A Wedding: Be In the Moment...And LiveBlog

The moment during the wedding when my perception of my sister changed from "little sister" to "married woman" occurred during the reception, actually. She was standing in front of a room of 300 people, holding their rapt attention as she gave one of the most mesmerizing and engaging speeches ever delivered by a bride.

It was the story of how she had met and fallen in lover with her husband.

It was, as they say in sports, an "instant classic," and as she described her emotions, I remembered the experience I had when falling for the NFO and it dawned on me, "wow, my sister isn't a little girl anymore."

Now, of course, I knew that, but I guess the wedding did what weddings are supposed to do.

Help you mark time.

Help you appreciate the "moment."

Help you recognize change.

Her beauty radiated and her presence was just that: PRESENCE.

It showed everyone that this wasn't someone making a rash, foolhardy decision, or someone who didn't know what she was doing. It was confidence, poise, beauty, elegance, and maturity (and more) all wrapped up into one.

And I realized that somewhere along the way, as life does what life tends to do, I had missed this epic transformation in my younger sister...at least on the grand scale. I think you know what I mean.

Maybe I hadn't missed it. Perhaps I just hadn't appreciated it. Yeah, that's probably more like it.

And, then, as the music started up after her speech, I looked at the little 5 year old girl sitting next to me and asked, "would you like to dance with your Abba? (father)"

She said yes.

And we danced...a lot.

And I got quite emotional, thinking that one day (hopefully), I will play the "father of the bride" and it will be a Sunrise, Sunset moment when I think back to today, and how I danced with the little girl in my arms.

And I though about how my dad must have felt at that moment.

It was powerful.

Now, over the course of the weekend, I had received a few "shout-outs" (though shout-outs are generally positive and I'm not sure these were) about my propensity, fondness, and joy for blogging/technology.

One skit even questioned aloud if I would "liveblog" the wedding.

Well, never one to back down from a challenge, I called their bluff. Why not? Right?

While blogging itself would be tough, I figured, thanks to a few different technologies, I could capture quite a lot.

It started off with a "tweet" to Twitter (which connected to Facebook) saying "walking down the aisle at my sister's wedding." (and thanks to all of you who sent comments!)

Next, I followed that up with a live video stream as my sister made a few of the customary 7 circles around her groom (keep in mind, too, that I was holding one of the chuppah-wedding canopy poles, while all this was happening.)

And then, just for kicks, I took a picture with my phone and posted it directly to Facebook.

So there!

A beautiful day on the "life milestone/emotional" side as well as the power and beauty of technology.