Wedding Ramblings

My niece is getting married in about two weeks. My dear friend Mandy got married a week ago. And tonight Bradley finished editing my sister's wedding video. (She's only been married four years...)

So weddings have been on my mind lately. At Mandy's wedding last Friday, I was thinking about things I loved and things I would have done differently for my wedding. (Oh, and a HUGE thank you (only 7.5 years later) to my wonderful parents for, well, for paying for everything...)

Things I didn't love:

• Well, getting mono was a BIG mistake. Not that I did it on purpose, but I was pretty dang exhausted leading up to the wedding. My actual wedding day--I was so hyped up on adrenaline and excited (and blessed by many prayers) that I didn't notice being sick. The honeymoon? Well, I napped a lot. My poor husband spent a lot of time staring at the walls of our hotel room while his new wife slumbered peacefully beside him.
  
  
• The wedding cake was pretty, but it was mostly an expensive waste. If I had to do it again, I would just buy sheet cake from Costco, and have a little tiny pretty wedding cake from the grocery store or something. Or maybe I would do what my sister Telima did and have a chocolate fountain instead of cake. Yummy.
  
  
• Keeping my dress instead of trying to resell it. It's too bad there weren't any good bridal gown rental places around, because having a dress that cost $500 that you wear twice, maybe thrice...that's kinda silly. I loved loved loved my dress, but I will never wear it again and I sincerely doubt my daughter will want to. Now it's just a big, white pain to store.

Things I particularly loved:

• My shoes! So dang cute--sparkly silver slip-on heels. They were comfortable, perfect, and--best of all--cheap! On sale for $17, I think, down from $60+.
  
  
• My garter. I'll have to tell that story later.
  
  
• The photographer and videographer. Of everything we did, I'm super glad we spent the money on a good, professional photographer. I love my wedding photos. And Bradley's sisters recommended getting a videographer, too--something I am SO grateful for. Our wedding video is so fun to watch, seven years later. I can't wait until my kids are old enough to find it interesting, too.
  
  
• My "wedding party". We decided that having official attendants was kind of silly, so my sisters became my bridesmaids, with my oldest sister being the unoffical maid-of-honor. Although it would have been neat to get deep red dresses for them, that would have been prohibitably expensive (even if we were able to find non-sleeveless dresses in the right color). So we found deep red button-up blouses, and they all wore black skirts, and it looked really nice. And it was totally low-key.
  
  
• My husband. I mean, really:
  
  

Who could ask for anything more?