Forget the Wedding, Plan for Marriage

After months of planning, planning, and more planning, our day had finally arrived. Our wedding took more hours of my thought, dollars from my wallet, and sanity from mind than any other event in my life. It was all worth it. For the previous months, my thoughts were consumed by details such as: chair covers, party favors, registering, dress alterations and the list goes on.... I never realized, until the day of our wedding that these "important" details truly didn't matter so much. The weather wasn't quite as sunny as I would have liked. A few details got pushed to the side. I finally realized that no matter what happened or what details fell apart, I was still getting married- and that was the point, wasn't it?

I was married. A few guests didn't show up; some others came in their place. The sun wasn't out the entire day. We were rushed through photographs. We were still married. Still smiling. Just finally realizing that the only thing that really mattered that day was that we were married.

All of my married friends would tell me "Your wedding day will go by so fast, cherish it." I cherished, lingered on little private moments with my husband, I relished in the joy on my guests faces at the reception. I looked beautiful. I basked in the glory of being a Mrs... My friends were right, the day sure went fast! The good thing about that is that the wedding wasn't just about that one day. All of the money spent, missed sleep and stress was a small price to pay to kick off the rest of my life.

I wish I had known that it didn't really matter which invitations we chose, the color of the ribbons on the bubbles, or even the color of the bridesmaid dresses. All that matters is that I walked down that aisle with my groom smiling at me, we said the some of the most sacred words known to man, and that we finally, finally got married.

The best advice that I can give any bride-to-be is to keep your eyes on the prize, as long as you remember that your prize is getting married. If you want an enjoyable engagement period, you must be willing to compromise and recognize that things will not always go perfectly during your planning process. Even if you end up hating being engaged, as some of my friends have, at least you can remind yourself that you only have to do it once!