Ray Ray's Wedding

When you enter your mid-twenties a phenomenon happens. You go to weddings. Not one or two weddings here and there, but 900 weddings in the span of 4 years. Those of you who are past this stage in your life, you know what I mean. Those of you who are not, start saving now!! At any rate, this weekend was my best friend Ryan's wedding. Part of me wondered if by the time we got to this, I'd be too weddinged out, detached, and unemotional. Given that I literally have been to 16 weddings in the past 3 and a half years, I just wondered if I might be over it. But when she put on that dress and turned around to look at her admirers I completely broke down.

Let me back up a bit and give you a sense of why, maybe more than most, this wedding really got me.

Ryan and were not terribly close early in college although we played rugby together and had many mutual friends. Our junior year we started hanging out quite a bit, mostly because we were dating guys who were also good friends and roomed together. It wasn't until the year after college though, that Ryan and I became best friends. We were both single, her college boyfriend having broke her heart, and Ryan lived in Boston while I was up in Maine. Every weekend and even some weeknights I'd travel down to Boston, stay with Ray (Ryan's nickname), and we'd hit up the town, meeting new people, becoming not just bigger Red Sox fans, but experts that year, and lamenting that we'd never meet the perfect guy. We were attached at the hip, and people thought we were sisters. We chatted on the phone sometimes for hours, and called each other in a panic before we went on one of many blind dates. We even took a 2.5 day road trip to Tennessee to surprise a good friend. We were inseparable.

Then Ryan met Shawn. I remember the night she met him. It was a blind date, and she called me from the parking lot, like she always would, freaking out about her nerves. It was different this time though. I think Ryan knew before she even met Shawn, that she was going to marry him. Obviously the date went well, and they started becoming very serious.

Oh, have I mentioned, this date was over 5 years ago.

Ryan and I have stayed close, but have naturally found a distance that most friends do as they get serious and begin to settle down. The road that she and Shawn were on was a rocky one for a bit. He had just gotten out of a relationship that about destroyed him, and because of it, it was hard for him to be close to Ryan. I can't tell you how many times I told her to just move on. But she didn't. And he didn't propose. And he didn't propose. And he didn't propose. Ryan was in our friend Meg's wedding, and then mine, but as the classic saying goes, she was always the bridesmaid never the bride. Until last fall. He finally proposed, and Ryan finally got to be the bride. This weekend at their wedding I realized that what I had always hoped would be the reason he took so long to marry her would be true. When he knew 110%, with no doubt in his mind that this would be his wife, he asked her, but not a moment sooner. I have so much respect for someone who knows themself well enough to wait, and even more for the woman who waited for him. When she walked down the aisle Saturday afternoon to greet her groom, and that strong willed Boston boy started to cry, not a single person in the room doubted that it was worth every second they waited to get to this day. They are so in love, and my best friend has found her best husband.

I feel the need to add that I have been beyond thrilled for all of my friends who have gotten married over the past few years. Each of them have found a partner who gives them a joy that we always hoped we would find. I think with Ray, it just got me a little more because I know how much she has waited for this day with Shawn.

Ok, enough blabbing. Time for some pictures!! Ryan's photographer was a friend of mine, who I met as she photograped many weddings of my friends from the Knot. Her name is Clare, and she is fantastic. She's posted a teaser on her blog and I'll let you all know when she posts more, as she always does. In the meantime, here are a few of my very very nonprofessional but favorite pics from the day.