The Day Itself

May 2008

The Send Off

It's become derigour for the bride and groom to stay till the bitter end of the party, and then go out afterwards with friends to drink. I totally understand this impetuous, because people are in from all over the country to see you, and its your wedding, who doesn't want it to last longer? That said, we are considering doing something different. Since our wedding will be on Sunday we will have a chance to see people (and well, drink) earlier in the weekend, which is great because it means we can spend our wedding enjoying ourselves instead of greeting people we haven't seen in years. So, I'm thinking that we might go for the good old fashioned send off. We'll have a last dance with everyone else out on the floor with us, I toss my bouquet, everyone else tosses (something we are allowed to toss, birdseed?) at us, we dash to the car and drive away, off to the honeymoon. I think I want to enjoy the first hours of being married on our own with memories of our joyful send off.
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Posted in: Life, Meg's Thoughts, Planning, The Day Itself, Weddings | 11 Comments »

Oct 2008

Wedding Morning Glee

I found this picture of bride Emma rocking her ban.do headband, and doing a little pre-wedding teeth brushing via A Cup of Jo.

This is it! This is how I want to look the morning before my wedding. This is how I want to feel. I don’t want a thousand people primping me. I don’t want a gown that takes five people to get me into. I don’t want to be thinking about if the programs came out right, or if the centerpieces have wilted. Eff the centerpieces! I just want to be rocking out, giddy, excited, happy, and brushing my little teeth. And David will have to document it for you, because to save money on the wedding photography front, I decided we did not need pro-shots of me in my skivvys.

Posted in: Life, Meg's Thoughts, Planning, The Day Itself, Weddings | 10 Comments »

Jun 2009

Auspicious And Giddy And Free

I very rarely do this, but you have to go read this guest post by a bride on San Francisco wedding photographer Anna Kuperberg’s blog. You have to. It’s like a wedding graduate post, but from a totally different perspective. It’s well written and wise and true. It sums up a lot of what I’m trying to write about here, in a way I would never quite say it. She says about your wedding day:

You know that daily responsibilities and time and practicality â€“ yes â€“ they have decided together to give you a break on this night and step aside for what is larger: matters of the heart. Against all practical reason, you and your mate have made love the first priority.

Yes. Because you mustn’t take the title of my blog too seriously. In the end, a wedding is about something deeply unpractical, something deep and real and silly and foolish and wonderful and true. Now go read it.

Posted in: The Day Itself | 2 Comments »

Jul 2009

Buoyed By Love

I got this amazing email from reader Stephanie, which I'm going to keep in mind as I ponder things like what to wear on my head, or our seating chart, or guest list issues, or all the little details. Because in the end, I just don't think those details will be what I experience or what I remember....

The logistics may have set the mood, but nothing could prepare me for the energy and the vibe that followed. It was all about the people, our friends and family, about our dog chasing her tail in the middle of a packed living room/dance floor to Kenny Loggins' Footloose, about my new husband spontaneously switching the iPod to our favorite song and asking me to dance and our friends singing along, serenading us. The entire day was more than I ever could have imagined. I was buoyed by Love, humbled by the kindness and generosity of friends and family, and continuously smitten by the magic of it all.
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Posted in: Team Practical, The Day Itself | 8 Comments »

Aug 2009

Reporting Live From Inside Of Wedding Weekend

It's funny, wedding bloggers never seem to blog during wedding weekend. But one of the joys of getting married where you live (and there are many, but we'll go into that later) is that I'm still sitting on my couch, with my laptop in my living room (at least for now).

So what is wedding weekend like so far? I would say that it feels like the toughest yoga class I've ever been to, but also the most rewarding one. Because here is the thing - when you get all of your friends and relations together in one place for an event that feels high stakes - people will get stressed out, things will not always go as expected, though wonderful things will happen to. That's human, that's normal. But most of the time, when stressful things happen, we can give in to being annoyed. We can let the crappy bits of life stand larger than the joyful bits. But for your wedding you can't get thrown by little things. You have to pull yourself back to a core of calm that you've created for yourself, over and over again. You have to remember that a wedding is about love, and people stand still for love. You have to remember what wise wedding graduate Christina told me: "It is not your business what other people think of you." Because it's your wedding. You can't leave a bit of you behind gnawing over that little thing that went wrong, or that weird comment someone made. You have to show up with all of yourself.
Continue reading Reporting Live From Inside Of Wedding Weekend

Posted in: Life, Meg's Thoughts, The Day Itself, Weddings | 28 Comments »

Aug 2009

Post-Wedding Freedom

The evening of our wedding day we were browsing in a used bookstore (this is not surprising to you, is it? Of course not). I was looking through the magazine section and I stumbled upon a wedding magazine, a wedding magazine that I *like* at that. And I had this dull feeling in the pit of my stomach.

And suddenly I realized, “It’s not my problem anymore!” And I felt terribly terribly free.

You hear a lot about post-wedding depression. You hear about how when you wake up the morning after your wedding you will feel happy, but also a little empty… sad that the party is over. Maybe. Maybe this will happen to you, I don’t know. But what I can offer you is a ray of hope – it did not happen to us. Our wedding was wonderful. Our wedding was absurdly joyous. Our wedding was one amazing party. But it was exactly the right length, and when it was over I ran out of that door, making long strides in my silver heels as I dashed to the car.

Our wedding was just right. But we are both so happy to move on. We’ll have it in our memories for ever, and now we have a wide open vista ahead of us, with new adventures to be had…

Posted in: Life, Marriage, Meg's Thoughts, The Day Itself, Weddings | 19 Comments »