Snow on your wedding day
Snow on your wedding day makes the celebration smaller and pulls everyone indoors. That shift turns attention from the party to the plain, ordinary nights at home that make up most of a marriage.
What it may mean
Snow shrinks a wedding. Roads get slick, a few guests turn back, the outdoor photos get cut to ten minutes, and a party planned for a lawn ends up packed around one heater. An encyclopedia of superstitions printed in 1903 gave the weather two readings: in one line a happy marriage, in another a married life of seclusion and home enjoyment. The second reading carries a useful thought. A wedding gets months of planning, while the thousands of plain weeknights that follow it get almost none, though they are most of what a marriage is. Snow on the day tilts things toward the house: the couch, the shared kitchen, the two people left when the last car pulls away. It is worth picturing what those ordinary nights should feel like.
Depending on how you saw it
Snow falling during the vows
Flakes landing on hair and dark coats during the vows make everyone stand closer, and officiants often speed up. Couples who planned long vows sometimes cut them to a few lines on the spot. If you had to say what matters to you in half the words, which ones would you keep?
Boots under the gown
Many winter brides swap heels for boots under a long dress, or keep warm socks in a bag for the reception. Nobody sees them, and the day goes better for it. What practical comfort have you tucked under something formal lately?
White on white in the photos
A white dress against fresh snow can almost vanish in a photo, while dark suits, red flowers and bright scarves jump forward. Photographers prize the soft, even light snow gives. On a day when you are supposed to stand out, how does it feel to fade into the scenery for a minute?
A snowbank that outlasts the rest
An old encyclopedia held that a bank of snow left standing by a house after all the rest has thawed foretells a wedding there before the snow banks again. Late drifts are simply the ones sitting in shade. Which leftover piece of a hard season is still standing by your door?
Why it happens in nature
Most weddings are planned for the warmer months, so snow on the day falls chiefly on winter weddings and the odd early spring or late fall storm. Snow reaches the ground when the air stays near or below freezing all the way down from the clouds; a few degrees warmer and the same storm falls as rain or sleet.
To reflect on
What would you want the ordinary weeknights of a shared life to feel like?