The arches
I've made two wedding arches.
The first one I built entirely with hand tools. At the time that's where I was in my shop, there was no philosophical reason behind it, just the tools I was working with. My niece got married under it, and after the reception the venue made an offer and bought it. Last I checked, it's still there. I've seen it in photos on their website, other couples standing under it, other families gathered around it. Nobody in those photos knows anything about where it came from or who built it, and that's fine. That's actually kind of the point of making something well. It goes out into the world and does its job without you.
The second arch I built with power tools, a different stage of the shop, different build, same intention. I was making something worthy of the moment it was made for. This one was for a different niece, and somewhere in the middle of all of it, while the arch was still being planned, she asked me something I didn't see coming. She asked me to marry them.
Not in the general sense. She wanted me to officiate, to stand at the arch I had built and perform the ceremony. I got ordained to do it, and before you picture me disappearing into a monastery for six months, I'll save you the image. It wasn't like that. The process was straightforward. What wasn't straightforward was standing at that arch on her wedding day, knowing I had built the thing I was standing at, knowing what it meant to her, and to me, that I was there in that role.
All of my nieces and nephews call me nino, their kids too, some of them. That's not something I asked for. It's just what happened over time, which is the best way for something like that to happen. When she asked me to officiate I understood it as the same thing, not a formal designation, just family deciding what family means to them and acting accordingly.
The arch she was married under is in her home now. The first one is still at the venue, showing up in strangers' wedding photos. Two arches, two nieces, both still standing somewhere doing what they were built to do.
I don't always know what a piece is going to mean when I start building it. With a cutting board or a trivet you have a pretty good idea. With an arch you know it's significant, but you don't know exactly how significant until you're standing at it in a suit watching your niece walk toward you. That one I didn't see coming either.
