One Year

On July 29, we celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary. First of all, let me say I still CANNOT wrap my head around the fact that I have been married for a year. Sometimes I feel like yesterday was my high school graduation. Second, I want to address a common issue I see happening among brides--and with myself for that matter. 

As a little girl, my friends and I fantasized about our weddings. (You know you did it too!) At the moment the bride-to-be slips that gorgeous diamond on her manicured finger, she enters full-on wedding planning mode. I’m talking magazine cut outs in laminated sleeves in categorized binders kind of obsession. (Or was that just me and my friends? Long hair, don’t care.) We brides spend months agonizing over little details like what fruit flavor would be the best filling for the cake, the age old battle of chicken vs. beef as a main dish, and exactly how each strand of our hair will look on the big day. Then, the big day comes and goes. One minute you’re in a frenzy, freaking out about how it might rain and whether or not you should order a last minute tent just in case. The next minute, you’ve just checked into a gorgeous hotel in a beautiful suite with your new HUSBAND, and all you can do is ask yourself “wait, is it really over?!” 

If you can’t identify with what I’m about to describe, then leave us other brides be and move on with your internet browsing. But if you can, please read on. In the months following the biggest day of your life to date, it is possible to feel a sort of void where your wedding used to be. Do not get me wrong, there is also an immense joy and a huge new part of your life that exists in your new home with your new husband, but it is eerily strange to realize that your girlish fantasies of wedding day and endless opportunities for what it would be like are gone. I feel as if Pinterest is a perpetuator of this issue, and causes us newlywed brides to browse way too many wedding boards afterward and wonder “what if?” Why didn’t I have those cute rustic bins filled with antique coke bottles? Would it have been better if I would have provided monogrammed fans for my guests and served beverages in mason jars?! Oh no... I think that’s my dream dress. Unfortunately, I did not have Pinterest before my wedding (over 10,000 pins later, I’m head over heels and kick myself for not discovering it sooner.) My advice to brides who are experiencing what my friends and I have confessed to each other to have experienced is focus on your positives. At some point, instead of second guessing everything and focusing on things I could have/should have done differently, I decided to make a list of the things I absolutely love about my wedding. I am so glad that I did! Grab a cup of coffee, take a Facebook break, and get ready. Here we go: 

1. Monogrammed antique lace handkerchief with my maiden initials- 

1. Cathedral length lace veil 

1. Cream Colored Roses (HAD to have the Delta Gamma flower, of course. Coupled with peonies, I believe it makes a perfect bridal bouquet.) 

1. Family Wedding Pictures (our parents, grandparents, and my great grandparents... all great examples of lasting love and successful marriage) 

1. White wedding cake with fresh flowers

1. Reception dress (made from my mother’s wedding dress, which was handmade by my grandmother)

1. Same church as my parents’ wedding/the church I grew up in  (so many special memories in this sanctuary. When they renovated while I was in college, I had the chance to write my favorite Bible verse under the hardwood laminate on the altar--we said our vows on top of Hebrews 6:19) 

1. Antebellum manor as reception venue 

Side note: This picture is just from the website, not how it was done-up on the big day. Just wanted to note that this venue is also the place where I had my interview for one of the most important organizations of my life- Mobile Azalea Trail. I thought it was neat that the walls in this place saw me as a teenage girl, eager to represent her city in an Antebellum dress and as a woman ready to marry the man of her dreams. :) 

1. Blush (ish pink) bridesmaid dresses- and more importantly the wonderful girls in the dresses

1. Gorgeous wreaths and muted color flowers

1. Red vintage mustang (this sweet ride took us from the ceremony to the reception, and then from our reception to the beautiful Battle House hotel for our wedding night)

1. Delta Gamma sisters singing “Someday”

1. My HANDSOME groom 

As more and more of my friends get married, I have realized two things: 1. Every wedding is beautiful and special in its own way. There truly is no such thing as the “perfect wedding.” (That’s right Pinterest junkies, I said it. Even your virtually planned fake wedding filled with rustic barns, lace dresses, and italian lighting isn’t perfect.) 2. At the end of the day, the only thing that REALLY matters is that you have married the person of your dreams, and the person that God has created especially for you. If you have been joined together in the eyes of God and celebrated that with those that you chose to surround you on that day, you are truly blessed. 

A year later as I reflect, I am more thankful than ever for the gracious showers, intimate and beautiful rehearsal dinner, and gorgeous wedding that we were given. I am still in awe of how blessed we were and still are today. Turns out, the only thing I would change is to live more in the moment of it all, taking it all in more slowly and intentionally. After all, it’s not a race to the finish line. Enjoy this time, brides, and relish EVERY season. Give thanks for what all you are being given, and praise the Lord for the gift you have of being able to marry that special someone, whether it is “Pinterest perfect” or not.