inheritance

I do love photographs.  I've mentioned it here before.  When we started talking about what our wedding reception would look like, we decided it would be neat to include wedding photos of our families.  We stocked up on some picture frames from the Goodwill and put out the call to our families for wedding photos, especially from previous generations of brides and grooms.

I didn't really think about how complicated it might be to actually come up with the pictures.  There aren't a lot of photos from my mother's side of the family, and the ones we do have are full of solemn-looking people that it seems nobody alive today can put a name to.

My dad's family is a slightly different story.  I think my grandmother might have some photo albums squirreled away somewhere, but I might have to wait until we get to Ohio in June to ask about them.  It's been decades since I peeked between the pages, but I vaguely remember little kids bundled up in snowsuits and awkward clumps of relatives staring darkly into the camera.  No weddings that I recall.

I definitely want to have pictures of my step-mom's parents along with the others.  I like the idea of Grandma Alice being there, in a sense.  She and her husband were a good-looking young couple, back in the day.  Funny thing is, there's no wedding photo of them.  Some nice portraits from approximately that era, but no pouffy dress or bouquets in sight.  It will have to do, to be sure, but it's not quite the same thing.

Fortunately, there's my man's family.  Not only do they have photos, but they even know who the subjects are.  And these aren't just pictures of parents and grandparents.  There are some great- and even great-great-ancestors.  My in-laws-to-be brought us copies of some of the pictures last weekend.  I am fascinated.

Obviously, I'm going to have to put some more time into making sure that my family is represented, too.  Can't have things all lop-sided with something like this...

We're planning on putting the photos out on the tables for our reception dinner.  They'll look pretty in their little thrift store frames, and maybe they'll be conversation-starters for the two big families that will be meeting and mingling for the first time.  Those are nice reasons for having the photographs there, but I think they'll play another, more subtle role, too.  I hope the images will be a reminder, at least a gentle one, both of where we've come from and of where we're going.