Father of the Bride

In just a few weeks my daughter will be walking down the aisle as a new bride.  I have to admit it is a day I have been waiting for a long time.  I am not only glad for my daughter but I am excited for myself. I have always wanted to be called " Father of the Bride".  Any man who has a daughter knows what I am feeling. To be the father of the bride makes a man, for at least one day, feel very important and definitely proud.  It is different than being father of the groom.  The father of the groom is proud of his son and excited for him, but the father is put in the background and witnesses the wedding from afar.  On the day of the wedding all eyes are on the bride, as they should be, when your daughter is the bride however part of the spotlight shines on her dad.  The mother of the bride is also in the spotlight, but she has to be careful not to upstage her daughter, the bride.  It is not good for the mother to take attention away from her daughter.
     The father however can strut like a proud peacock. It is as if he had something special to do with his daughter becoming the beautiful bride.  He gets to be the "ambassador" at the wedding, walking around shaking hands, greeting guests and taking credited for all the good things happenning that day.  For most of his life, dad stays in the background
and does the normal daily things a dad is supposed to do. He watches his children grow and provides for them without much fanfare.  He is just a dad.  On the day of his daughter's wedding, he is transformed into " Father of the Bride" and it is his reward for all he did to help her turn into the sophisticated, beautiful and intelligent woman that she has become.  It is a bittersweet time when his daughter gets married. She now becomes
a wife and someone else is responsible for taking care of her, answering her questions, making sure her car gets repaired, fixing things around her house and so on.  I will always be there for my daughter, but I know I will no longer be first in her life, as it should be.
     So as this wedding day approaches, I am going to enjoy every minute, and I will be
smiling and be the proud peacock named  " The Father of the Bride".