On the Occasion of Your Wedding

Four years ago, I remember passing by the Christendom chapel one evening and observing a young man and woman standing outside, chatting.  Today, those two are getting married - my dear friends, Brian and Lindsay.  I wrote this while still in the last few weeks of wedding prep, but it's scheduled to post at the time their wedding Mass begins in that same Christendom chapel.

I've been with these two the whole way. Brian and I teased and pranked each other freshman year, mutually adopted each other sophomore year, went on double dates junior year, tolerated each other in Rome, and grew a solid friendship senior year. I gave him the big sister speech the day he took Lindsay out for their first official date. I sat next to them as they held hands in the dark at the school play. I helped him comfort Lindsay when her grandfather died - at the Marian overlook where Brian would later propose to her. I watched him grow in his love for and devotion to Lindsay, and I know how joyful he is to finally take her for his wife.

When Lindsay first came to school, she was shy and restrained. I got to know her with a handful of other girls, and watched her grow into the spectacular young woman she is. Sophomore year, we talked over our relationship frustrations and suffered through political science together.  As juniors in Rome, we shared a brand-new, scary yet beautiful adventure, punctuated by cleaning the apartment to Frozen music. Senior year, we grew as roommates and sisters through my emotional trauma, her engagement ecstasy, spring theses, wedding planning and senioritis.  We learned who we were as women together - me in my new solitude of heart, she in her coming vocation as a wife and mother.

A few days before graduation, Brian planned a Birthday Singers serenade for his fiancee, the last of their college career. He'd rewritten lyrics for "Red is the Rose" in honor of their engagement, and prefaced it with a sweet speech that left her in tears. After the song ended, I told our friends gathered there how blessed I am to known these two.  I still tear up when I think about the relationship that they share.  

Brian and Lindsay are the couple that everyone prays to be. They've faced plenty of challenges in their relationship, take my word for it. They're ordinary, human, flawed individuals, working towards a difficult goal. They've fought and argued and made up, shared joy and sorrow, made friends and earned respect, grown together, taken care of each other, struggled and rejoiced and prayed, and now at last, they see the fruits of those four years in the marriage they will celebrate today.

My dear Brian and Lindsay, may the Lord watch over you as you step forward on this journey, begun so long ago.  My love and best wishes go with you.