"This is it" I thought "The rest of your life begins now."
I sighed and turned to look at my self in the mirror. I looked sharp in my black Armani suit.
"You ready?" asked Mamrie from the dressing room door
"Yeah, Yes I am ." I answered sighing and looking down at my feet.
"Hey, you got this."
I walked out onto the beach feeling each grain of sand on the bottom of my feet. the sun cast a beautiful haze over the beach, decorations were minimal. the alter was just drift wood covered on fake sea weed, drift wood chairs, all the people I've met this year were sitting in each chair. Hannah walked in from the opposite room.
"Beautiful." Hannah breathed.
"It is." I replied staring out at all the quests.
"I was talking about you."
I smiled. "Grace and Akasha did a good job then?"
"Definitely, So Are you ready."
Hannah reached out her hand.
"Yeah, absolutely."
"Then get going you two." Mamrie said from behind us.
Hannah gently squeezed my hand
"Lets go get married."
I took a breath and began walking, we head opted out of the classic "Wedding March,"and decided to walk in silence. The silence soon turned to quiet gasps and sobs. My mind began to wander towards my old life and how my parents treated me, how the school treated me. and yet here I am marrying the love of my life here on the beach surrounded by my friends. So much can happen over the span of a year.
We stopped at the alter in front of Grace who had somehow become an ordained minister.
"Now I'm not the best speaker but lets see how this goes. Today there will be no dearly beloved, no betrothed, and no ancient rhyme of the married.
Today there are no dead languages to solemnize vows that are very much alive and will remain so for a lifetime.
Today promises become permanent and friends become family.
However, this day is not about the words spoken or the rings exchanged, nor is it about grand pronouncements and recessional marches.
This day – the day of Hannah and Bethany's wedding – is about love.
One of my favorite authors once wrote, "If love is not all, then it is nothing: this principle, and its opposite, collide down all the years of my breathless tale."
Hannah and Bethany, your breathless tale is about to begin.
If love is not all, then it is nothing.
Its opposite – If love is all, then it is everything – is going to be the basis for every aspect of your relationship.
All you have to do is simply love one another and that love shows through in everything you do for one another, how you treat each other, in good times and bad.
Love isn't just a word; it's an action.
Love isn't something you say, it's something you do.
Love is genuine, honest, and open, compassionate and kind, passionate and blind, love doesn't know space or time, nor look through jealous eyes, and in the modified words of Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
Love never dies."
There are many different kinds of love, almost if not all of which are represented here today.
There is romantic love, the love of parents and children, of brothers and sisters and family, and love among friends.
Not only do Hannah and Bethany love one another romantically – and they do, you can see it in every look, every touch, every moment they're together – they also love one another as friends.
In fact, they're best friends, constantly giggling and taunting and teasing and very plainly and obviously having fun together.
That love and enjoyment of each other as best friends will sustain them through this marriage.
In addition, the love collectively in this room, from friends and family, will help sustain and support the promises they make today.
All of us here will help solidify this bond, as these two individuals are joined as husband and wife.
This new journey will be at times richly rewarding and extremely difficult, but, most importantly, it will be a journey you take together.
Marriage is much more than your signatures on a legal contract.
You are promising, in front of all these people you love, that you want to be with each other and only each other for the rest of your lives, and that you will do everything in your power to honor the promises you are making here today."
For their part, the people who love you will also do everything in their power to try to help you hold up your end of the bargain."
As I stood there looking into those beautiful blue eyes of my future wife my own eyes became heavy and my throat became dry its almost like the tears draw form my throat instead of my eyes. I'm happy for good not the same happy that you get joking around with a friend or with family but a happy knowing that you are spending the rest of your life with the one person you can hold dear to your heart forever and always.
