Love is in the air

This was the weekend of weddings for us.  They were two very different settings and situations but both were a celebration of marriage and the love of two people starting a life together.  It also stirred alot of memories in me of my own wedding and reception.  The reasons I got married and the reasons I married the person I did.
The first reception was for a good family friend Daniel Hansen.  He and his wife were married in the temple earlier that day.  Their family also was able to celebrate the baptism of a grandchild and the blessing of a grandchild on the same weekend.  It was so great to see the happiness in that family.  The bride was beautiful, the groom beaming.  The reception was simple and low key.  Friends and family visiting and congratulating the new couple.  The focus was the life they were beginning together.  No fancy honeymoon right away but a pack trip scheduled for later this summer.  We were so happy for them.
The next night we attended the wedding and reception for our nephew Ryan and his wife Hope.  I call her his wife because they have been married already for over a year.  They were engaged last year and planned to marry this summer after Ryan returned from a Marine deployment in Afghanistan.  But decided it would be better to be married before he left. So a quick ceremony at the courthouse then and the wedding they had planned promised when he returned.  The weather was pretty windy but the wedding was still beautiful.  Ryan in his dress uniform and Hope in her gown.  The reception was indoors.  It was a traditional style reception with wedding party at the table in the front and tables all around with family and friends.  Dinner was served and fabulous, toasts were made, cake was cut and Ryan wore some frosting on his face.  They had just started using the dance floor when we had to head home.  They have a honeymoon in Jamaica that has been planned for awhile. 
While both weddings were very different in style from the other, one thing was the same.  The love in the room was palpable.  It made me appreciate the marriage I have, the family I have, regardless of the imperfect wedding and reception I may look back on now.  Because if time has taught me anything, its that the great marriage was the planned destination. The wedding was just the ticket there.