Two weeks from today I am getting married. I really could not be happier. Nine months ago I started courting the most amazing man Iv'e ever met, we fell in love quickly and three months later he proposed. It has been an absolute fairytale and I never could have dreamed I would be so lucky.
Now, even though I am madly in love in the disgusting kind of way that makes people think that little cartoon birds help me get dressed every morning and therefore do not want to be around me...we are not going to talk about that aspect of this story.
Instead, Let me tell you a little bit about wedding planning...
In retrospect, after all of the looks of concern Iv'e gotten in the past six months paired with "uh...are you ok?" from random strangers, I'm pretty sure that without realizing it Iv'e had a look on my face as if I had just seen a dead body. Probably with some smoke coming out of my ears and drool consistently dripping out of my half-open mouth.
Besides planning a wedding, both my fiancee' and I have been working or doing school a total of about 45-50 hours a week each, I got into a car accident in January which totaled my car, not to mention that I live an hour away from where Luke lives and where the wedding will be.
So including those chaotic circumstances and between the venue, the dress, the guest list, the food, the cake, the invitations, the decorations, the photography, the honeymoon, the wedding party and the music- Ive lost somewhere between 10-15 lbs , developed my first serious and very unattractive case of acne, and am up to probably a total of 62 nervous breakdowns.
Now, the first lesson that my fiancee' and I both learned from other peoples mistakes, even before we got engaged was that so many people seemed to take the stress of wedding planning out on each other-they bickered, they fought, some even almost broke up. So we had made a plan not to do that. Even if it was stressful, we would remind each other of the end result-which was us ending up together in a cabin in the mountains somewhere as husband and wife, starting our life together. So as far as Luke and I have been, our decision to be a team no matter how insane it got has totally helped, and even if we are working through issues, the issues aren't about dumb things like centerpieces.
Second lesson learned, not as easy as the first, is that weddings will always bring out peoples true colors, colors you've never seen before. People you thought would be totally stoked about finally finding your other half, won't be. People you thought were totally low-maintenance and easy-going turn out to be controlling. People you counted on to be helpful and encouraging will want to just take and not give. And a ridiculous amount of people will act as if this whole thing is about them. These have been a cause of both hurt and frustration.
But with all that of course, there will be those who you just met who would lay down their life so that this day can be as special as possible. Those who are almost as excited as you are about all of it. Those who want to give and give and want nothing in return. And those who are there to constantly remind you that in spite of the way some people are acting, it is in fact about us. These have been the ones who have made this season of our lives so special for us. The ones that I will always be thankful for. The ones that I can hopefully be like when it comes the time for others in our life to get married.
So finally-were down to the wire. Yes, its going to be a little crazy in the next two weeks with still being in school, while moving all of my stuff up to denver, having a herd of relatives and friends come in from every different corner of america(plus still needing to actually meet half of them), doing all of the final fittings, consultations, trial runs, and what not, while continually reminding myself to wipe the drool off my face and smile in order to convince people that I don't in fact need to be committed to an asylum- I still think it will be a blast.
Because every single day since last year, Ive been falling more in love with this man and have never felt so protected and taken care of. And we want to finally be together, for better or for worse.
