I'm a very fortunate person, and by very fortunate, I mean that most of my best friends in life have been a significant part of my life for a minimum of a decade. There's a weird sort of bond amongst those people, a bond that means that my family is their family, and theirs mine, so I may only have a certain number of siblings via biology or marriage, but when you factor in those siblings that are what I shall call siblings by choice, I have a really silly number of brothers and sisters. Meghan is one of those sisters. Her brother, Ethan, has been a wonderful friend to me over the years, more like a brother than a friend, the kind of guy who can guarantee you a multitude of laughs, a ride home should you find yourself stranded without transportation, and someone who can always be counted on for a brutally honest opinion regardless of whether you asked for it (some may find this troublesome, but this is ultimately the first and foremost reason why I love him dearly). When I received an invitation to Meghan's wedding, it was an automatic response--why, OF COURSE I would be there, not only because the little sister of one of my greatest friends was getting married so my sort-of-could-have-been-but-not-really-little-sister was getting married, but also because Ethan was deployed, so he himself could not attend. It felt like I wasn't only attending for myself but also to represent Ethan, if that makes any sense at all. So we went to the wedding, and we had a marvelous time. Now, I don't tend to be one to cry by any means, but this wedding choked me up--I know how close Ethan and Meghan are, so for him to not be able to be there got to me over and over again, and I knew this would be the case well before the wedding, so I went into the occasion with a plan of action. My big bad "make Ethan a part of the wedding regardless of where he is" plan was to take a picture of Meghan with all of Ethan's friends in attendance, leave a space for Ethan, and photoshop him into the picture so that he could be there in a picture with his sister and all the rest of the people who love him, so that's exactly what we did. Meghan, her new husband, and all of Ethan's close friends who were in attendance gathered during the reception, left a space next to Meghan (because where else would Ethan have stood but next to his little sister, the beautiful bride?), and we took a ridiculously cheesy picture because it's what would have happened if Ethan were there...and did I pick an appropriate picture of Ethan to be photoshopped into this image? Don't be silly. I scoured every image of Ethan accessible to find the goofiest-looking one possible, and VOILA! There he was in the middle of all the rest of us, looking equally ridiculous because that's how it should have been. What I remember most about the Knobloch wedding is the love that was there, not just between Meghan and Josh but between family and amongst dear friends. That night was everything a great wedding should be--a loving couple, a close knit family that loves and laughs together, a circle of friends that have been through it all together, and space left to love and remember those who couldn't be there.
This reminds me--I still need to see if Hezza can send me her far less blurry copy of this to be shopped since my point-and-shoot hates dim lighting, ARGH!
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