We attended three weddings between April and November of this year. All three were in Omaha, and all three of the brides were long-time close friends of mine. At the first wedding we were guests; at the second wedding, I was an attendant and the wedding-cake-baker; and at the third wedding, I was an attendant and Annalie was the flower girl.

Whew.

Don’t get me wrong. I like weddings. (Wedding receptions, I’m not such a fan of, but that’s another story.) Though I am not a sentimental person, I tend to get very emotional and even cry a little during wedding vows. There is something wonderful about seeing two people in love who are willing to stand up and make public promises of support and faithfulness to each other. At that moment, I am full of hope for the bride and groom and their future, despite all the scary statistics about divorce.

When I’m asked to play a part in a wedding, I’m excited and full of enthusiasm. Later I tend to complain and moan about the details (finding shoes, arranging travel, what to wear to the rehearsal dinner, how the heck I’m gonna get the cake to the reception site) but once everything comes together on the big day, I love having a front-row view of the action, and I’m happy to play a part in such a big event in my friends’ lives.

It was an added bonus that these three weddings happened to all be in our hometown, so we got to see our Omaha friends and family a lot this year. The last wedding was the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so we even spent our first Thanksgiving in Omaha since we got married, which was nice. (And since we were just there, even though we will miss spending Christmas with family this year, we won’t be dealing with the major hassle that is traveling at Christmastime.)

Mostly, I am glad Annalie and I were able to be in Rachel & Jeff’s wedding just because we love them and are so happy for them. The fact that Rachel was one of my bridesmaids almost twelve years ago (when she was 16 and I was not quite 21!) is just a neat bonus.

For more photos, go to Rachel & Jeff’s Wedding - a photoset on Flickr.

(Note: many of the photos in this set are viewable only if you are a friend & family of mine on Flickr. If you don’t have a Flickr account but want to see them, and I have some idea who you are, leave a comment or email me and I can send you an invitation that will let you view them.)