I’m just returning from the Bay Area where we attended the extraordinary wedding of son David and his new bride, Mary. If you’re not familiar with their story, it’s kinda, well, incestuous. Mary is the daughter of Lisa’s dear friend from childhood, Anne. Lisa’s mom and Anne’s mom are dear friends of over 50 years.

It was part wedding, part family/neighborhood reunion. One guest commented that if forced to choose between “bride’s” and “groom’s” side of the aisle, he’d have to sit square in the aisle itself.

If you’re family, loved-ones, or just dig pictures of a wonderful outdoor ceremony on an exquisite Berkeley afternoon, [1] you can check out the pictures here.

My favorite picture is this one, taken the day after the wedding. I don’t know the topic of conversation, but even if I did, it would be neither my business nor yours. What I loved about this scene is the body language. This is two young people, setting about the extremely important business of running a marriage and a life together. The body language is all-business and no bullshit. [2]

The morning before the wedding, Mary’s mom had said to me at breakfast, “Well, the hard work starts tomorrow.” I echoed that sentiment in my rehearsal dinner speech that evening, noting that none of David and Mary’s parents (your author included) is on his or her first marriage. I said I hoped that more reflected the difficulty of marriage than the quality of said parents. [3] But, I added, “… if I were a betting man, I’d bet on these two young people.”

There are plenty of pictures on Facebook of smiling wedding party, family, and friends. It was a wonderful weekend in every respect. But me, I’m a poker player; I think about the long run. And when I saw this discussion at the car on Sunday morning, I thought, “These two kids are going to do just fine.” And I got me one swell daughter[-in-law].

P.S. One of many great aspects of the weekend was getting to know Mary’s cousins: Gretchen, Andrew, Alex, and Elisabeth.

They were charming and gracious  and tolerated the grown-ups beautifully. Andrew and Alex came out to play in the wedding-day-morning Ultimate Frisbee game. Mary was thinking about playing, but standing on the sidelines, she saw Andrew go down with a twisted ankle on the first play of the game. That was when she decided for sure she wasn’t going to play.

Yes, I played the entire game. Not well, but I had a blast.

[1] I was only mildly surprised to see 2-3 random parties of people having picnics and watching the proceedings from the top of the lawn where we had the ceremony. It occurred to me that one could do much worse for a meal’s entertainment, especially noting the quality of the music and the parson’s speaking.

[2] When I first met Mary, it was immediately obvious that she has a spine of titanium. This of course instantly endeared her to me. She is as smart and determined as she is beautiful.

[3] I also noted, to rousing applause, that all of their grandparents are (or were, before passing away) veterans of 50+ year first marriages.