My fall break this year was anything but relaxing, but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. On Saturday, my older sister Kelly married the love of her life in a beautiful ceremony at our home parish of St. Bernadette in Monroeville, Pa.
Seeing the absolute joy on both her and her now husband Steve’s faces throughout the entire event made the fact that I worked on absolutely nothing schoolwork-related over the entirety of break totally worth it.
Instead of studying for the physiology lab exam I just took on Tuesday or finishing my leadership development plan for my seminar class, I helped my mom bake five different kinds of cookies for the wedding.
If you’re from Pittsburgh, you’re probably familiar with the greatest wedding tradition there is: the cookie table. If you’re not from Pittsburgh, the cookie table is just what it sounds like.
Every wedding I have ever been to — which is admittedly not a whole lot — has had a table dedicated solely to cookies. And since my mom’s side of the family is Polish and Italian, we go all out.
After some quick calculations, we determined that between family and friends, the cookie table would feature some 2,400 cookies. Clearly, the cookie table is some serious business.
In addition to all of the baking, there were several other small tasks that needed to be completed before the big day.
Wedding pictures from various members of the family were printed and put into frames for a special memory table and all of the table centerpieces that my mom, aunts and cousin had painstakingly put together had to be loaded and taken to the reception venue that was 30 minutes away from our house.
I’m really glad that I could be there for all of these last-minute activities, since I missed a large part of the planning phase while away at school.
I have to admit, I was really nervous about my duties as maid-of-honor, knowing that this was one of the most important days in my sister’s life. My sister, who is 10 years older than me, has always been someone I’ve looked up to and whose opinion is important to me, so I definitely didn’t want to mess anything up.
Luckily, the rehearsal assured me that my job as maid of honor mostly consisted of making my sister look her best (which she does pretty well on her own) and standing in front of the congregation looking pretty.
My sister’s wedding was one of the most beautiful events I have ever had the privilege of being a part of, and I had to hold back the happy tears several times throughout the day.
As I sit back now and reflect on the day, I couldn’t have pictured a more perfect ceremony or more exciting reception. I hope that it was everything my sister and her husband could have imagined and more.
While I may be scrambling this week to finish all of the assignments I should have completed over break, I am happy. Spending break surrounded by love and family definitely makes up for all the stress I will be experiencing this week.
LYDIA FENNESSY
