A Tale of Two Tables
As days go, a wedding is one of the most pre-planned events on anyone’s calendar. As well it should, a wedding day has hopes and dreams attached to it that motivate it’s architects to plan and prepare while often reaching for that unattainable goal, “perfection.”
But nobody is perfect. And no wedding is either.
My favorite wedding coordinators are the ones who multiply their client’s joy while planning a splendid day, breathtaking in its beauty and efficient in its production without losing sight of the most glorious moment of all, when one says to the other, “I do.”
From my vantage point at the altar, I get a front row seat which leaves me constantly awe-struck by the irony between a successful wedding and a successful marriage.
Don’t get me wrong, when my children are wed, I hope their day is just as beautiful as the many I have witnessed. The tables decorated for their reception might look something like this one adorned for a wedding I officiated last weekend, successful by all accounts.
But, a wedding is not a marriage, and the tables associated with each look very different. A Marriage Table supports kids homework, stacks of bills, unfolded laundry, and sometimes a few pieces of petrified rice lingering like little Easter Island statues weeks after the dishes have been cleared. Such is life, and it's the stuff successful marriages are made of.
Both tables are beautiful. One lasts for a day, and will be carted off by the rental company tomorrow. The other supports a life...and hopefully lasts a lifetime.
So the next time you feel constricted by life's accumulated tabletop clutter, pause and remind yourself that you are building a marriage, and sometimes, a cluttered table is all the evidence you need.
South Carolina Wedding Officiant
