Weddings are a lot of work, I believe the previous bazillion articles on Emma’s wedding have shown that! But the thing that may often get lost in all the planning and parties and fun and stress is that a wedding is not only the start of a new family, but the combining  of families and the bringing together of our families.

It starts with 2 people who have decided that their lives will be made better by being together.

Then you add one side of the family and then the other.

Then you add the extended family and the friends who are as close to you as family.

The feelings of love and good will towards one another build through the day and it’s a marvelous feeling.

Then you add the promise of a future as they hold nieces and wonder if they will every be ready for this much chaos in their lives.

You spend months planning the perfect day for the new couple to remember forever and begin their lives together, but what you end up with, if you do it right is a day of realizing that as a parent, you are getting paid in spades for all the years of work you did. You see your family coming together and loving each other and working together and the most important thing is, they like each other!!!

You see your daughter being accepted into a new family that you admire and already know love her. A family that will watch over the newly married couple just as you will and help them get that good start. You see and feel rooms full of love and family and you are just so grateful for the chance to watch it all come together so beautifully.

Weddings build families and new relationships. Weddings are a new start, an old memory renewed, a chance to remember and move forward. It’s not about who is the most important or impressing the crowd, it’s what it always has been and always should be about, bringing families together.