“They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered.”– F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer
The big day is here — finally — and it finds the man excited, the woman ecstatic, and everyone else expectant.
For the couple, the day is going to prove as long and stressful as the days that led up to it, but not quite as long and stressful as the ensuing days. Marriage, an institution almost as old as life itself, has been tailored across millennia to suit times and peoples, but its expected endgame remains intact: together forever.
Of course, it doesn’t always play out that way, for neither together nor forever is a given. In many countries, in fact, divorce seems the likelier outcome, with the seeds for such an anti-climax often sown long before rings are even exchanged, what with the signing of pre-nups and all.
But that stark reality of many a failed marriage — and all the alarming statistics which highlight such a probability possibility — doesn’t stop this pair from taking today’s giant leap, because it isn’t just love that’s gotten them this far; faith in an uncertain future, too, has played its part. Man to woman, backs to the world, they face — ahem — each other: ah, the moment they’ve been waiting for all along!
Vows are said about how they’d stick as one for better and for worse, for this and for that, for everything between and beyond. Radiant in white, the bride wipes a stray bead of sweat off the groom’s forehead just before it drips onto his gleaming black suit.
“Good start,” an approving female voice in the audience is heard whispering to another’s ear.
And it is, indeed.
With love in the air and faith in their hearts, husband and wife turn to the cheering crowd, and the first few steps into the new life they’ve just signed up for follow. Death bringing an end to their union would hurt, true, but it’s the only finale either foresees right now; short of that, this day — despite its dazzling array of finery and unbridled merry-making — would, in hindsight, feel rather funereal.
May it never.
Images: DreamGene Photography
Text: NY Frimpong
Source: Daily Mail GH
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