photo credit: Vogue

George and Amal. The most beautiful couple wed in the most beautiful fashion. I’ve been drooling over the photos for days. The world has. I’ve learned a few things about marriage by watching their weekend long celebration in Venice:

—PATIENCE. George, 53, said he’d never wed again after his brief marriage in his 20s to actress Talia Balsam. But he waited, and got Amal.  She’s a beautiful, stunning international lawyer. A woman Vogue was clamoring to dress.  She’s close with her family. She represented Julian Assange. That takes balls. George waited, and found a stunning, intellectual woman with balls.

Meanwhile, Amal was quotes as saying she was waiting for “Mr. Perfect,” before she got married. In that time, she focused on her career, her family and herself. And got one of Hollywood’s biggest actors.

Men and women can date a whole crop of the wrong ones, but it only takes one right one to be forever. Look at all of the women George dated before he settled down. Models, bartenders, former wrestlers. None of them were hard to look at. But they were hard to start a family with. To be serious about. And thus, never received a “seven-carat, ethically mined emerald-cut diamond that hovers like a Chiclet-size spaceship” on their finger, as Vogue described.

—THAT SAID, LIFE HAPPENS FAST: George and Amal only dated for 6 months before he proposed. No 300 sandwiches there! Yes, I crawled towards an engagement myself. But I was nowhere near the prospect of being engaged and living with my soul mate–or making any damn sandwiches—three years ago. I was still in a basement level studio with a dog then, spending Friday nights on the couch with red wine and episodes of “Dateline.” Imagine what the next three years will bring.

–DON’T TRY SO HARD. It seems all Amal did to nab George was exist. She rocked it as a top barrister. She dressed so effortlessly chic. No overly tight or skimpy clothes. No sex tapes. No speaking loudly or dancing on tables or being sloppy drunk in public (I mean, I haven’t seen any evidence of either on Instagram. Have you?). She just did her thing. And that was enough.

And, on a personal note, I learned something else.

I WANT AN ACTUAL WEDDING.

E and I had recently been thinking we may not want a big ceremony. We may just want to have a small party with a few friends, and then go away on a long, extended honeymoon. George and Amal’s weekend-long festivities in Venice included a tightly edited guest list, boats, dinners, dancing, an Oscar de la Renta dress, laughter, smiling faces, and the entire city’s well wishes as they walked into Venice’s town hall for the private civil ceremony. Every person who was at the wedding or around the wedding was smiling. George couldn’t stop smiling!

I want that. I want people—family and friends—to celebrate that moment. I want a white dress, and it doesn’t have to be Oscar de la Renta, but I want one. I want Champagne, laughter, and flowers. And I want it all captured on film. Because a love so great you need a party to celebrate it only happens a few times in life, so most likely, this is my only wedding. It’s worth commemorating in a big way. With cake and Champagne and white dresses and friends.

Maybe in Venice.

Nah. George and Amal, you’ll always have Venice.

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