First: how fascinating is this article?  I mean, it makes perfect sense to me that those of us who smile and laugh more are going to have more sucessful marriages.  And not just any old smile for a picture, it has to be a high wattage smile.  It can't just be a posed smile; it has to be sincere...

Second: I love this wedding.  Don't misunderstand, it's not that I want it for myself (it's a little too, I don't know... awkward?  Middle school?  Adorable and fun but not me? ...er, okay, costuming is a little bit me, but not that much...).  But I adore the creativity and love that went into it.  This is acceptance and sincerity.  Everyone involved was so earnest.  How can that not be beautiful? 

If you've clicked on the link already, then you're probably thinking I'm crazy by now or totally socially inept if I love an uber-geeky cosplay wedding, partially performed in Klingon no less.  You're probably right, but let me take a moment to try to make you see what I'm seeing.  Take a moment to look past the dorkiness required to pull off something like this and look to the meaning behind the decisions this couple made.  Because the truth is that I'm not particularly enamored of their costumes--they don't make me gasp then whimper something unintelligible about how badly I want that dress, etc---but I am enamored of the fact that they wore what they like/enjoy.  They did what makes them feel special.  And when you're putting on an event that's about how special and sacred your love is, shouldn't you be doing what makes you feel special instead of what makes you feel ugly and like you'll never measure up, makes you feel fake?  I'm not saying that traditional wedding clothes do this, but let's be real: not everybody looks good wearing the same thing.  Anyway, the clothes aren't the point here, the point is that it wasn't the clothes, etc, that made their ceremony sacred, it was the sincerity with which they carried through the vows and traditions.  It's not the tradition or lack-there-of that makes a wedding beautiful (btw, I give mad props to the bride for having her dad walk her down the aisle and telling the feminists to go stuff themselves, because that's what I want too!), it's the sincerety with which the participants believe in the meaning behind what they do.  It's the integrity with which they carry out their part.  And if you have to wear cosplay to have that kind of integrity, then do it.  But if you relate to the tuxedo and the church instead of the pirate ship, then for pity's sake: do that instead!  Do what makes you feel most sincere--even if that means you don't match the color scheme or theme.  Why do you need theme?  "Wedding", "we're in love"; that's a theme.  Anyway...

One last thing about this wedding: if you look at the flikr stream with all the photos, there's one of the groom posed in his samurai getup that the bride captioned with the assertion that he just plain looked hot.  I think that caption more than anything else about that wedding makes me realize how beautiful it is.  Only true love looks at you when you've revealed the inmost desire of who you wish to be--an image that the rest of the world thinks looks awkward and geeky and lame and tacky--only true love sees you at your dorkiest, looks past the bad hair, the glasses, the skinny arms and ill-fitting clothes to see the samurai within and proclaims: hot.