When Bob and I got married, all was right in the world. Small as our wedding was, it was perfect. But we were missing one little thing…one…minor detail…a celebration with family and friends. And without that, there did feel like a small piece of the puzzle was missing.
We never wanted a big wedding, especially not the ceremony. I agonized over a lot of things, some necessary, most not, because that’s just the way my brain works. We finally picked a date (give or take a week) and decided that was it. That was when we were going to DO IT and we were going to make it work. Then we realized that Josh would be in Iraq when we actually got married and instead of changing everything, we would postpone the reception part of things until he got home. We couldn’t celebrate something like this with one of Bob’s brothers deployed overseas. This also influenced how we handled the ceremony itself as well—our parents, a judge, and a photographer. We may have cut out practically everybody—but we did it our way and it was perfect for US.
Once we knew we were having the reception separate from the wedding, I knew exactly what kind of party I wanted. My older brother and sister did the same kind of thing when they each got married several years ago—a casual, come-as-you-are, backyard, picnic setting at my parents’ house. It would be comfortable, laid-back, and I wouldn’t have to wear a gawd awful, strapless, underwire bra that would poke me in the armpit all freaking day.
Josh came home from Iraq in April, safe and sound, and I set to party planning. Well…I started thinking about party planning. We eventually settled on July 10th for the party day and details fell into place, invitations went in the mail, yadda, yadda, yadda. I stressed myself out—unnecessarily—over just about everything, Bob talked me down off of several ledges, Mom and Dad handled a lot of things, and paid for almost all of it, whether I liked it or not, and while I had myself convinced I was forgetting something important, I still don’t know if I did or not.
Party day arrived and I had been watching the weather forecast like a hawk all week. Some sources said it wasn’t going to rain, some said there was a chance of scattered showers in the morning, some said it was going to rain later in the day. We rented a tent for the backyard just in case and there were a few sketchy looking clouds lingering about to keep us guessing. It was overcast, hot, and humid, but if the breeze kept up it was pretty tolerable in the shade.
We had enough food to feed the entire neighborhood. Not to mention CAKE. We had a pretty good turn out of people. Just about everyone who RSVP-ed showed up and we didn’t have very many on the list of invites that didn’t bother to RSVP at all. I’m still worried there are people I forgot to invite, but I hope they understand it was completely unintentional. It did rain in the afternoon for all of three minutes or so, but it was barely worth noting and it carried a lot of the humidity away with it.
My paralyzing anxiety remained fairly in check for most of the day, though my stomach didn’t accept much for food. I had taco dip (…taco diiiiiip…) and chips with seasoned sour cream, and I did force down a piece of cake at the end of the night, but it actually felt like a chore to eat. Why can’t I have that kind of reaction to junk food all the time? But I couldn’t very well let my wedding reception go by without having a piece of my own cake. (Also, I totally made up for the lack of food on Saturday over the next couple of days with an exorbitant amount of left over taco dip.)
The party turned out to be a pretty big success. By the end of the night, I was wiped out and ready for bed. After cleaning up, Bob and I packed up the car and headed home and crashed.
Sunday morning we opened up our spoils…and we did get spoiled, including a set of pots and pans (for when we finally have our own place), a panini press, and a digital picture frame (that I still need to fill up with wedding pictures).
And now…it’s all complete. There’s still the matter of thank you cards, I guess. But the biggest pieces are put together and everything is DONE.
And I’m never getting married again. It’s too much work. How do people have big weddings? Seriously? I would have shot myself or someone else before it was all over with if we had gone the “traditional” wedding route. Ours was so much less hassle and stress…and so very…US. As it should be.
—
 |
Marry Me Train |