There are a lot of surprises when you first start planning a wedding. Some surprises you expect like sticker shock of how expensive everything is and astonishment of how many different kinds of chiffon there is (spoiler alert: there isn’t just one kind, guys. There is like, a lot.) Other surprises, you can’t expect. The one thing for me that has been an unexcepted surprise is how planning a wedding has been a practice in overwhelming gratitude.
I’ve always been the kind of person to “do it myself” – I don’t heavily rely on others to get things done. Maybe it’s because I can be stubborn or a control freak, or maybe it’s because I get a lot of satisfaction from doing something on my own -I don’t like to be coddled, and don’t ever want people to go out of their way for me. But, when I embarked on my wedding planning/engaged life, I quickly learned that you can’t be this way with your wedding. When you get married all the people who love you the most get together to go out of their way to do special things for you.
This past weekend Michael’s Best Man flew up from Texas to surprise Michael. He’d even gotten ALL the groomsmen together to take him golfing, to a Red Sox game, and a nice steak dinner (and I’m quite certain there was plenty of beer and whiskey involved but I’ll just let them keep those details to themselves.) Thinking about it, I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by the amount of time and effort these guys (who didn’t all even know each other) went through to give Michael this speical weekend.
Everywhere we turn with this wedding, we’re faced with our loved ones going out of their way to make everything special for us not because we ask them to, but because they want to do that for us. And, that’s an extremely humbling experience. When I shared a post about going bridesmaid dress shopping with my girls, I shared the story with you all about how my girls pooled together to get us a photographer (because Michael and I couldn’t afford one). I think about how amazing it was of them to do that for Michael and I almost everyday.
Yesterday I went to pick up some Thank You note cards for the wedding, there are so many “thank you’s” involved in getting married: thank you for engagement gifts, for attending a bridal shower, for being a kick-ass Maid of Honor, for a wedding gift….and it got me thinking even more about why this process of getting married can make you feel so grateful. If I need to buy THIS many boxes of Thank You cards, then I must be pretty lucky that I have this many people to say “thank you” to. And, for the people out there like me – who don’t like to be doted on – it has been a practice in just stepping back and allowing people to do these things for me and to be grateful to have them in my life.
See past wedding posts:
I’m Engaged: Our Proposal Story
Wedding Inspiration: Mood Board
8 Perfect Engagement gifts
Will you be my Bridesmaid?
Erin Condren Wedding Planner
Will you be my Groomsman?
What Wedding Planning is Really Like
Our Save the Dates – How I did it all for under $75
Bridesmaid Dress Shopping
Our Succulent Wedding Invitations