I’ve only been to four full weddings thus far in my lifetime. The first was at the tender age of three when I was a part of my Aunt’s wedding (I held her veil along with my cousin who was similar in age). The next wedding was my cousin’s wedding when I was eighteen and this took place on the weekend before my chemistry pre-exam. The third wedding was a friend’s wedding that took place about two years ago. It was a lovely wedding with lots of friends around. The most recent wedding was my sister’s wedding last weekend. She got engaged last July and had most of the important things like the church and the hotel booked within two weeks of getting engaged. I was the only bridesmaid on the job, except on the morning of the wedding when our cousin stepped in as an honorary bridesmaid and did a great job of keeping the show going. I have to commend my sister for not being in the least bit a bridezilla. She was remarkably calm for most of the run up to the wedding and on the day itself. There were even several occasions when she would have been entitled to freak out but she didn’t. When our mother misplaced part of her wedding outfit and one shoe the week before the wedding she calmly drove her to West Cork to get a replacement outfit. When our mother fell in town on the morning of the wedding and had a big gash on her knee my sister said nothing about it although this is probably because she didn’t know that it had happened until I let it slip by accident shortly after the meal. Finally she remained calm even when the bridesmaid and the flower girl almost ended up in Kanturk on the morning of the wedding. This unintentional detour resulted in the bride arriving at the church before her bridesmaid and flower girl. None of this detracted from the day and the bride gave a great speech at the wedding. She also managed to stay up until 4am, partaking in a sing song in the resident’s bar despite having being awake since 4.30am that morning. For weeks before the wedding people had being saying to me ‘there is nothing like a family wedding’ and I think it’s true!