From Dates to Mates

There’s a certain ebb and flow to everyone’s social life. Depending on your age, you might be going to lots of graduations, or kids’ birthday parties, or football games or baby showers.

Of course, the whopper of all social events is the wedding, and when we’re in our 20s and 30s, they’re happening all the time. I went through a long dry spell once all my friends and relatives married off, but the pace is picking back up. I’ve been invited to three weddings so far this year because my peers’ children are getting to be of marriageable age. Make that four — weren’t we all invited to the Royal Wedding?

I do love a wedding. Always have. My mother was on the older end of a very large family, with siblings who were 10 to 15 years younger. Consequently, during an impressionable age, I was pretty much constantly going to weddings and their attendant festivities. I vividly remember with great fondness the decorations, chicken salad-stuffed creampuffs and other party foods, bouquet tossings, hairstyles (lots of teasing, curls and hairspray in that era) and the beautiful dresses.

Of course, I spent an inordinate amount of hours dreaming of my special day and, I have to admit, my wedding is definitely in the Top 5 Best Days of My Life. Now, I spend an inordinate amount of hours dreaming of my daughter’s wedding day. While there’s currently no groom on her horizon, she’s happy to let me contemplate whatever color schemes, floral arrangements and doo-dads I like — as long as I’m willing to pay for them.

I always look forward to the July/August issue, so I can read about and see the beautiful photos from the weddings of local brides and grooms. It’s so much fun to see how much care and attention to detail is lavished on these affairs. And all the different ways a couple gets to “I do” — from a fun New Year’s Eve bash to a family affair in the country, an elegant beach wedding to a service full of meaning and a reception touched with a little “Wizard of Oz” whimsy.

Every love story that ends in a wedding has to begin somewhere — and we’re hoping to play a little Cupid with our second batch of 18 Tallahassee Top Singles for 2011. The ladies and gentlemen featured in this issue are looking for a mate — well, at least a date — at a special event at the Hotel Duval set for July 16. A date auction is part of the festivities, so if a special someone catches your eye, be sure to join us and make a bid. It’s all in good fun and the auction proceeds will be donated to the charity of our single’s choice.

Hope to see you there.