identify the city but it was built for entertainment and nothing else. Their meeting was described both in the ceremony and by the groom. "I saw her across a crowed room and knew she was the one." How romantic can you get?