white wedding

When Scottaleh first asked me if I'd officiate his wedding to B he said they'd decided to do an intimate "destination wedding" with immediate family and just a few close friends in the Caribbean for six days.  Would I be game?  I didn't even have to think about it ... I immediately said yes. 

But minutes after I hung up the phone I thought: what the hell did I just agree to?  Besides Scottaleh and his lovely fiance B, I knew none of these people.  Six days and five nights at a resort with total strangers?  What was I going to do in some foreign country with people I didn't know for that long?  Was I nuts? 

Perhaps.  But always game for a little adventure (and figuring that the worst that could happen was that i wouldn't quite love the company and would wind up sitting by the beach by myself reading books for five days ...), I booked my ticket and was all in. 

And yesterday, after six days and five nights in the Caribbean, as all of the "wedding party" stood around the baggage claim area at Newark airport waiting to grab our bags and scatter back to our respective homes and lives, I felt almost as I used to feel when I was a kid leaving summer camp ... all sentimental about the experience and almost weepy with: I don't wanna go home ... can't this go on a little longer?  All that delicious and concentrated bonding, wonderful laughs, discoveries, intimacies and fun adventures with a delightful group of people who I didn't even know a short while before ... twas a fabulous adventure; the perfect adult "camp" experience.  Only with a beach.  And drinks with pineapples in them.

And the wedding?  The wedding was just lovely.  I'd grumbled and cursed about Scottaleh and B's request that we all wear white for the wedding as I shopped in the week(s) prior to the big event (cause all white?  come on ... that's a tough look for anyone, but a blond, blue eyed, busty and still-working-to-take-off-some-excess-poundage kinda gal like moi-self? oy.), but I must concede that the whole set up looked positively luscious.  And beyond how it looked, it felt luscious too; the love and sentiments swirling around Scottaleh and B (and radiating from them) during their ceremony - from their family and kids, to a handful of their close friends (i, in my first go as officiant, being one in the handful) - had me starting to believe that it really might be possible to long with a full heart, take risks, shine yourself true and bright (and be willing to let it all crash and burn) in order to find a sweet co-conspirator with whom you'll create a joyful life.  (a good thing to be reminded of since i've been feeling a little bruised and ambivalent about the whole love/partnership thing for a while.)

On top of all that?  I also had me some fantabulous commune-with-the-ocean time (i need my commune-with-ocean time) and I've got a pretty nice little sun-glow to show for it too.  Which, by the way, looks almost fetching with that white wedding shirt.

Comments

[Marilyn]

Fun!! Which island?

[Will]

Hello! What a wonderful adventure. To paraphrase the Ghostbusters, "When someone asks if you want to go to the islands to play for a few days---you say YES!" Glad to see you knew this maxim. :-)

Tell me more about your credentials for your officiation. This is a side of you I have missed somehow.