One of the Happiest Days of My Long and Happy Life

This post is going to be stuffed full of love and joy and bliss and gratitude as I come down to Earth after my younger son's wedding earlier this month. I was too overwhelmed from the experience even to write about it until now, which is saying a lot! 

When Gergory was in fifth grade at Mesa Elementary School, he was one of eight students selected to take part in the school's foreign exchange program. The country chosen for that year was Peru. Now two-plus decades later, he was marrying his long-time love, Natalie, who is Peruvian American. It all felt meant to be! 

Their wedding, both ceremony and reception, was held on the rooftop of a traditional Peruvian restaurant called Tanta in the River North district of Chicago. But first the photographer took a lot of pictures on a patio by the Chicago River with the city's storied skyscrapers as a backdrop. 

So here is our little family: me, my sweetheart David, my older son Christopher, groom Gregory, and bride (and beloved new daughter) Natalie.

I was the officiant at the ceremony, and a bit nervous about my role, but I did fine. My dress was shorter and more sparkly than I'm used to, but felt festive for the occasion.

The heart of the ceremony was their exchange of “vows,” which really weren’t “vows” per se, but outpourings of love from Gregory to Natalie and from Natalie to Gregory. They hadn’t shared these with each other ahead of time, or with me, and it was deeply moving to hear them spoken for the first time here. Gregory is SO quiet (thank goodness there was a microphone, as his voice is also SO soft), and SO private, and SO outwardly unemotional, that it was something I could never have imagined for him to speak such beautiful words of love aloud, and in public. (Both my sister and one of his close friends told me afterward they had never even heard him say that MANY words at one time!). Natalie had told me earlier that she had come up with a metaphor she was especially proud of, and it was easy to see which one it was. As he is a jazz saxophonist, it was, appropriately, a jazz metaphor. I don’t have the exact words but the basic idea was: she may sometimes play the wrong note, or sing offkey, but he improvises something beautiful out of everything. Christopher was enlisted to be the ring bearer, or at least the ring keeper, and offer them to Gregory and Natalie at the needed moment. Natalie’s mother gave a blessing at the end.

Jazz musician friends of Gregory’s played gathering music and Indigenous Peruvian dancers had been enlisted to dance for us. Natalie and her mother continued the opening dance when the costumed artists finished their first piece (mother and daughter are both accomplished dancers), and then Gregory was pulled in (Gregory, whom I have never ever seen dance, who hates to be conspicuous or look awkward), there he was, dancing with Natalie, unrehearsed, twirling a handkerchief in the air to follow her motions, beaming, gracefully rising to the occasion, showing how fully he has welcomed her Peruvian culture into his life, its music, its dances, and most of all, its openness to emotional expression. 

Later on, after people were seated at tables decorated with flowers arranged by Gregory and Natalie and helper friends the day before, and little stuffed llamas brought back with them from their recent trip to Peru, endless platters of scrumptious Peruvian food were produced. There was more dancing, and once again, Gregory and Natalie had a featured role (me still marveling at Gregory for doing this with such poise and good will!) and many others joined in, including David and me (who also never dance!). 

The vows and those two dances were the high point of the wedding, and the trip, and my life!!! I don’t think I’ve ever had a happier evening. I will remember it forever.