The storm complicated matters for me, because the plan had been for one of my brothers to pick up the wedding cake from me in the morning and take it to the hall where the reception was being held, while I traipsed off to get ready with the other bridesmaids. Unfortunately, between having to shovel out and the state of the roads, he was unable to do so, so I had to lug the cake around with me all morning, stick it in the church kitchen during the wedding, then take it with me to the hall. By the time the reception rolled around, I was sick of the sight of the thing.
But the wedding was beautiful and,apart from the weather, went off without a hitch. One of my nephews was ring bearer, and a niece was the flower girl- here's a picture of the two of them on their way up the aisle:
The storm reminded me of a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson- especially the first part of it- appropriately entitled "The Snow-Storm".
The Snow-Storm
Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven,
And veils the farm-house at the garden's end.
The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of storm.
Come see the north wind's masonry.
Out of an unseen quarry evermore
Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer
Curves his white bastions with projected roof
Round every windward stake, or tree, or door.
Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work
So fanciful, so savage, nought cares he
For number or proportion. Mockingly,
On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths;
A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn;
Fills up the farmer's lane from wall to wall,
Maugre the farmer's sighs; and, at the gate,
A tapering turret overtops the work.
And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad wind's night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.