It Takes A Village

It takes a village to marry off your daughter. 

It takes friends and loved ones to volunteer to offer to host showers. It takes friends and loved ones to attend the shower(s) and join in the fun and games; to bring snacks, and gifts and spend time celebrating the upcoming nuptials.

Marrying off your daughter requires input from friends to decide on the flowers, and then further, let themselves be talked into shopping for the ribbons, and wire.... and then going the extra mile (or a thousand) to agree to make all the corsages, boutonnieres, and arrangements for the sanctuary.




The village of people who come together to marry off your daughter includes friends who offer their beautiful garden of flowers for the pickin' so the arrangements will be one-of-a-kind and oh-so-beautiful.
It means that friends agree to get up early and wear matching boots to pick those flowers on a 'just-after-the-rain' morning.

It calls for friends to go to a big-box store and grab some more flowers to top up the fresh-from-the-garden ones so the arrangements on the steps will shine!

Marrying your daughter off involves many friends to volunteer to transform a lowly gym into an elegant venue for a celebration fit for a princess (and her prince).

It means hours spent placing chair covers, tablecloths, candles, table favours, napkins and other decorations to dress the place up.






It takes having people in your life who don't mind taking the time to watch a Youtube video to learn how to fold the very slippery material into a fancy dinner napkin.

Marrying your daughter off is not just a one-day affair.  It asks for people who will go shopping months ahead of time with you to shop for the cutest antique (and only 25 cents a piece!) candle holders for the Candle Lighters to use.

It means asking for ideas for low-cost additions and having friends who willingly mail out their own tablecloths to be used on the dessert table to add to the decor.

And it requires people who will sit down for a few hours to go over the seating plan; patiently reading out names and spelling so the place cards can be calligraphed and the guests will be able to find their places with ease.

And it also helps to have people in the village who know how to make a guest book come alive with pictures and embellishments, so the bride and the groom can look back and see who came to the wedding.

It asks for commitments from talented people to do hair, and makeup  - people who willingly rise early to arrive at the farm to make the beautiful bride shine on her special day.






It involves having someone step forward to capture the atmosphere of the reception with a special eye to detail so the memories are not lost in the shuffle.

And it also means, having people who will stick around after the event to count up leftovers and return them to the rightful parties.





Yes, it takes a village to marry off your daughter.  And as I look back over the days leading up to it, and the day itself, I feel incredibly grateful for the village that surrounded us to help us begin this new chapter in our family life.










Comments

Anonymous said…
Wow! Truly captured all the support, love and encouragement behind the scenes--the culmination=a lovely day full of memories!
JC
November 4, 2013 at 6:08 AM
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