Friday, Mar. 21, 2008 4:00 p.m.

weddings, post-nuptial

since I just went to a wedding last weekend, and I just posted a bunch of those pictures, and because the last three blogs I've read have been about:
1) attending the above-mentioned wedding and being married in general.
2) wedding plans of a girl that just got engaged.
3) looking at engagement portraits of another girl that recently got engaged.

weddings are on my mind.

I still think it's funny that mine is over. Actually, the whole idea of weddings in the first place now seems kind of humorous to me.

Or maybe it's just humorous to me because I didn't do anything the right way. We didn't have engagement pictures taken. I never had a bridal portraits. I didn't have a mock trial with my hairstyle and veil, heck, I didn't even know what to do with my hair til the day of and my mom just kind of did it.

I didn't have a bridesmaid luncheon. I met K's sister, one of the bridesmaids, for the first time the day before the wedding. That's when I met his mom for the first time too, come to think of it.

Our "rehearsal" was in a little BBQ restaurant where we pushed back the tables to make room for a mock aisle. No one knew what they were doing, but to be honest, I don't think I really cared.

We began decorating for the wedding about 6 or 7 hours before the ceremony. Last minutes decisions on setup were made on the spot. We had chairs delivered, a metal gazebo erected; our cake was picked up from the local grocery store. We rented sound equipment and one of the groomsmen volunteered to be the DJ.

It was 95 degrees outside, in October, and the 3:30 outdoor ceremony was unbearably hot. K's dad, who was marrying us, couldn't pronounce my last name. And talked too long. I forgot to hand out the programs beforehand, so I just went around to everyone's table while we were eating, because gosh darnit, they were cool programs that I made myself and wanted everyone to have! :)

We didn't really have a plan for the reception, things just kind of happened. Drunk friends decorated our car (with lovely drawings of penises and boobs); I didn't plan it, so I don't know how that happened. Awesome best friend revisions and my sister went and decorated our little cabin with candles for us. We left to a shower of untraditional silly string and champagne poppers.

We were at a campground, our cabin was a stone's throw from my parents' cabin. At some point during the evening, a drunk aunt (who was camping at the campground) starting running around the cabin and banging on the doors to "embarrass" us, you know, like the old days...

We hung out with our families the next morning, said our goodbyes, washed a few shoepolished pictures off our car, and drove back to California. We didn't save the top layer of our cake, we didn't even leave straight for a honeymoon.

But eventually, it was all over. It's long forgotten now. And it's interesting to attend weddings now, and I try to remember what it was like for me, so I can understand what it is like for them. I remind myself of the excitement, of the stress of believing that everything has to be perfect because it's the 'best day of your life'.

but the truth is, it's not the best day of your life, no matter how much effort you put into it. Things will go wrong, and guests have a short-term memory, and there's the same amount of minutes in that day as there is any other. And then there's this whole other life that takes place afterwards, and the wedding just gets remembered as an expensive day that you have pretty pictures from...that no one else really cares to see, even though they pretend to.

it's all so odd, weddings are. They're the only bit of tradition we still seem to hold on to, after hundreds and hundreds of years.

hmm...this entry is pointless, but I don't really have a point to bring it to.

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