Monday, April 18, 2016

A Wedding Deserves a Post!

I never post much (at least now, life is too busy), but my brother and his wife Sara celebrated their wedding this past wedding and I decided to write about it! The weather was perfect, the ceremony was beautiful, and the reception was fun. I miss the wedding weekend terribly! I could write about how much I love my brother and how happy I am to officially welcome Sara to the family, but I decided to post a few pictures and leave a copy of the speech I made at the rehearsal dinner.

Overly cautious. Timothy has also always been overly cautious. When he was little, maybe 3 or 4 years old, Timothy told my parents that Santa should leave the presents on the front porch because Santa was a stranger. Overly cautious. Later, as a teenager, when I was home on a holiday break from college, at around 2am, I heard doors downstairs being aggressively shaken. I thought someone was breaking into the house and was instantly startled. That person breaking in was only my brother checking to make sure all of the doors were locked by shaking them. Again, overly cautious.

Theresa (my cousin) and her date, Jackson. He is in love and made the googly eyes to prove it!
Perfectly right. Another particular trait of Timothy’s. He didn’t ride a bike until he was 10 years old because he needed to do it perfectly right. He was always quiet as a little boy, the silent “T”, who, I suppose, didn’t want to talk until it was perfectly right. He also took hours to get ready to go out with his friends, until they called out “Juliet!” He had to look (and smell) perfectly right. While being overly cautious and perfectly right may not seem like they fit together, really, they do.

My mom and brother. 
You see, when we were in high school, we had a conversation with our friends Lexie and Topper. Timothy was asked if he ever told a girl he loved her. He said no because he wasn’t going to say it unless he really meant it and it meant something. Again, cautious and right. Years later, I heard him tell Sara he loved her, and I knew. He was perfectly right.

Walking down the aisle. They did a perfect job!
Timothy, I am so proud of you. You took the time to do things your own way. You may not have always garnered praise for your way (I seem to recall your English teacher admonishing you about a crooked bulletin board, to which you responded, “well, it’s not your bulletin board, is it?”), but you’ve done things your way, in your time. I love you more than you probably know, and I am so happy to stand by your side this weekend as you begin the next chapter in your life.

Rehearsal Dinner Crew. Lily and Jackie love Gram and Pop!
Sara, I am so excited to call you my sister. While having a brother has brought me great joy, I have always wanted to have a sister. You fit into our family “perfectly right” and I am honored to stand by your side as you officially become part of the family. You are already aunt Sara to Lily and Jackson; they love you to the moon and back, and, to them, you’ve always been their aunt. Thank-you for loving my brother and giving him so much happiness.

Lily and Aunt Sara-- the stunningly beautiful bride
I am sure that, at this point, Timothy is nervous that I might do something that is characteristically Emily and talk for the next hour, but I won’t. I will leave you two with this—in marriage sometimes you will need to be cautious, but sometimes you need to take risks. Very often things won’t be perfectly right, but you will slowly realize that when things are imperfectly right that they are the most joyful moments. Here’s to Tim and Sara!


Me and Tom prior to the reception