Tuesday, June 29, 2021

2020 Prompt - Covid Wedding - Carrie Koppelman

 

52 Ancestors

Prompt - Covid Wedding

June 27, 2020



June  27, 2020


As we moved through the Covid 19 Pandemic, I was able to reflect on what is important about family. Yes, we are all different as individuals and as family units, but family is family.  Despite all the differences, we do miss each other after an extended period. Living in isolation was difficult enough but to plan a wedding for the summer of 2020 was challenging.  That was just what my husband's niece had to do.

 

After plan A, plan B and plan C, our niece was able to marry her handsome Dutchman on June 27, 2020, smack dab in the middle of the pandemic! With only her immediate family they married and celebrated at the church. It was not the wedding the bride had dreamed of having that summer. The bride insisted that a reception would be held a year later in the summer of 2021 when they could celebrate their marriage with extended family and friends. Little did the bride know that this was just the event the extended family and friends needed after a pandemic. It was an event where family came together and celebrated FAMILY!

 

It really was a splendid idea! This bride is the youngest girl of six siblings and had experienced all her siblings and many cousins’ weddings over the past 30 years. She knew the joy of family. She loved her parents, siblings, twelve nieces and nephews and her many aunts, uncles and cousins and realized the importance of celebrating her marriage with the man of her dreams with her family. This bride knew that to share a meal and to dance with joyful music was important. 


 

  Bride & Groom with their Nieces and Nephews
June 27, 2020


A year later with more planning and adjusting this beautiful bride pulled off a renewal of vows and a reception with all her family and friends. To experience a family event that includes multi-generations of family and friends is a great idea. As families we are spreading out across the country and too often get isolated from one another. A family event where 3-4 generations of family and friends engage was just what was needed after being separated for 18 months. The joy of being together was a delightful experience.



Bride & Groom Leaving the Church
 Renewal of Vows  June 26, 2021 


As one of the older members of the family, I have attended many weddings of family and friends over the past 70 some years. Many were big expensive weddings with fancy dresses, big wedding cakes, and expensive flowers and meals. The pandemic made many of us realize that this is not what is important. Weddings are about sharing the love of the marriage and creating memories of family. 



 Bride & Groom Dancing at Celebration Reception

 

Our memories will be of the beautiful bride and groom looking at each other as they renew their vows in front of all their family and friends with the sweet sounds of family babies and small children in the background. We will all remember how warm and muggy the evening was as we shared a meal with the couple and then got out of our seats after the meal to find a breeze outside on a beautiful night in June to talk and visit with family and friends we had not seen in so long. 


We will remember the bride dancing with her husband of one year and then dancing with her father who looked so proud of his daughter. The bride doing the traditional polka with her family, the line dancing, the groom and his friends getting down to the music and the bride dancing with her beloved nieces, nephews and little cousins who looked at her in full adoration. And the couples dance, that the bride insisted had to be done, to discover the couple who had been married the longest. 



Bride & Father Dance

 


Any event that pulls family together is a great idea. This bride did just that. She persisted to celebrate with as many family members and friends as possible. Intergenerational events are not as common as they use to be and to see the bride's newest niece born less than two weeks ago along with many mothers with their preschoolers entertained by playing in the icy water in the ice chest to seniors maneuvering their walkers was an amazing event. The bride and groom celebrated a year of marriage with family.

 


Bride Dancing with Nieces, Nephews and Cousins


Congratulations to the beautiful bride and her very handsome Dutchman! It was well worth all her hard work and persistence. God has a way of putting hurdles in front of us and as we struggle to get over them, we realize what is important in life.



Bride and Groom 
Leaving the Church after Renewal of their Vows
June 26, 2021



 Faith - Hope - Love…But the greatest of these is LOVE!

I Corinthians 13