My Best Friend's Wedding

It's always nice to attend weddings, even more so if you know both the bride and groom (plus you're a groomsman!)

To describe everything that happened during the wedding would take too long (needless to say, it was a great wedding and reception). Instead, I offer my reflections as one of my best friends bit the bullet and walked down the aisle.

I really wasn't sure what to expect, attending the wedding. Not because Ritchie is one of my best friends, nor because I thought he wasn't compatible with Lee (on the contrary, I think they are incredibly perfect for each other) but rather for more personal reasons.

You see, I should have been a married man by now. In fact, if my plans had pushed through, I would have walked down the aisle a day before Ritchie and Lee. So in many ways, I was expecting it to be a weekend of mixed emotions.

I can tell you as early as now that I was wrong. I felt nothing but happiness during the whole time I was in Washington DC.

As soon as I stepped out of the airport, my spirits were lifted when my friends picked me up. I found it surprisingly easy to tell them about my problems, and I was incredibly upbeat about it. I was not faking any emotions... I guess being around your closest friends makes it easier to pour your heart out. You know that they will understand you and listen with unbiased ears. That's what I love about my best buds... they offer support and give sound advice (thanks Syd and Arv!). I knew right then and there during the drive from the airport to the hotel that everything was going to be ok. After the rehearsal dinner, the PAC (Ritchie, Me, Syd, Arv) had a nighttime drive around the city to take pictures as well as reflect on all the things that had happened to each of us since the last time we met. It wasn't the typical last night as a bachelor, although we still got into misadventures (Deluxe Diner, anyone?) that will be told time and time again whenever the PAC gathers.

The next day, the wedding day, as we stood in the back of the church waiting for the entrance music to be played, the PAC had one last moment with Ritchie as a bachelor. I couldn't help but smile... this was his and Lee's day, and no one could take it away from them. If there were any bitter thoughts about my own postponed wedding, they all washed away right then and there. As I watched them exchange vows at the altar, the whole meaning of a wedding and a marraige flashed before my eyes. I saw it for what it was... not just a 'formality' or a bunch of laid out plans going down the drain (as my own wedding did), but a joyous occasion, a celebration of love, of two hearts joined into one.

I can only hope that my own wedding, when that time comes, will be as perfect as Ritchie & Lee's. And I also look forward to seeing the rest of the PAC walk down the aisle and recite their vows to their better halves... so who's next?

Life is Beautiful!