Small and Beautiful

I have at least three weddings a year that come in (very) last minute and I generally love them. Last year I married a couple on December 16th in the Boston Common, having met them for ten minutes in the lobby of the Four Seasons.

This year there was a ceremony on Valentine's Day with a Russian couple in my home. The bride came in with a resplendent wedding gown, and the groom brought a photographer friend, his parents and grandmother, and a skeptical son from a previous marriage. Usually these tiny weddings are over and out within a half hour. But this was different.

The Russians are a friendly people. After the ceremony, the bride went back up to my bedroom to change for the subsequent lunch downtown. The groom's grandmother spoke only Russian, but found a way to thank me through her daughter's translation. The groom's father told of having lived in St. Petersburg and emigrating to the US in the 1980s.

Laughter filled the kitchen and dining room for over an hour.

Last night I married a couple who showed up ten days ago looking for a ceremony with only parents and sibling invited. We briefly discussed how to set up their dining room in case there were wedding crashers. (I have rarely done a wedding that was meant for only two and didn't add at least a dozen). Two days after we met, the groom said "plan for twenty". Their friends came in from everywhere. The house, which I had expected to be nice enough, but more likely last minute chic, was as impeccably organized as any professional wedding venue I have seen, the bride wore the wedding dress she had purchased for the repeat big ceremony they were planning for next summer, and the candles, flowers and light food and drink were so beautifully coordinated that this could have been at any high end chalet.

I am not voting on wedding size. This couple has at least another hundred friends they would like to have included. But it amazes me the ingenuity of two people who are determined to marry and to have the moment count, no matter the number of guests.