A year and a week, final
So there, that was our wedding. I ended up learning several things from planning our wedding. First, I still have the ability to completely surprise my family from time to time. For one thing, I’m the one that proposed to Jared, not the other way around. I even made everyone double-take when I told them that not only did I propose to him, I did it via a webcomic re-purpose but that I’d sent it to him by email (which lead to a whole other set of issues that makes for an amusing tale now, but caused me to freak out then). What can I say? We’re geeks! When we started to really get into the wedding planning, I was told several times at how “together” I was. Not that I’m a complete flake, but that I had so much taken care of that when someone would ask “What about the caterer? Have you thought about that?”, I’d be able to pull out my iPhone, pull up the relevant email thread, and rattle off whatever information they were looking for. A large chunk of my family isn’t used to seeing me in full ”operational” mode, and I think in addition to amusing them, it helped everyone be at ease that weekend. “Problems? Oh check the contingency plan list. I’m sure Amy has something on there for that problem.” And everyone around me being at ease helped me keep calm and collected. Thankfully, while there were wrinkles, no one panicked!
I also learned how much both of our families and all of our friends wanted to help. People that I hadn’t talked to in forever were contacting us to offer support, help, or a friendly ear to vent into over beers. Family kept checking with us to make sure that we -were- getting the wedding we both wanted, not something that we were “making do” with. All of the support and offers of help in a tough economy made me sit back every so often and just be amazed at the love surrounding us. It truly is one thing to say “oh our family and friends are helping” and another to faced with everyone merrily pitching in the day of to make sure you and your soon-to-be-husband are having a wonderful time.
What was surprising was how smoothly everything went, even with the delays and weather. If an issue popped up, it got handled quickly with very little fuss. People hopped on board to help, without being asked. But the most amusing surprise was how the man who rents the pastureland that surrounds my mom’s house found out about the wedding and sent a crew out to bush hog (aka “mow”) the pasture so it would “look good”.
The weather could have mattered and it didn’t. (Personally, I think it was better for being inside, and everyone had a blast.) The delays could have mattered and they didn’t. The budget mattered, and we spent less than I’d been aiming for, so that was total win. What -really- mattered though was what we wanted our day to be, which is what happened: good food, lots of love and laughter, and being surrounded by those who loved us. And in that, we succeeded fantastically.
So now it’s been a year and then some since Jared and I got married. I got asked last week if we’re still in the “honeymoon” phase. I had to think about that for a moment before replying “Yes, and no. Yes, it’s still awesome. Yes, we’re still giggly and goofy with each other. But no, because it’s just like it was before we got married, only better.” I stick by that statement. It’s not better because we went off and got married, but it’s better cos we’re in this together and we know it. In other year, it’s going to be even more awesome. And pretty much, even with the ups and downs that life tosses at us, we still find time to just be with each other, be silly and make each other laugh, mock the cats, and get on with life. I get reminded of just how awesome Jared is on pretty much a daily basis. And really, finding someone to go through this weirdness called life, someone to have your back, make you laugh, hold you when you cry, be there every step of the way, sharing in and increasing the joy while lessening the pain, isn’t that what love and marriage should be about?
