If you didn’t know already, I’m a nosey person. When I was studying creative writing I felt like I was given free license to be as nosey as I wanted as long as I could get really good stories. After a while, one of the side-effects of being nosey was that I started to feel like I was entitled to other peoples’ stories. Let’s be honest, I still feel like that. When I meet someone, I want to know what happened when they trusted a stranger in a foreign country, what movies make them cry, the last time they dropped everything to help someone, what non-life/livelihood-threatening vice is particularly difficult for them to break.
So when I go to a wedding, I’m poised. Ready for the stories to come at me.
Sometimes I leave disappointed when I don’t know hardly anything more about the couple or the individuals that make the couple than when I arrived. Michael doesn’t really mind, but I really do. I get a little upset. He’s heard enough rants in the car on the way home. (This blog post is basically that rant.)
I feel like I spent a whole day of my life sitting at appropriate times and clapping at appropriate times and wiping my eyes at appropriate times, dancing at the appropriate times (all things I like), but I want more. I don’t want to leave knowing nothing new about my friend or the partner he or she has chosen forever. Plus I want my cup to be filled. Filled with hope that relationships are good. That love is real. That deciding to dedicate your life to a partnership is a huge deal and a couple of people I know are basically leaping off a cliff together and hoping for a safe landing. It’s cool.
So for the love of everything that is beautiful about weddings and all the money you’re spending, promise me that your guests will leave knowing these 4 thing. I don’t care if you plan it as part of your website, your toasts, your vows, or your programs, but they have to know these things:
1. How you two met (unless it’s kind of boring, then pick a different, fun story that marks a beginning part of your relationship)
2. What drew you (and continues to draw you) to each other. (This includes details about their character, their brain, their heart, their sense of humor, their physical attributes, etc.)
3. Funny/embarrassing stories (these will make your guests feel like they’re in on a private joke)
4. What you mean to each other
Just by sharing these beautiful stories, your guests will be on your newly formed team forever, in addition to being on team relationships-are-so-good-for-life-and-the-world.
Rant over.
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