The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain....

I was inspired tonight to write this blog based on a tweet I read from Tony Brewer and Company of a quote from Dolly Parton.  It got me thinking about rain – and rainbows – and rain on your wedding day – and rainbows on your wedding day.  I, personally, did have rain on my wedding day.  It wasn’t raining when we went into church but it did rain during my ceremony and on the way to the reception.  Fortunately, my church has a pull-under stone archway that we were able to get in the car there and not get wet.  By the time we got to the reception, the rain had died down.  The country club where we had the reception was right overlooking the lake, and when I made my way to the cocktail party (after getting my dress bustled!), my friends came looking for me to show me that there was not one but TWO rainbows over the lake.  It was beautiful and amazing!

People always tell you that it is “good luck” for it to rain on your wedding day.  I always thought that was an old wives tale to make the bride feel better about the fact that her day was NOT the way she planned it (because, come on…no one dreams of having it raining on their wedding day!).  I did a little research though and found some interesting cultural information about why it actually is considered to be lucky to have it rain on your wedding day…

• In some cultures rain is good luck, and can represent cleansing or stronger unity in the marriage.
• It comes from several cultures mainly from the Hindu with the idea that a wet knot is harder to untie since marriage is often referred to as tying the knot.
• Rain was also a symbol of fertility to agricultural societies, since rain restored and maintained the wellness of crops. Crops were peoples main source of stability and income so it was thought to guarantee a long happy marriage.

Those all seem like valid reasons to me as to why it is good to have it rain on your wedding day…at least enough to make you feel a little bit better about your day being damper than you had envisioned!

Now everyone believes that a rainbow on your wedding day is really a sign of being lucky.  And that very well may be true, but one article I read on things that made your wedding day lucky said yes, seeing a rainbow was a sign of good luck.  Of course, the same article said it was good luck to see a black cat. Or  sneezing cat.  Hmmmm…good luck with that!

The thing I take away from the quote by dear ol’ Dolly is this – in life there will be good times, which are symbolized by the rainbows, but there will be bad times (rain) too.  The trick is to find the person for you that you are willing to weather out the storms for because the rainbows are such a nice reward for putting up with rain, both on your wedding day and every day!