The Wedding

By Lynette Rodrigues

Write a contrasting descriptive piece (between 300-450words each) about a wedding. One of them is about an enjoyable experience; the other is about an experience which is not enjoyable. In your writing, you should bring out clear contrast in setting and atmosphere.

Enjoyable Wedding Experience:

“From this moment as long as I live, I will love you....From this moment on,” sings the girl in the floral blue dress. Her melodious voice fills the hall as the bride and bridegroom dance to their first dance in the new chapter of their life. Colorful stripped paper and sequence burst out in delight above them from the bride and bridegrooms statue. The paper twirls in the air as though dancing to the energy in the candle light room.

               

As the little girl watches, her eyes sparkle at the scene in front of her. The music puts her in a trance, swaying her body, making her feet tap to its beat. The good cheer in the room unconsciously draws a smile on her cherubic face as she runs towards the crowd to get a closer look at the bride.

               

The bride twirls across the wooden dance floor, her groom always there to catch her. Her delicate, hearty laughter adds to the fairytale of the scene. She looks at her husband, their eyes meeting in laughter. Nothing else seems to matter; not the silk wedding gown whose trail is sweeping the floor, nor the sprig of flowers that seems to jump on her simply designed hair as she glides across the floor.

               

As the dancing comes to an end, the crowd, intoxicated with merriment, moves towards the round tables to sit. Each table is covered with a cloth matching that of the chairs with it. Broad purple ribbons too can be seen tied on the chairs which add that sense of celebration that is seen at weddings.

               

Even the little girl seems to find decorations to her liking. Purple balloons decorate the Greek style pillars of the room. They frolick with the slight breeze that enters the hall, upon the arrival of a new guest. The bride picks out a balloon from the pillar and gives the girl with a smile before her husband and she move towards each table to welcome their guests.

Experience which was not enjoyable:

The jarring music floods the room where the bride and bridegroom sit. Her eyes burn as the overwhelming lights hit them. Red lights, orange lights, green lights, they all cover the room in an almost menacing manner, like that of a dictator ready to ruin one’s life.

               

As the bride sits, she tries to let her eyes become accustomed to the light. Her head sways due to the heavy jewelry that adorns her delicate, slim, fragile body because of the wedding. She tries to smile but she is unable to because of all the makeup that shrouds her.

               

The guests pay no attention to the red beauty sitting in silence. They are more interested in a dance being performed by the grooms sister and friends.

“WOHOOO!” they scream, their voice being drowned by the blaring dance music.

Some children are seen running around, jumping, kicking, “Thud!” a plate falls from a child’s hand, but no one notices. The child quietly kicks it under the table and skips away.

               

She waits, as she cannot move around freely, for someone to come and talk to her. It is her day after all, IS it NOT? But no one comes. She contents herself with looking at her guests rushing towards the bouquet. Plates are piled up, rice topped with curry, topped with salad and shami kababs, topped with pudding. They wallop it down, like hunters after a week’s failed hunt. They gossip in loud voices about what is wrong with the wedding, about the lack of heavy embroidery on her scarlet red gown, about the lack of variety of food.

She looks at them with eyes glistening. The garish dressed clothes that scream out their pompous nature, the fashionable outfits that do not care about personal comfort, the lips that do not care about people’s feelings.

     

She tries to move, but alas, she is unable to. It is her day. Her prison.