Wedding Presents

Yesterday, Mark had the honor of officiating the wedding ceremony for one of his former El Montecito youth kids. That “kid” is now the beautiful, gracious Giovanna who as of May 2, 2012 at 4:58 pm is forever joined with her lucky husband Greg. On a private ranch nestled between the ocean and mountains, it was all simply breathtaking.

It was the first wedding Ben and Clara had ever attended. They were pretty enchanted by the whole thing, especially the all-you-can-drink lemonade part. Ben took his role of being “the man” of the family while Mark was up front very seriously and took extra care to make sure his girls were okay. Since Drew Barrymore happened to be getting married miles away, there were a few helicopters throw in the mix during the ceremony which upped the wedding cool factor for Ben considerably.

Clara was trying to figure it all out, at first she said she wanted to marry Daddy, then thought maybe Ben, and then after a chat with her mom decided she hadn’t met the boy she would marry quite yet. Clara explained, “I don’t want to be a bride, I want to be a mommy!” After a round or two of Ol’ Blue Eyes “Love & Marriage” she got the idea that she needs to be a bride before mommy. However, she let us know that before she even thinks about a wedding, she wants to go to San Francisco and New York. We like this girl.

Weddings are a time of celebrating a fresh beginning, but also a time of recommitment for those who are farther along on the journey and have felt the tarnish that comes with time.  It’s a chance to reassess, remember all the hopeful love of the new and unrealized while grasping all the depth, trust and intertwining of the joy, pain, beauty and sorrow of real life.

As we were scooting out (before cutting the cake, the kids were fading fast) a gentleman approached Mark and gave the standard, ‘Thank you for the beautiful ceremony…” and then put his head down, looked up, and said, “Thank you for your words. I’ve been married for awhile and well, it’s been….” He then took a business card out of his pocket where he had filled with tiny writing all these thoughts from Mark’s homily that he wanted to take home and share with his wife. His biggest breakthrough was Mark’s challenge to be present.

Honestly, it’s a challenge we’ve been struggling with, to be present to this moment, this day, when we still feel in flux and aren’t sure where our path is leading. It seems like we are always straining to see the what’s around the next bend in the road instead of looking down and noticing the path at hand. We came home humbled and happy. Since we missed the cake, as soon as we got home we all gathered around the table with graham crackers smeared with chocolate frosting and a smattering of sprinkles. Not a crumb of anything that moment held was missed.