by Kathleen Keaveny

My 22 year old sister was getting married. Wow. It was hard to fathom, not only because of her young age, but because she was the first of my siblings to get married. It feels like only yesterday she was a senior at St. Teresa’s, just like me. She received many remarks about her age when she told people she was getting married. People were even more concerned when she told them that her 17 year old sister was going to be the Maid of Honor.

When my sister asked me to be her Maid of Honor, I swore that I would not be that crazy bridesmaid in “Say Yes to the Dress” or “Bridezillas” who calls her sister fat and tells her that her dress is atrocious. I wanted to help my sister plan her wedding, not my own. That proved to be more difficult than I thought.

I did my very best to support my sister’s decisions, even when they seemed ridiculous. You want to go to Ecuador for three months out of your nine month engagement to live in a remote mountain village? That will not get in the way of planning the wedding at all. Rainbow colored ring bearer pillows? Sure Elizabeth, that will match your wedding colors! Wedding pie instead of wedding cake? That is definitely normal. No bachelorette party? Alright, you are not getting away with that one.

It was a struggle sometimes, but I am glad that I kept my mouth shut because I knew the wedding she was planning was not mine. My sister and her husband’s wedding was perfect. It was quirky, cheerful, and relaxed, just like them.

There were times when my sister and I became frustrated, overwhelmed and annoyed. There were meltdowns and bickering, but only after the wedding did I realize that we are now closer than we ever were before. My sister and her husband are so happy and the work we did in preparation more than paid off.

The most important thing that I learned from this experience was that age does not matter. Elizabeth and her husband are 22 and I have never seen two people so perfect for each other (This is starting to get cheesy, I know, but hold on). It did not matter that I was a 17 year old planning my sister’s wedding. In those nine months we grew up more than we had in our entire life together.