Weddings

16 years ago this weekend, my Husband and I got married. Crazy right?

June is prime time for wedding season so I am going to split up my wedding strategies up for easier well, consumption.

Weddings can be very dicey events, and Summers are filled with them. Weddings are filled with emotions, expectations and typically lots and lots of alcohol. Wedding Season is considered to be from late Spring until early Fall.

During my post college years, it was not unheard of to have the majority of the Summer aka Wedding Season spent going to weddings, bridal showers and bachelorette parties for each and every bride.

A few weeks ago, I watched the Royal Wedding with 18 of my college Sorority Sisters and it was a huge topic for the rest of the day.

• How could Meghan have been so composed given what her family had just done?
• Didn’t Kate Middleton have a baby last week?
• Could Harry be any more in love with Meghan?

Prince Harry was everything the modern bride could hope for, romantic, sweet, good looking and considerate. Oh and he truly is a Prince. When he whispered “You look amazing. I’m so lucky.” to now Duchess Meghan, our hearts collectively melted. The way they looked at each other, felt a tad intrusive almost as if we were violating their privacy, as it was a deeply intimate moment of a couple, not a world wide televised event with coverage similar to the Super Bowl.

Wedding Season can bring up feelings such as :
• “Why not me?” Why am I not the one getting married to Prince Harry? or any Prince for that matter? Should I have married Mike from college? was he really that bad? Yes, he really was.

• “Where is this going?” How long was Kate Middleton known as “Waity Katie” by the British Press for Prince William’s seemingly slow walk to proposing? That had to make for some tense drives home from other peoples weddings when they are dating.

• “Why aren’t we crazy in love anymore?” has been thought by girlfriends of mine after going to a wedding where the couple is feeding each other cake and pledging undying love before slow dancing to “At Last” by Etta James.

Weddings are big events and anyone married will tell you incredibly exhausting. Being a wedding guest can bring up a lot of emotions, some we might not have been aware of, encounters with people we have not seen in a long time for a valid reason, and the proximity to a great deal of alcohol, can make a loaded situation worse all while we are dancing to the Electric Slide.

So what to do as Wedding Season is upon us?

1) Weddings are 1 day. They are a custom in our society, a religious event (sometimes) and a party. They tend to be pretty rote, a little dry, and everyone is on their best behavior, initially.

Whether or not your current relationship is going anywhere remains to be seen, as it was exactly where it was before you arrived at the wedding.

Do not fall into the self-fulfilling drama trap that a wedding could be, if you let it. You just happened to have gotten a reminder of how in love Harry and Meghan (my favorite go to couple) are currently.

As much as I adore Prince Harry, I am fairly confident in 5 years or so, he will not tell Duchess Meghan how much he misses her when they are apart one night.

We will not be in the day to day with them, which any married person will attest to is the work. There will not be cameras in their home when life gets real, when the baby is teething, the toddler is being difficult and Duchess Meghan has heard every story Prince Harry has had to tell, at least 20 times. So, we get to live with the fairy tale as our last impression, which is how most of us like it.

We love the fantasy, we love visiting Disneyworld, while we live in Marriageland.

“I think at the time I wasn’t very happy about it (marriage), but actually it made me a stronger person, you find out things about yourself that you maybe hadn’t realized” Kate Middleton on Marriage.