In the seclud­ed Globe, an old out­door the­ater nes­tled among trees, a wed­ding rehearsal was under­way, sur­round­ed by an unwel­come crowd of guests. The atmos­phere, meant to feel sacred, was dis­rupt­ed by dozens sip­ping wine and nib­bling on snacks. I was dis­ap­point­ed that the couple’s moment remained a pub­lic spec­ta­cle.

RJ, a young man with curly hair, intro­duced him­self as the cer­e­mony’s host, despite being a human resources work­er rather than a pas­tor. He had obtained his offi­ciant cre­den­tials online pri­mar­i­ly for this event. Eager to meet the groom, Aidan, RJ sought him out. Aidan, sit­ting with grooms­men, appeared pale and unwell, his face marked with a rash.

As Errol Gard­ner arrived, he expressed regret for his wife’s absence due to ill­ness but remained opti­mistic about her par­tic­i­pa­tion in the wed­ding. Mean­while, Tam­my and Abi­gail prac­ticed flower girl duties, but Abi­gail was over­ly ener­getic, often trail­ing behind her cousin, proud­ly pre­sent­ing her­self as “the cousin of the bride,” much to my annoy­ance.

Tam­my point­ed out Abigail’s back­ground from a bro­ken home and how this wed­ding was a sig­nif­i­cant event for her, con­trast­ing my jad­ed per­spec­tive. I point­ed out Aidan’s appar­ent dis­tress, but Tam­my insist­ed it was nerves, recall­ing my own anx­ious­ness before my wed­ding.

The rehearsal even­tu­al­ly began, led by RJ, who direct­ed the pro­ces­sion, dur­ing which Abi­gail scat­tered flower petals down the aisle, fol­lowed by the brides­maids and grooms­men. When it was my turn to escort my daugh­ter Mag­gie, con­flict arose over our pre­vi­ous dis­cus­sions about trust and the inci­dent that had caused ten­sion between us. Despite this, I tried to stay com­posed, rec­og­niz­ing my wor­ries about Aidan’s emo­tion­al state could stem from var­i­ous ratio­nal caus­es.

As the rehearsal pro­gressed, RJ revealed his “Bible” was just a prop, and he assuaged Mag­gie and Aidan’s wor­ries about the ceremony’s tone. Most par­tic­i­pants were ner­vous, except for Tam­my, who con­fi­dent­ly rehearsed her read­ing from the Bible. Her heart­felt recita­tion filled the air with a rev­er­ent silence, prompt­ing RJ to ques­tion if they should con­sid­er a more con­tem­po­rary approach, but Mag­gie assured him it was per­fect, sta­bi­liz­ing the emo­tion­al atmos­phere of the rehearsal .