Wedding wishes

Wedding wishes from a married man to his younger... let's call them "friends"... who were about to get married.

Congratulations on this monumental (emphasis on “mental”) decision and change in your life! Anyone who decides to get married must be crazy. But anyone who doesn’t must be stupid. So what would you rather be? Crazy or stupid?

(Spoiler alert: I went with crazy)

On your special day, just remember that a wedding is for a day, a marriage is for a lifetime. Whatever goes wrong on the wedding day will just be a memory to share and laugh about on your anniversaries (may you have many!) Everything that goes right, may eventually be forgotten. (or maybe it is the other way around?) Whatever it is, the strength of your marriage will not depend on the price of the wedding gown, the name of the designer, the venue of your wedding reception, or whether an old man (or whoever) turned up at your wedding or spouted nonsense in an email to you. Even now, the world is out to tear you apart (or at least it seemed that way when I was getting married). It is a test. A crucible of fire. Or crucible of financial stress. Same thing.

But you have each other and that is the most important thing for the rest of your life. Till death do you part. Which means no divorce. Only murder. (Why do we put these things in our wedding vows?!?!)

People may try to compare your marriage to others. Ignore them. You may try to do the same. Resist that temptation. People will try to give you advice (especially when you have children). Listen politely and treat it like the garbage it is. You answer to no one but each other. If (or when) you have a child (or children), you will parent the child with the needs of the child paramount. Not the needs of other parents who-do-not-matter-but-are-desperately-trying-to-correct-their-mistakes-as-parents-vicariously-thru-you. And of course you will make mistakes! All parents do. Think about your parents and the mistakes they made with you that made you turn out to be… you.

And you are the person, being married by your other. And of course there is the old joke about how men marry women thinking they would never change, and women marrying men planning to change them. Marriage will change you. Hopefully (and usually) for the better. It is called “growth”. It is, I think, the next step in your growth as a person. And approximately about a year later, whether you have mastered the lesson and grown as a person, there will be a pop quiz. Literally, if you name your first child “Quiz” (please don’t). Or “Pop” (also, don’t! but if you have twins, it is okay to call them “pop” and “quiz”.)

(okay, too far ahead and too presumptuous. Back to the wedding and how wonderful marriage is!)

Yeah. Marriage. Great stuff. Congratulations, and best wishes. May the years ahead bring you all the joy and laughter you can take, with some miseries, so you won’t be insufferable, and children, to keep you humble.

Yeah. That sounds about right.