Chatty Aside #2

One of the fun things I got to research for How Sweetly the Whippoorwill Sings was how a wedding is planned, and what the different functions are. In general, I think, there's this wedding 'schedule'. (Not all cultures do their weddings the same, of course, I'm just talking about the basic romanticized US version, with the white dress, exchanging of vows, and the enormous tiered cake. There should *always* be cake.) That schedule (a quick search will give an overview of all the first this-then that options) can be very restricting! One of the challenges I had for writing was to include enough of the necessary wedding elements without getting bogged down in what can really be a very orchestrated event. All of the fun stuff that I wanted to write about -- how the best man and the bride's brother were interested in each other, and trying to catch intimate moments together, yet constantly frustrated by their duties -- were written around that scheduling. It was definitely an exercise in thinking about where are those stolen moments in our lives? Can this three minute span between Event A and Event B really be long enough for something momentous to happen? Or perhaps it doesn't have to be momentous...enough kindling builds a roaring fire, it just starts small and grows.