We went to a wedding on Saturday afternoon — the prettiest wedding I think I’ve ever attended. It was outside and the backdrop was an 80-foot waterfall with the ruins of an ivy-covered stone building to the left. The day was flawless with fluffy white clouds punctuating a blue sky. Sunny but not hot. It was a couple of miles down a side road so you didn’t hear highway traffic. It was beautiful. I told my husband that’s where I was going to get married the second time around. :p He pretended not to hear me. I think he was terrified– not that I was going to dump him for Husband #2 but that I was going to start bugging him for a vow renewal and he was seeing dollar signs add up. :$

Anyway, on the way there, Girl asked, “Mom, are you going to cry?” Nope. I usually cry because it breaks my heart to see young girls who are essentially starry-eyed and clueless vowing to love, honor, and OBEY. It’s usually all I can do not to stand up and yell, “Don’t do it. Give it a couple of years and then marry him if you still want to, but you don’t have to do this now.”;( But that wasn’t the case this time. The bride is in her late twenties, the groom his early thirties. They’ve been together a couple of years.

And then I had that theory shot to hell.

I thought I was going to be fine…and I was until the best man escorted the matron of honor down the aisle, along with the ring bearer who was their two-year old in a little tux. It was so sweet, I teared up. And then it’s always so touching when the bride appears on the arm of her father. She was stunning in an elegant gown with a five-foot train and you could feel the father-daughter bond between these two. Who could fault me for shedding a few tears? And when the vows didn’t include OBEY, well, heck, I had to cry for joy.

The food afterwards was fabulous and everyone was having a great time. Then it was time for the couple to have their first dance together outside on the stone patio. Yeah, it was nice. They should’ve stopped there.:) Next the bride danced with her father. It was a country-western song about how the daughter’s always had the father wrapped around her finger. Well, that started the waterworks up for me again, even though the bride and her father were both smiling.

I still would’ve been okay, a little teary but okay if they’d stopped there. Heck no. How about the groom dancing with his mother to Nat King Cole’s Unforgettable? Let me take a minute to explain that I’ve known the groom for eight years. He’s a dirt track race driver and I’ve seen him in lots of different situations on and off the track but Saturday, I saw a new side of him. During that dance with his mother, he cried unashamedly in front of all his friends and family. Not just a few tears, but real crying. It was one of the most touching things I’ve ever witnessed. And of course, at that point, I was boo-hooing to beat the band, as was the woman standing next to me. Girl couldn’t even stay dry-eyed at that point.

So that’s it. So much for my previous theory as to why I cry. I guess I’m just a sucker, an emotional train wreck. I’m investing in water-proof mascara before I go to another wedding.