I was never the little girl who planned her wedding, knew what kind of dress she wanted, the colors she would have, the flowers, the scenery. It was just not something I had wanted to dwell on. I dreamed of it being beautiful, but never had a set picture in my mind of what that would look like in reality.
I loved the way several books had described the wedding day, but that was about it.
So this was a little stressful.
I arrived back to a job, but nowhere to live. Then God provided, and I found myself living with 3 sweet girls from my church.
The engagement year was really hard, realising it was my last year in England and preparing for the changes to come, like filing for a visa, planning a big move across the Atlantic, but also still trying to enjoy this engagement season and being content with where the Lord had still placed me for just a bit longer.
My sweet friends made it so much easier.
I'm also so thankful that we still had that distance, just as protection from that physical intimacy. As much as we didn't appreciate it a lot, I know it was really God's grace.
It also gave us the necessary time to plan a wedding when one of you is working full time and the other is in school.
We also planned our wedding in a city that neither of us were living in. Thankfully we were able to find a venue for the ceremony & reception really soon after we were engaged.
The rest was done in a few intense intervals, like Thanksgiving we both were able to head back to where A's family was originally from and plan our wedding and again my sister and I flew in 10 days before our wedding the following summer.
So we were able to do most things in those few days.
The Lord really just opened doors and provided from the beautiful church we found with a fee we could afford who would let us bring in our own pastor, to the reception hall who gave us a huge discount when we opted to have no alcohol at the reception, finding bouquets for the bridesmaids at a store that was liquidizing and also finding bridesmaids dresses available in 3 different countries so that all our bridesmaids could order them!
In so many ways I think it was good while I was single to not focus on a wedding, although I will admit that I probably frustrated people at various points with not knowing perhaps what I was looking for.
I did try and maintain a mindset of the wedding not being as big of a deal as it is made out to be in movies. Having it absolutely perfect, because it is really a celebration of the marriage. Not about the wedding.
I don't think its a bad thing to know what you want, but just to remember to hold onto it lightly, remembering what your real goal is with planning.
So we tried our best to make our focus the marriage, again there was a lot of grace.
I wish pinterest had been around when we were planning though, so many cute DIY ideas you can use which look amazing and also don't blowup your budget.
If you are planning (or just interested in looking):
This post is part of my 31 day series for the month of October,
fighting through the fears and sharing the confusing passions I have.
Hoping to figure out the bigger picture of all these interests.
Oooh wedding planning! :) It really is glamorized isn't it?!? Did you see the article going around about the guy who heard his girlfriend say she dreamed of being proposed to and married on the same day? He actually surprised her by using her Pinterest boards to plan a wedding, got everyone who needed to be there to the place, and proposed and married her on the same day, with her dream wedding. CRAZY!
ReplyDeleteHey girl! Oh goodness yes, from tv shows to all the different wedding businesses that have started from the idea of 'the perfect day' its kinda crazy!! I saw that article!! Kinda crazy!! But I guess pretty cute if that was her dream. =) Much Love friend!
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