A Wedding Like No Other by Peggy Post

Author:Peggy Post
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780061755590
Publisher: HarperCollins

The bottom line: When the challenge of merging cultural traditions is handled with consideration, communication, and creativity, the result can be a thrilling and even transcendent experience—forging a powerful bond that will continue to resonate in the lives of the couple and their families forever after.

A TRAVELING RECEPTION

like many couples, Ann and Henry got to know each other through another twosome—in this case, Taiga and Ed, their respective pet dogs. “Henry lived about a mile away from me in the same downtown area of Waterbury, Vermont,” says Ann. “I’d already met him at some neighborhood events. He had a very distinctive car, an old red Volvo, and I used to see him driving around town. At one point, Taiga, my lovely female husky, went into heat, and this old mongrel came by and sat beneath my window for a week, howling. Finally I asked a mutual friend, ‘Isn’t that Henry’s dog?’ So I called Henry, and he came by and got Ed. The next day, Taiga disappeared. Having a pretty good idea where she’d gone, I drove over to Henry’s—and there she was.”

After chatting awhile, Ann told Henry that she’d seen him driving around and asked if he’d be interested in carpooling to work to save on gas. A couple of other friends joined the carpool as well, and for the next six months the four of them shared a car to work and back. By that time, their friendship had turned into something more, and the two of them began dating. Eventually they decided to move in together, and shared a home for a year.

“Since we were already living together, getting married was a natural step,” says Ann. “We’d been talking about having children, and for that to happen it made much more sense from a legal standpoint to become husband and wife. We also felt we wanted to affirm our commitment to each other for the rest of our lives. But at the same time, it wasn’t like most people were asking themselves, ‘When are they going to tie the knot?’—although I do think my parents might have been wondering that!”

Once they’d decided to get married, the next question was how to do it. Henry wasn’t enthused about the idea of a full wedding celebration, since it would have been virtually impossible for his parents to attend—his father was in a nursing home and couldn’t travel at all, and his elderly mother lived a day’s drive away—while Ann, who’d been married once before, had no interest in a big wedding either. After talking it over, they came up with a simple solution: They wouldn’t have a wedding at all. Instead, they would elope and tell everyone about it afterward.

“It wasn’t a very difficult decision,” says Ann. “It was simply what we wanted to do. It’s the way we’ve always lived our lives together. We never know what we’re doing next week!”

At that time, the state of Vermont required couples to wait at least three weeks after getting their marriage license before getting married.

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