I went to a wedding a couple weekends ago. It was an idyllic cusp-of-fall day at Mayowood Stone Barn in Rochester. The whole afternoon and evening seemed like it granted the couple an extra-long golden hour, when the sun hits everything just right. The choices of songs and readings struck my fancy perfectly with a nice mix of current affairs, social commentary, romance, and spirituality, while there was plenty of fun to be had with a taco bar, a mish-mash of colorful cake selections, and a retro VW Blue Bus Photo Booth parked outside the barn that used to belong to the Mayo family of Mayo Clinic fame. What struck me that afternoon is that the wedding was perfect for my preferences as a 39-year-old in 2016. The rituals were present, the event pulled in the traditional and the trendy, the readings resonated with my more mature mind and heart, and it was obvious that the couple was celebrating the fact that they had, as they put it in their vows, found their “person” in each other. There was a timelessness to the affair and an endlessness to the love.
When I was younger, it seemed that a wedding would be the beginning of a to-do list: house, pet, kids, retirement, death. As I’m getting older, my checklist might be down to just one thing: someone to hang out with for the rest of my life. A beloved who doesn’t have to do or be anything but mine. Less of a checklist love, more of a steadfast love. And if a wedding that makes that bond official can somehow capture the endlessness of our love today, tomorrow, and forever with golden-hour aplomb, I’ll consider myself and my beloved to be particularly fortunate.
This wedding issue has a mish-mash of traditional and trendy. I’m thrilled to present a large section of Real Weddings, because seeing people in this community commit themselves to each other is something of which I’ll never tire. You celebrating your love in your own ways with your people is what makes each of these wedding issues a public record of sorts; evidence of both what makes this community unique as well as an archive of how you did it for those who follow your steps. Also in this issue, we talk about new practices in throwing more casual events, we show off new trends with the most delectable and decor-oriented cookies, and we talk to two couples who married each other after taking their time, whether due to life’s circumstances or legalities or a mixture of all sorts of things. But, their love waited. And their bonds will last. And their love will be endless.
While weddings and events change with time and trend, we’ll always have endless love as the goal, the hope, the ever-after.
With you and with love,
Andy