The Bride Wore A Red Cape

As with everyone at this surreal time, our family has seen many of our plans, both large and small, upended recently. One of the biggest of these was the wedding of my godson Rhys and his fiancée Susan. Originally set for May 30th, following Susan’s graduation from the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, it was to take place at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, on a grand marble staircase steps away from the museum’s magnificent exhibit of dinosaur skeletons.

When the COVID-19 crisis really started to evolve, Susan was on spring break with her parents in Florida in early March. Colleges and universities were extending spring breaks and beginning to talk about the possibility of going online for the rest of the semester. Events were being postponed or cancelled. Susan and her parents, Melinda and Hugh, began talking about the very real possibility of the wedding needing to be postponed. Susan didn’t want to wait to get married, so they began discussing options.

Susan grew up in the Chicago area, and her parents have a lake house on Long Lake, about an hour north of the city. That popped up as a potential location for a small family ceremony. Melinda works as a project manager, and that skill-set carries over into everyday life spectacularly – she hosts amazing parties and plans church dinners for hundreds of people, making it all look easy. My favorite example of her organizational prowess is when Rhys and Susan were living in New York City and had an infestation of bed bugs (via some curtains they’d ordered online). Melinda had the exterminators called, had ordered the special bed bug “oven” that all their belongings had to go through to get rid of the critters, and was on her way to help the kids deal with the problem while I was still in shock, saying “Bed bugs…you have bed bugs?!?” So, when Susan asked her mom if she thought she could plan a small wedding at the lake house, Melinda said she thought the biggest obstacle was that there was only one oven. However, at that point in time it was just an idea.

When Susan got back to Pittsburgh after break, she found out that her senior year would end with online classes and her graduation ceremony was cancelled. The museum was definitely going to close through May, so the wedding was not going to happen there on May 30th. Then all non-essential businesses in Pittsburgh were closed by the mayor, which meant that Rhys, who works as a massage therapist at a local spa, suddenly had a free calendar. Both knew they wanted to get married sooner rather than later, and with the pandemic changing daily life rapidly, they decided on as soon as possible. So, Susan and Rhys headed to her parents’ house in Glen Ellyn and the planning began for a small wedding at the lake house on Friday, March 27th.

The neighbor’s yard was reserved, because it had a more unobstructed view of the lake. A livestream was organized for distant family and friends, wedding outfits selected (because the big wedding is still going to happen next year, so different attire was needed for this ceremony), and the menu planned for the post-wedding dinner. Susan and Rhys then headed to the lake house so that Susan could have a few days of uninterrupted focus on school work. The groom’s Oklahoma contingent arrived at the lake house after a day of careful traveling armed with plastic gloves, hand sanitizer, and disinfectant wipes, with a whole day to hang out with the couple before the wedding day.

Rhys and Susan have been together for nearly seven years. Dancers at the time, they met at orientation on their first day at The Ailey School in New York City, and began dating shortly thereafter. I remember seeing her that first day – a tall red-head with an infectious energy talking to another dancer in the lobby – but didn’t officially meet her until that December when I visited Rhys. When I told him I really liked her, he responded with “I’m totally winning,” because she was 1) willing to play Yu-Gi-Oh with him and 2) totally cool with “nostril kisses” (a funny thing he did to me when he was little where he would try to put his nostril on the end of my nose; I had mentioned he probably should not ever try it with a girl). They’ve supported each other through surgeries, bed bugs, bad jobs, dancing, leaving dance, moving, and school. Rhys is not bothered that Susan is taller than him and he loves her intelligence; Susan is not bothered that Rhys is shorter than her and she loves his caring nature. They make each other laugh, and are perfect for one another.

Friday dawned cold and gray, with the threat of rain later in the afternoon. The lake ceremony was scheduled for somewhere around 4 pm, keeping it somewhat flexible in case the rain did materialize. Susan’s family arrived, and we unloaded food, ran cable for the livestream, and put up a small white tent. The groom’s family moved to the basement to start getting ready, while the bride’s did the same upstairs. We checked in with long-distance relatives – Walker, Rhys’ twin, hadn’t made the trip, but had dressed up (his top half at least) in suit and tie to watch the livestream, and the boys’ dad, Wesley, was tuning in from work. Pastor Kendra, the officiant, arrived and touched base with everyone. Then it was time, and we moved outside to the neighbor’s lawn. We figured out the best spot for Kendra to stand with the lake behind her and got word from the bride that the tent should be struck since it wasn’t raining. Once it was out of the way, Susan’s sister Amanda started the processional music.

The theme from Jurassic Park accompanied the bride and her parents as they made their way around the giant cedar tree and walked toward us. Susan was radiant in an ivory strapless jumpsuit, with a large red cape billowing behind her. She had shown me the cape the day before; her grandmother had made it 50 years ago, and her mom had kept it because it was beautiful and exquisitely made. It came to mind when they discussed the very real possibility of it being cold during the wedding, so they got it out and it was perfect with the jumpsuit. Even better was Rhys’ reaction; in keeping with the tradition of the groom not seeing the bride’s dress, he saw Susan’s ensemble for the first time as she walked toward him during the ceremony. His jaw dropped for a moment when he first saw Susan, and then he said “She got a cape? I want a cape.”

The laughter continued through the brief ceremony, because first, the local train whistle provided some additional accompaniment and shortly thereafter, honking geese flew overhead (side note: Susan really doesn’t like geese due to being chased by one when she was young, so that made it even funnier). Kendra took it all in stride, conducted a beautiful wedding, and within minutes Rhys and Susan were married…right before a fishing boat moved into view on the lake, and the rain hit. It was perfect.

We all headed back to our respective homes the next day, Rhys and Susan back to Pittsburgh, where she started working right away at the hospital’s COVID-19 screening center. All of us are facing uncertainty and fear – trying to adapt our work to online platforms or not having any work at all, anxious about finances, worried about the health and safety of our loved ones. But for a little while, we got to put all of that aside and just bask in the love that these two have for one another, and in the love we have for them.

It really was perfect.