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All weddings are enjoyable, but a country club wedding just hits different.
Country clubs like to promote themselves as tightly controlled environments, but anyone who has spent time around them knows the rowdy truth.
So it is with weddings. Families tend to idealize the big day, seeking absolute control over the uncontrollable. But like the stuffiest control-freak clubs, overproduced weddings are often less eventful, their memories less warm. The weather may not be perfectly sunny; neither is marriage. Sometimes the wedding cake gets knocked off its table mid-reception, as once happened to a friend of mine. A moment of panic becomes an all-time memory for all involved.
For their part, my friend Will and his bride Casey will be able to laugh about the men in sweaty polos rolling 20-footers just below the patio where they exchanged vows. The golf course was still closed for renovations on the steamy September Saturday of their nuptials, but the putting green was open, abuzz with activity from anxious members craving physical closeness to their course after months of deprivation. There's beauty in that juxtaposition - two types of beginnings in a scene only a country club wedding can set.
Another country club wedding guarantee: plenty of license to talk golf. Will is a fellow lifelong die-hard; we played together in college and have teed it up several times since. The game was a thread through various speeches all weekend long: a reminder of how it's a metaphor for life, an affirmation that a life in which golf is a large presence is likely to be a rich one.
Will's father told a story about Will's penchant for clutch par saves. A groomsman related a funny anecdote about Will's attempt to return another golfer's lost rangefinder, only for the device to accidentally drown in a creek. Integrity, determination, grace under pressure, calmness amid adversity, good humor - important qualities in both a spouse and a golf partner.
A toast from a friend of the happy couple captured the moment perfectly: “May your marriage be as strong as the drinks at Hillwood Country Club.”
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