Bridal Shower

It's a banner year for weddings! Four of our student workers are engaged and will be getting married in the next year or so. Today, we organized a little shower for the young woman who is getting married in just a few days.



We gathered in the Fireside Reading Room where punch, a beautifully decorated cake and coffee welcomed us. We had selected a few items from her registry list and wrapped them, filed a few favorite recipes in a recipe box, and surprised her completely. She had been asked to walk around and record building usage statistics, a bogus errand, and when she got to the Fireside Room, we all yelled surprise! She was!



We drilled her with questions. How did he propose? Where is the wedding being held? What does your dress look like? Where are you going on your honeymoon? Those of us who were married reminisced about our weddings and shared stories about how we were proposed to. Some were romantic down-on-his-knee stories, and others more pragmatic. How fun to hear each person's experience, to catch the wistful "those were the days" tone of voice.

For over an hour we stepped into that wonderful world of rite of passage conversation, blocking the real world from our heads as we partook of the beautifully decorated cake (one of our staff created a marzipan flowered delight in the bride's chosen colors) and indulged in a duet of memory lane and dreams yet to come.

Remembering . . . back when the world was simple and the responsibilities not overwhelming. Back before children complicated life and scary bumps in the road were encountered and moving happened and stress and jobs. Back when dreams could come true and every day was bliss and no one argued about which way the toilet paper should hang.

Dreaming . . . ahead to where the happy couple will live and work and build a life together. Ahead to how many children they hope to have, how they will connect with grandparents, what they will accomplish, just two together.

I haven't been to a bridal shower in a long time. Its good to participate in life this way, to remember, to dream again, to share this link of commonality. Sigh. Ah, how refreshing.