So, if the bride's parents are divorced, at least half the time both parents show up anyway, and often with new partners in tow.
Mostly the new partner just watches from the sidelines while the bride's biological family poses for photos.
I've never seen a parental civil war break out. I guess if there's any animosity, one of them just wouldn't have been invited.
All that would have been thought through and sorted out long before the wedding day.
I often wonder what the new partners are thinking, sitting by themselves, and if it feels like they're watching an alternate version of reality -- their other half now part of a happy nuclear family with another person, at least in the photos.
I've never seen the bride do two father/daughter dances. Normally it's just with her biological father.
I can only remember one time I saw an ex-partner of the bride or groom. I mean, probably it's happened more often than I realise, but I was only conscious of it once. In this case, it was the groom's ex-wife, with whom he had two or three young children, and I believe they were mainly living with the groom.
She was definitely teary through the ceremony, and I didn't sense any bitterness.
Were they tears of joy for the groom, or tears for herself? Was she imagining her own wedding from years ago, thinking about standing there with him, thinking about what they said to each other? Was she having flashbacks of the marriage, of everything that led to this point? Was she thinking about her children growing up with a new mother?
I'm sure there's a lot that could have passed through her mind if she let it.
I remember she gave the groom and his new bride a hug, and both hugs were warm but fast, and it didn't seem like they were on bad terms.
But what I remember most vividly is when she went to greet her children. I hadn't been sure she was their mother before she hugged them; it was something I had half-heard a guest say. But the way she gathered her children to her, the way she held on to them, left no doubt after.
