Monday, August 27, 2007

Happy Wedding Mishap


Mackenzie at Something Old, Something New asked readers to share stories about things that went wrong on their wedding day that left them with good memories. So, here's mine.

Our ceremony was held in the sculpture garden of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Our guests sat on the covered terrace of Gertrude's facing out into the garden where our huppah was placed. We and our wedding party entered the garden from the back gate. The ceremony was perfectly imperfect. It wasn't exactly how I imagined it but it was better.

Our rabbi was funny when the wind blew the ketubah over, Ross made a joke about the ring not fitting on my finger, my mom made a joke about how you could tell that two lawyers had written the vows ("...in all conditions, under every circumstance..."), and Ross' personal words were more meaningful and loving than I could have made them if I had written them myself.

After the ceremony--and here is where the really happy accident took place--Ross and I began the recessional, hands held, toward the gate in the back of the garden. As we drew closer we saw that it had been chained and padlocked shut. With our parents and bridal party approaching behind us we turned to the right and walked behind a large sculptural wall so that the guests would not see us huddled in the garden and so we wouldn't have to casually walk through the chaos as they all hustled to the bar for the beginning of the cocktail hour. Our wedding coordinator, walkie-talkie in hand, told us that security would be right there to unlock the gate. In the meantime we tried to keep our family and friends hidden behind the wall even though they too were anxious to head to the party.

I loved being locked in the garden for those few minutes, waiting with everyone for the gate to be opened. We were all there, stopped from moving on to the reception, frozen in the ceremony of the day. I could have been held captive in that garden behind the wall forever.

By the time the security guard came to take care of the gate, Ross and I were locked in our our private conversation. Even after our friends and family walked up to the reception, we stayed in the garden behind that wall absorbing what we had just done and privately sealing the words we had just shared so publicly. That is one of my most loved memories from our wedding, and it happened by accident.

1 comment:

B said...

Beautiful story!