A Practical Wedding

Things around here are just now starting to get back to normal now, three weeks after the wedding. I have so much to tell you guys but will save that for another post!

There is still a lot of wedding wrap up to be done - like writing thank you notes but slowly little things are happening that are truly making me feel free from the weight of planning a wedding. Like Thursday, the last of the five million checks I wrote in June to pay off balances for the wedding cleared. Financially, we are free of the wedding! Then while walking home from work on Friday, I saw a wedding party taking photos outside of the Walt Disney Concert Hall and openly giggled. My wedding was great but seriously, I am so glad it is over and in that moment I was so glad I was not in that wedding party!

In the post wedding wind down I am reading some wedding related books given to me by friends. First up is A Practical Wedding, given to me as a shower gift by a lovely friend. While this book is technically a wedding planning book, reading it has been a nice way to reflect on the process. Also, Meg's humor and writing style remind me of the friend who gave me this book.

This passage from the book's final chapter pretty much sums up how I am feeling post wedding:

But there is a parallel phenomenon that no one ever talks about: postwedding freedom. Shortly after our wedding we were browsing in a bookstore, and I stumbled upon a wedding magazine. I looked at it, and I had this dull feeling in the pit of my stomach. Then suddenly, I realized, "It's not my problem any more!" And I felt terribly free. Because the truth is, on a gut level, I was glad our wedding was over. It was an absurdly joyous day and an amazing party. But it was exactly the right length, and when it was over I dashed out the door, giddy with the knowledge of what we'd just done. I was thrilled that our wedding had been so happy, but I was equally delighted that I never had to plan it again and that I had the adventure of married life ahead of me.
When people say that your wedding is the happiest day of your life, they have it a little wrong. If all goes well, your wedding may be the happiest day of your life so far. But the wedding marks the beginning of married life; it is the announcement of the start of something great. 

Word.