I moved away from Nashville in early 2021, and this weekend was my first trip back, although a dizzying forty-eight hour round trip crisscrossing the country from L.A. hardly qualifies as a trip back. It was good, though, since I went to officiate a sweet wedding.
I have officiated a lot of weddings. It’s a guess, but maybe forty or fifty? That seems like a lot. I remember interpreting marriage licenses in at least seven separate states, from the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters, from sea to shining sea, et cetera. Beach weddings, church weddings, costume weddings, farm weddings, home weddings, resort weddings, restaurant weddings, and probably more. I have seen and done them all.
Without trying, I now know my way around a wedding. I secretly judge venues and wedding planners and DJs and photographers. I have my opinions on processionals and amplification systems and rehearsals and receptions. I can often predict which wedding guests will be the first on the dance floor (and probably shouldn’t be) and know that at some point in the evening classic Earth, Wind, and Fire will groove, and I will wish that I was cool enough to partake. (“Do you remember / the 21st night of September?”)
I have my job down, which includes a particular approach that personalizes the ceremony with a specific mix of fun and seriousness, and I will tell you my favorite part of the entire parade. At some point, and it varies with the occasion, but you can bet your open bar that at some point in the ceremony the bride or groom (or both) will lose it, emotionally that is. Maybe from the very first, or maybe when I share something personal, or maybe during the vows, but you can count on a moment when someone’s lips start to quiver, and the waterworks well up, and the dam starts to leak, and everyone is done for. I love that part the most.
No, I don’t think I am emotionally sadistic. Instead, I think that I just love seeing love in its pure form: there on a pedestal, looking absolutely fabulous, with family and friends smiling up, where it fully sets in that someone on this planet wants to be with you forever, regardless. That moment. Well, it is a sight to see, and I have the best seat in the house.
You don’t have to get married to experience the transcendent feeling of being loved, but my goodness serving as a wedding officiant provides an awesome opportunity to witness it up close.
Starting to Look Up 