Wedding Stress

To start this post off, I never wanted to have a wedding.  I liked the idea of being married, and I think deep down I knew I would meet the right guy (I didn't think it would happen as quickly as it did!), but having a wedding was not in my plans.  My thinking was that if the guy I was with was going to make me have a wedding, then he wasn't the right guy for me.  My very naive thinking, that is.

It's not that I didn't want to share my marriage with my friends and family.  But I know my family, and I knew an event to bring them all together would not be easy.  I also knew, as soon as I moved to Louisiana, that there was a very small chance my wedding would be in the Northeast, where they all are.  People wouldn't be able to come, feelings would get hurt, etc.  I just didn't want to mess with all of that.

When Philip and I first started dating, we talked about this.  Weddings were pretty important to him.  He's very close with his family and his thinking was that they deserved to be a part of that special day for him.  I don't really know how he convinced me, but he did.

Throughout the whole planning process, I haven't been a very good bride.  Occasionally I would get really overwhelmed and panic and tell Philip I couldn't do it.  Which, to be fair, I haven't done much.  We have a lot of people (mainly Philip's family) willing to step in and make decisions that normal brides should make, but that I didn't really have a preference on.  Thank goodness for those people.

Here we are a week and a half away from the big day, and I'm actually getting excited.  Of course, all the things I expected to happen did happen.  From financial stress to family drama to people not coming and getting hurt feelings.  But we came out of it.

I think when I was telling myself I wasn't ever going to have a wedding, I left out one factor.  The groom.

Duh.  Of course there would be a groom there who is supposed to make me feel better.  When I panic because I really don't care about flowers or when someone I love won't be able to make it, his job is to comfort me and tell me it's going to work out.  I honestly never factored that into the "having a wedding" equation.

Now, I'm getting pretty excited.  A bunch of my college and high school friends are coming.  My freaking adorable nephew will be in a perfect little outfit.  I love my $99 wedding dress.  And Philip and his friends have a performance planned out for the reception.  I think it will be really fun.  If it hadn't been so important to Philip to have a wedding, I can't honestly say we'd be having one.  Because, while I'm very excited to share this experience with my friends and family, I could have lived without the emotional breakdowns.  But I'm glad it's here, and I'm glad we're doing it.

And seriously, who wouldn't want to marry the guy who makes them laugh like this?:

PS:  I saw my nephew this weekend.  And this is how cute he is...