Yesterday we attended the wedding of Ronald and Josée in the picturesque environment of the Village of Templeton in the Gatineau Park area of the Province of Québec nearby the nation’s capital. The wedding – and the familial experience – could not have been more gratifying.

Uniquely the wedding aspirants have been together for twenty years. What precisely prompted them to formalize the partnership by the union of marriage is perhaps known only to them.  It was manifestly obvious when taking their vows yesterday that they are both greatly inspired by one another. Shakespeare would have been proud of their romantic emotion and conviction for one another!

The parties spared no effort in the celebration of the event. I understand months of application were devoted to the propriety of the salute, including handmade invitations from the outset. The local municipal hall in which the wedding took place was beautifully arranged and decorated. There was an ornamented elevated stage at the front of the assemblage from which the wedding formalities were conducted and afterwards photographs were taken. The photographs will afford an enduring and historic recollection of important associations because people were appropriately conjoined by family, friends and colleagues.

It was patently evident from the moment we stepped into the hall late yesterday afternoon that the bonds of family were paramount; and, that the multitude of members were pleased to reconnoiter. The communal satisfaction of the wedding was for me reminiscent of Charles Dickens’ rustic social gatherings, bountiful pleasure and buzzing communications often heralded by exclamations of surprise to rediscover former family, friends or associates.