Semblance

People were greeting each other with hugs.  There were smiles all around.  Later in the evening sounds of laughter rose from the tables, chairs, and benches around the dance floor.  Lights had been hung especially for this occasion.  At the tables plates, of barbeque and chicken, mashed potatoes and pork & beans filled everyone's plates.  One would think an ol' country hoedown was in high gear.

But it was a wedding, held at a really rustic place for retreats.  The two buildings were a chapel that would hold about 150 people and a mess hall with concrete floors.  A stable with a few horses wasn't too far away.  The couple getting married had grown up on farms and around horses.  So their venue for their wedding was this rustic place.  Dancing and dining were outdoors.

The frivolity of celebration was all in place for this usual joyous occasion.  What was not in place was the gravity with which the bride and groom seemed to approach this celebratory time.  The groom stood at the front of the room with his groomsmen awaiting the bride and her entourage to walk the aisle.  The groom never once smiled.  His family had traveled 6 hours to be there, yet no smile for them.  The groomsmen at his side, his best friends by him, still no smile.  I thought he was staging this gloom so that everyone would see the radiance of his smile when his life's choice entered the room.  Not so.  His bride entered, everyone stood in honor, no smile - from either bride or groom.  The father gave away the bride, the ceremony began.  No smile.  The groom took the bride's hand and vice versa, slipped on the wedding ring, but no smile.  After the kiss of marital union, the faintest of all smiles touched the corners of the groom's mouth, but it was ever so fleeting.

The bride smiled from time to time during her time in front of the audience gathered, but not as much as a person would think when (s)he attends a wedding.  Everyone except the main two participants seem to be enjoying the occasion.  I thought of the word I would apply to this ceremony.  It's from Latin simulare, meaning to imitate, and from similis, meaning like.  I'll write again about this couple in two or three more years.  It just doesn't seem this occasion was the stuff dreams are made of for this bride and groom.  I think I just experienced a semblance of a wedding.