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Home from the chapel still not…gonna get married.

posted by Sarah at 1:48 am.

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As I try to keep with me if any particular strokes of genius pop into my head while I’m out and about, I carried a little journal with me throughout my South Kakalaki journeys. This is a particularly entry from my travelogue…

Here I sit, squished in a van far too full with people and stuff but at this time, I’m content.

I just got done being part of something. SOME-THING. To be fair, it was just a wedding. In the eyes of many, weddings are stressful and seem like a waste of time when they’re over. In the case of my sister’s wedding this 2nd weekend in June 2008, I can honestly say that not a single second was a waste of my time.

Maybe it’s the same mountaintop experience you feel after Bible Camp but I haven’t felt this good in a while.

Much like Fantasia Barrino’s life (see Lifetime movie for clarification), my sister’s wedding was not a fairy tale. In my opinion, fairy tales are pretty boring anyway. Instead, this wedding seemed more like the cover of a Southern Living magazine.

The backdrop: a mid-19th century Gothic mansion smack dab in the middle of the Low Country of South Carolina (jealous, yet?). The menu: Low Country boil, a dish akin to Southern paella (well, now you are).

More than the perfection of the aesthetics, though, was the downright goodness of everyone involved in the wedding. The flower girl and ring bearer got along. She dropped the right amount of flowers at the right intervals. She honestly looked like a mini model in a wedding magazine. None of the groomsmen showed up drunk (a surprise to everyone concerned). Even though one of the groomsmen wasn’t wearing the requisite tie, he looked like GQ embodied. The weather was perfect; not a cloud in the sky and low humidity by South Carolina standards.

At the reception, there was plenty of food and booze for everyone. The champagne came in cans but this was a champagne-in-a-can crowd. My proudest moment throughout my whole week of being an extremely cooperative and kind person (rare, I know) came when I sang the hyper-sentimental R&B wedding hit, Always and Forever during the anniversary dance. I had to sing it approximately 7 times because the emcee was slow to the punch but for once, I was completely satisfied with my performance as a singer. And it. felt. good. Maybe it was the liquid courage but more than that, I think I wanted to give my sister and new brother-in-law something that would last longer than Crate and Barrel dishes or a blender. To ice the cake (pun sooooo intended), I caught the bouquet. Caught is probably the wrong word. I caught the bouquet and then ripped it out of my 13-year old niece’s mini-grip. Sadly, being the youngest grandchild in the family until my niece was born, I really could be the next person to get married (although not anywhere in the cards anytime soon).

This wedding, by all accounts, was perfect. It will never be one of those memories that I have to lie to myself about to make it seem better than it was. For the first time in a while, I was proud of my whole family and I felt like they were proud of me. And it. felt. good.

Sarah Clemmons: My Personal Ad: A saucy, raven haired girl who rarely takes herself too seriously. Likes playing footsy and football. Inquire within.