Our Michigan Wedding

We got married today, on the dock, under a pergola the florist had covered in roses — white, orange, deep pink — with the lake flat behind us. The chairs went out on the lawn in rows facing the water, and by evening every one of them was full.

The walk down from the house felt shorter than every rehearsal of it in my head. Rings went on without either of us dropping anything.

Afterward there was a long stretch of hugging in the cedars that I lost all track of time in, and then the cake — five square tiers with roses and stephanotis on top, orchids around the base. Somebody had draped tulle behind the cake table and it kept catching the breeze.

The groomsmen posed out on the dock at some point, all seven of them looking very pleased with themselves. There is a boat tied up in the background of my memory of that, half full of greenery.

Married. Still saying it out loud to see how it sounds.