I have attended so many weddings by now. Family, friends, clients and catering I have seen a lot of weddings.
I have seen cheesy weddings, dramatic weddings, stuffy weddings and party weddings. I still love them.
I still cry at nearly every one- whether I know the family or knot.
All weddings work with basically the same script, though the direction changes. The costumes, the set, the lighting, the score, the actors are all different, but the story is familiar. Sometimes I am part of the stage crew. Sometimes I'm a member of the audience. Sometimes I'm the director. Once I played the lead.
Today, I played the photographer's assistant. Though it's a new role for me, I know the drill. This theater was a gorgeous old place in Downtown San Jose. The actors were beautiful. The audience adoring and jovial. The opening music, from Amelie, tugged at my heart strings- an accordian playing a melody that is both merry and crestfallen all at once.
ENTER- The Bride
(dressed in white with embroidered veil, B enteres church on father's arm behind young girl spilling petals from a basket)
Promises exchanged with The Groom, B & G make out to applause from audience. Cue slack-key version of "over the rainbow"
While the audience drinks cocktails during the intermission, we follow B&G around downtown SJ, snapping images of the doe eyed bride peeking out from behind white lace to burn kisses onto her groom's lips, forever tatooing them there. They walk through the center of the street, along the painted yellow line; all traffic stops to let them have their moment in the fading sun. It's only them. It's their day after all. As she walks along the sidewalk beside red brick walls and high voltage boxes, the shadow of the embroidered lace trim of her veil dances on the slender fitted waist of her dress. The setting sun showing off the fine detail of the embroidery. That shadow will never fall on her again; tomorrow she'll be a woman, a wife, a mother, but today she wears fine lace in the setting sun while traffic stops and she kisses her husband and basks in the warmth of it all.
The shutter clicks, wellwishers cheer from passing cars, diners in the windows of restaurants raise their glasses and smile as the group moves by. Only the swish of the bride's dress, starched peticoats underneath penetrate above the urban drone of traffic and distant freeways. And then, the sound of horns rises in the background... and violins... and guitar... and cowboy boots. The jangle of an army of cowboy boots and silver laden pants. Mariachis! Right there on a corner in downtown San Jose the bride and groom are suddenly enveloped by mariachis, much to the delight of everyone within earshot. Especially the people in the windows of the corner restaurant who have a front row view. The violinist's bow tickling the edge of the bride's veil. A moment later they are gone. The bride and groom return to their places on stage, in front of their audience for the next act. But for a moment they had just been married, and faced their whole life ahead, alone, together.
