On Saturday, we went to a wedding at the Samoset Resort in Rockport, Maine. The bride, Lisa Clark, is the daughter of Beth and John Clark, two good friends we have known for years and years. So many years, in fact, that I can remember Lisa when she was knee-high to a grasshopper, as the old saying goes. Once, when Lisa was quite young and energetic, my husband, Clif, and I were invited to the Clarks’ house for dinner. While John and Beth were busy putting the finishing touches on the meal, Lisa and her older sister, Sara, stayed with us in the living room. Flip, flip, flip. Lisa entertained Clif and me by doing gymnastic rolls on the rug.

Finally, Sara, in a big sister voice, said, “Calm down, Lisa.”

Lisa did a few more defiant rolls, but then she did indeed calm down.

How moving it is to go to a wedding when you have known the bride since she was a child, to have watched her grow through the years. Lisa is still energetic, but she is now a confident and capable young woman. Lisa teaches in the Bronx, and as John put it, she is a fourth-generation teacher. To honor her literary family, many of whom are published authors—this includes John—Lisa gave books as wedding favors, books that were written or published by her father, her aunt, or her grandmother. They were wrapped in brown paper and bound with a ribbon that is also a bookmark.

Unfortunately, I don’t know Sam Barrese, the groom, but during the wedding ceremony, I learned that he is keen on home-improvement projects, that he works with his hands as well as his mind. (Sam is an engineer.) As if the books and bookmarks weren’t enough, Sam came up with his own wedding favors—beautiful stained-glass roses to be used as window ornaments. Best of all, he made them by hand. Ours is hanging in a window in our kitchen.

The wedding ceremony was held by the ocean. Lisa and Sam were married by a sea captain who quoted Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116:

“Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken..”

The day was very hot, but we found a place in the shade. Behind Lisa and Sam, the deep blue ocean sparkled. Occasionally, a sea gull flew by, and some time during the ceremony, a squadron of dragon flies arrived, dipping and darting over the couple, and it seemed as though they were nature’s attendants, there to officiate the wedding.

Congratulations, Lisa and Sam! Many you have many, many happy and creative years together.