Wedding Day

It's one day, yes, but it is special. Back in September (on the 19th), a beautiful friend of mine was married off. She invited some of the children from Binghamton where we are part of a weekly kids' outreach, and I got to be their big-sister-aunt-mother-friend-grandma for the day, complete with a sleepover.

Alas, I have no real photographs of the bride and groom, but I do have some snapshots of the hours leading-up and following-after. This was the first wedding any of these girls had ever been to. Marriage is uncommon in lives like theirs.

The night before the wedding I had two of the three girls with me, a pair of sisters. Being sisters, when they wanted to play with my hair they obligingly did it the only fair way: they parted it down the middle and each had half a head to play with.

One sister decided to go for braided-tree-explosion-feather-elf. The other decided to try a more classic up-do.

On the day of the wedding we got all gussied up in our finery. 

It was an outdoor wedding, and there was a playground conveniently located near where the ceremony was held. 

The night ended with sparklers and paper lanterns. Somehow the blurry chiaroscuro of these photographs captures the emotion that surfaced as sunlight faded into starlight and sparkler light and lantern light.

God go with you, Jonny and Lydia.