The Wedding in the Rain

We planned our wedding for months. Outdoor ceremony by the lake, white chairs in rows, string lights in the trees. The forecast said sunny.

Ten minutes before the ceremony, the sky opened up.

Everybody ran under the big oak tree, and somebody's uncle started handing out umbrellas from his car trunk. Our flower girl decided this was the best day of her life and danced in the puddles. My husband's grandmother, eighty-nine years old, took off her shoes.

We said our vows soaking wet, squeezed under one tree with every person we loved pressed close around us. You could hear the rain on the leaves the whole time. Our photographer said they were the best pictures she had ever taken.

We didn't get the wedding we planned. We got a better one. I think about that whenever something doesn't go the way I wanted. Sometimes the rain is the gift.