I love wedding day toasts. Typically, by the time the wedding day rolls around, I've gotten to know my couple fairly well, but listening in to toasts by the father of the bride, best man, and maid of honor always leave me with an expanded perspective of who a couple really is.
One of my favorite toasts ever was given by a father of the bride at one of my weddings a few years ago. He talked a lot about the couple, about their relationship together, about his love for his daughter - and then he took a spin on the typical "father of the bride" speech and started talking directly to the people in the room. He challenged them to love on this couple long after the wedding day. To check in on them, and to find ways to support them in their marriage. He noted something in that moment that everyone already knew, but that he said anyways: marriage is tough. And often times, even in marriage, it feels as though we're living in isolation. We unintentionally isolate ourselves from other people and try to fix the broken pieces of ourselves all on our own, but in reality, we need to be supporting and uplifting each other, not just on the wedding day, but years and years after.
So today, I want to put a little challenge out on this little corner of the web: send a married friend a little love today. Write them a note. Or send them a message. Or show up in their lives somehow - today, tomorrow, next week - and show your support of their marriage. We have enough marriage-bashing jokes going around. What if we started to change our perceptions and words towards marriage to reflect the good instead of the bad?