Discussions on how to give a wedding toast typically focus on younger couples in their twenties or early thirties. Young love is especially passionate, often reflected in the toasts themselves. But what about a wedding toast for an older couple? Is there anything different about them?
To be clear, passion isn’t strictly the domain of the young. But mature love goes much deeper than the rapturous feelings that overwhelm young love.
Writing in Psychology Today, Suzanee Degges-White, PhD., offers a sober glimpse into the depths of mature love:
“Love and marriage require a 100 percent investment from both partners — and acceptance of your spouse as a 50/50 partner in all that you do. If you can look your love in the eye, and know that you would not bat that eye, no matter what document, past relationship, or current anxiety was brought up between you, then perhaps marriage is the logical next step.”
Louis de Berniéres expressed it beautifully in his 1994 novel, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. The text follows. You can watch these words performed (not verbatim) in the scene above with John Hurt and Penelopé Cruz:
Love is a temporary madness.
It erupts like volcanoes and then subsides.
And when it subsides, you have to make a decision.
You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together
that it is inconceivable that you should ever part.Because this is what love is.
Love is not breathlessness,
It is not excitement,
It is not the promulgation of eternal passion.
That is just being “in love” which any fool can do.
Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away,
And this is both an art and a fortunate accident.
Those that truly love, have roots that grow towards each other underground,
And when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches,
They find that they are one tree and not two.
Now there’s a wedding toast for an older couple! In fact, it’s a lovely toast regardless of age.
By the same token, Scott Stevens Entertainment provides dance-floor-packing entertainment regardless of the age of the couple. We customize the music to your tastes and MC the events with professional flair. Check out our availability for your affair today.
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