For the Bride: What We Wish For

Weddings, with their promise fo family life and a happy future, turn out to be what women want, what mothers want for

their daughters and daughters want for themselves.  For many people Life is still organized in this traditional way, and

remains the option for placing oneself in clan and society.  Not to be married is to be different, to be an outsider.  Not to

have children is to have failed at some deep cellular level.



The execution of the ritual becomes the way to structure the universe and make it play according to plan, it is the path to

the imagined perfect life.  Thus the attention to detail: the Jordan-almond-flower place settings wrapped and tied over

many evenings, the eye lashes applied one at a time over most of a morning, the fittings, the showers, the matching

clothes, the expensive underwear, the wedding and the wedding banquet.



Many of the guests have been married more than once, the parents in most cases long ago divorced.  But they come with

hopeful hearts for the newlyweds, and bring the belief that this couple will make it for the long haul.