People ran up and down the marble staircase, their heels clicking on the glimmering tile, each one of their faces in a different state of hyperventilating panic. All of the men and women stood ready – at attention.  Each held a weapon of their choice, in their clammy palms - soaked by the beads of sweat from the stifling heat of the day, ready to step outside onto the muddy battlefield. They lined up in two neat, single file lines, clutching their weapons and smoothing out their matching armor, secretly wishing they could be wearing absolutely anything else.
“Take the children downstairs, it’s about to begin.”
An old woman appeared almost out of thin air and walks to the front of the assembled group. She turns to face them. Every single pair of eyes is on the woman as she commands the room, grounded to the tile floor and staring with a menacing grin at the men and women that stand before her. She raises her eyebrows at her soldiers and without speaking a single word she challenges each and every one of them to complete the task that has been assigned to them without a flaw. She turns around and pushes open the two large oak doors in front of her. Sunlight floods through the building and fresh air circulates around the stale atmosphere. The sight and smell of nature set off vociferous moans of stomach churning nausea from around the room. 
One last time, the men and women look around at each other, reassuring themselves they knew the drill, they had gotten it right once and they could surely do it again. With the last of their elbow grease -which was used up from the night before- they cranked out their processed flat smiles and followed their leader outside onto the moist grass and mosquito infested air to show off for all of the starry eyed spectators.
I sat back in a hard wooden chair with one of my hands in my mouth, biting off every last piece of fingernail that was left. There were little balls of water starting to form on the corners of my eye and my stomach was in knots from the tight and heavy armor. I heard footsteps coming from around the corner and I sat up straight, feeling panic shoot through my veins and into my brain, clouding the thoughts that were telling me how disastrous everything was going to turn out.
  I saw him, a tall and frail old man that I recognized very well. His shaky hands indicated that he was nervous as well, with his green and blue veins popping out of his paper thin skin. However, when I found the energy to look up into his face I saw that his eyes taught implacable lessons that were way beyond his living years, and his smile told of his saving reassurance that the most righteous and preeminent thing was about to happen. My life was never going to be the same.
I smiled and kicked up my enormous and poofy white dress, trying to balance as I stood up in my white sparkly stiletto heels. 
My father smiled and held out his arm. “Are you ready to walk down the aisle?”