Christmas Dreaming

Christmas was lovely, even without a tree. We got up fairly early - I don't know if I've shared before, but I am what you would call and "active sleeper." When I dream, I frequently move around a lot and talk. Christmas morning started for Mr at 6am when I woke him up with my sobbing. I dreamt that someone had gotten chocolate all over my wedding dress. It was very, very real and devastating, though I don't know why. I know that, in the dream, the wedding was over, so it wasn't like it was ruined before the big day. I had actually been toying with the idea of reselling it.

I don't think my dress is symbolic of anything other than the fact that I spent most of the day on the 24th looking at pictures from our wedding. I'm working on making an album for my mother-in-law. Plus, there was nothing on TV in the morning, and I watched part of one of the wedding shows on Style Network or WE TV or something.

Those shows are interesting to me, and they got me to reflect on our wedding a bit. Now, I have to say, that I had a blast at our wedding. The only thing that went "wrong" was the limo driver getting lost. Even that didn't bother me too much, since I was just so happy to be getting married. It was almost a little bizarre how happy I was. I remember sitting in the limo, knowing that I should be upset with this knucklehead, but also knowing that I was the bride and they couldn't start without me. As long as we got there, it was ok.

In retrospect, there were a lot of things that happened that could have "ruined" the day for me, and would have for many of the brides on reality shows. The limo was late picking us up and got lost, but there were other things. The programs weren't handed out the way they should have been, the priest never said "you may kiss the bride" so we didn't kiss after saying our vows. They didn't have the readings for my readers, even though I had given it to them, so my brother never saw what he was supposed to read until he was up there, reading it. We would have been without it altogether, had not one of my aunt's been really on the ball. We started an inadvertent receiving line after the ceremony, which shorted our picture time even more, so we missed out on some pictures. No one told my grandma to hang around so I have no pictures of me with her.

The florist, despite numerous reminders from me, made my bouquet huge and in a plastic holder-thingy even though I explicitly said I wanted it hand-tied and the same size as my bridesmaids. The cake decorations were also in a terrible plastic/doily looking thing. My mother-in-law took the right boutonniere off of him after the ceremony and put on the rose that his grandfather was supposed to wear but didn't because, well, grandpa doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do. She claims it was labeled "groom" and he backs her up (even though he knew that he was supposed to be different and not the same as his guys, because he was there and helped make the choice of his flower. He said he just figured something had changed). So, in the pictures after the ceremony, he has a white rose in his lapel and during the ceremony it is a dark red calla lily.

In many of the pictures, my in laws are looking at one of the aunts who was hanging around instead of the professional photographer we hired. My aunt who fancies herself a photographer followed us up to the golf course and then, after I politely said that was enough, proceeded to help herself to the champagne and strawberries set aside in the little room we were supposed to wait in before being announced.

The reception hall initially had a sign up that said "Congratulations Rita & Mike!" Mr's name is NOT Mike. His grandmother corrected them and they actually tried to argue with her.

So, lots of things didn't go the way we planned. But it was all ok. Because what mattered was that we were there. All of those other things? They're just amusing anecdotes. Sure. I wish everything was perfect and amazing. But, you know what? It was. Even with all of that stuff, it was just perfect. Sure, I wish Mr had the same flower on his jacket throughout the day. But we got married, we danced a lot, the cake was delicious, and our pictures are fantastic, even if there are some shots we didn't get.

The point is, on a lot of the wedding reality shows, these people act as if the world is ending because their flowers are not what they pictured, or they only have cream and not off-white chair covers. I'm saying that if you are focusing on the details of your wedding instead of the actual wedding, then you should take a step back and think about why you're getting married in the first place.

I had meant to write about Christmas, but I got a little sidetracked. I'll come back to Christmas tomorrow.