Vignettes: Angie’s Wedding
Angie is the last of my nieces to be married. She is a strikingly beautiful girl: tall and willowy with an ivory complexion and dark features framed by long dark hair. Since graduating from college several years ago, she has been to Africa to do some teaching and then spent over a year in Italy teaching English as a second language. Then she met Wadey.
Wadey is as tall as Angie and is strikingly handsome. He too has a fair complexion with dark features and has delightful dark curly/wavy hair. His real name is Chris, but all the male members of his family seem to go by the name of Wadey? I don’t know him very well but I do know that he has worked for a couple of companies and Angie ended up working in the same place, but in recent times he has followed Angie to work at the same company as she does. The best man seemed to take great delight in teasing them about this in his speech.
The wedding was their fairy tale come true. It was set in a delightful “olde worlde” English country manor that has been turned into a lovely hotel in the countryside. The day before the wedding my sister Theresa and I had spent the day preparing all the flower arrangements, and on the morning of the wedding we put them all in place. Guests arrived and socialized before gravitating into the nuptial salon.
Wadey seemed quite at ease as he waited for his bride, as though this was the next most natural thing for him to be doing in his life. A murmur rippled through the crowd and Angie made her entrance. I glanced at Wadey and saw his face light up and this huge grin spread across his face. It was a sign of the joy that was to fill the rest of the day. Angie looked absolutely stunning. Her dress was richly simple and elegant and her face was aglow as she approached her husband- to-be smiling widely.
The wedding ceremony was simple and sweet. Vows were made and exchanged. Kisses were given and the register was signed. Photos were staged and taken while the salon was transformed into a dining room to which the wedding party eventually returned and where a lovely meal was enjoyed by all. The speeches were full of joy, humour, love, and great sensitivity, and on more than one occasion the groom needed a tissue as he described his love for Angie.
The meal was followed by an evening of music. The bride and groom could be seen literally jumping for joy as they joined their friends on the dance floor to celebrate their marriage. I realized that I had been surrounded by joy all afternoon and hope that this will follow Wadey and Angie as they set out on the adventure that is their life together.