The Best Wedding Advice I Received

Having a wedding is supposed to be a joyful experience. It's like taking a road trip. There are unusual stops, turns, ups and downs. But getting to the altar can be a total nightmare sometimes. You have everyone trying to tell you and your significant other where to buy the dress, what ring you should wear, what food to have, etc. The flower shop sends the wrong flowers, you don't know who to invite, AGHHHHH! It's enough to make you fly to Vegas and elope with Elvis as the minister.

When I had my wedding, I knew I wanted a small, intimate gathering. I knew I wanted it in the Fall, because of the beautiful colors of the season and I wanted it to be a Halloween/Forest Fairy theme, because my husband's favorite holiday was Halloween. My fiancee and I didn't have rich parents, so we knew we would pay for it ourselves. We even designed the wedding invitations ourselves and printed them out at our local print shop. I got engaged in March. The wedding was for October. I didn't really stress about it until it was late September and I still had not gotten a dress. When my best friend (who was also my Maid of Honor) pointed that mere fact to me, I felt like someone had dropped a grand piano on my head. Oh my Gosh! What was I going to do? And sure enough...we went to like 20 different stores over the weekend and I could not find the perfect dress that fit my themed wedding, or my budget. When I did find it, it wasn't my size and when they delivered my size, it was burnt in the middle (apparently the designer went glue-gun happy and burnt a hole in the decorative part of the waistline.) On the day of my wedding, the powers that be decided to deliver my monthly gift. My sister-in-law failed to decorate the outside of her backyard because she forgot (it was an outside wedding). And, to top it all off, it was about to rain, and the guests are waiting for me because I was outside decorating my own wedding scene with my Maid of Honor and I lost track of time. ARGHHHHH!!!

I hesitated to call my mother for 1 reason. My mom would not be able to attend my wedding because she lived in Puerto Rico and she nor I could afford to buy her a ticket. I felt so bad that I could not have my own mom at my wedding. But I had promised to send her the homemade video and pictures my friends were going to take so that she could have a reminder of my dream wedding (that was turning out to be a downright nightmare). But before I stepped out into the train-wreck of my special day, I picked up my cellphone and called her. I bawled and bawled and apologized and ruined all my make-up. And you know what she said? "Honey, all that matters is that you are marrying the person that makes you happy. Once you look into his eyes, and you know that you will be united with him under God, all you will remember is that you were meant to be with him." With that, she wished me good luck and said she loved me and hung up.

I felt so much better! As I walked out the door, expecting rain but not caring, I was received with a beautiful partly-cloudy sky, that fit perfectly with my wedding theme. The sun seemed to follow me to the tree where my groom and Pastor Tim waited for me. As soon as my groom took my hands and mouthed the words " I love you, gorgeous", I knew my mother had been right. I can barely remember the ceremony, or even half the people that showed up. All I really remember was that I was happy. And that was all that mattered. :)