I'm really close to my family, and I really want one of my own.

The words of Julia Restoin Roitfeld—“I’m really close to my family, and I really want one of my own. But the wedding, it’s not necessary for me.”—speak with clarity and quiet defiance against the expectations of the world. She honors the sanctity of family, both the one that gave her life and the one she longs to create, yet she separates this sacred desire from the ceremonial weight of a wedding. In her voice is the ancient truth that love and belonging are not validated by ritual alone, but by the bond of hearts and the daily acts of care.

The declaration that a wedding is not necessary challenges the age-old belief that marriage must be sealed with feast and spectacle. Across time, societies have exalted the wedding day as the pinnacle of love, yet many have found that vows spoken beneath the eyes of heaven or state do not guarantee joy. Restoin Roitfeld reminds us that the essence of union is not found in the grandeur of ceremony, but in the intimacy of lives shared, meals eaten together, and children raised in love.

History offers us the story of Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher-emperor, whose writings in Meditations remind us that duty, kindness, and steadfastness matter more than appearances. Though he ruled Rome, his reflections often dismissed the vanity of rituals, urging instead that life be measured by virtue. Likewise, Restoin Roitfeld’s words are not a rejection of love, but a rejection of vanity—of the idea that celebration must precede substance.

The strength of her conviction is also born from her closeness to her family. She knows that the foundation of love is not in spectacle but in presence. A daughter who has known the strength of kinship recognizes that the real inheritance lies not in ceremonies but in the daily weaving of loyalty, sacrifice, and joy. Thus, her desire for a family of her own springs not from societal duty but from the living example she has already received.

Therefore, O listener, take this wisdom into your heart: do not mistake the wedding for the love itself. A feast may pass in a day, but the bonds of family endure across lifetimes. If you have love, you are rich; if you have loyalty, you are blessed. The altar of true union is not always built in temples of stone—it may be built quietly in the home, in the laughter of children, and in the strength of devotion that asks for no witness but the heart.