What It Means to Get Married, Part 3

Brooke Landberg
Jul 20, 2017 · 2 min read

As already mentioned in Part 1, and Part 2, I’m getting married this weekend.

In just a few hours, friends and family from around the country will start arriving to witness and participate in our wedding.

Over the past year, a lot of people — mostly casual acquaintances and strangers — have said things like, “Oh man, you’re doing the whole big wedding thing?”and, “You should really elope. It’s much less of a headache.”

We hardly even considered elopement, in part because we love nothing more than hosting loved ones, and also because event planning (aka theater directing…) is entirely in my wheelhouse.

But the biggest reason we’re officially becoming a family in front of our community is because without a wedding, we wouldn’t be getting married at all. We’ve seen each other as Forever Partners for a while now, and we could have just kept going along like that, but we wanted our community to see us as a family, too.

I have some ideas about how that might manifest.

For one thing, my partner’s brothers and parents will know I’m a sure enough bet that it’s safe for them to invest in me as part of the family. Consequently, I get to officially be an aunt to a niece and two nephews I already adore.

Our friends and family may support us a little differently in tough times. I imagine they’ll see us more as a stable unit going through a rough patch than a couple on the brink of breakup.

Mostly, though, I have no idea what this will mean once it happens — or even while it’s happening! I don’t really know what it will mean to be married. Like our partnership, it’s something that’s going to unfold over time.

The unfolding is already beginning. May I stay open to that this weekend.

May I allow the moment — and everyone in it — to surprise me. May I do my best this weekend — despite the potential for inner chaos — to remember what made us want to get married in the first place.

The Daily Lift

Grounded insights on living well — and loving well — in an unwell world.

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Brooke Landberg

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Working toward freedom.

The Daily Lift

Grounded insights on living well — and loving well — in an unwell world.

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