Weddingbee Blog

For better or worse, I’m putting a lot of my heart and soul into this wedding, and now that our engagement is starting to wind down (or wind up, as the case may be), I’m thinking more about what I’ll take away from this engagement process. Here are some that immediately come to mind:

I’ve re-discovered sewing and even purchased my first sewing machine. The process of having my dress made required me to think a lot about fabric, fashion, and how things are constructed, and I actually like that stuff! Go figure. I finally know what my mother was doing when she’d see a dress in the department store, look closely at the seams, and head to Hancock.

Organization. I’ve always considered myself organized, but my army of spreadsheets, charts, graphs, and folders have shown me that I really can organize a huge event and simultaneously deal with the merging of household finances. It helps that Mr. Oyster is constantly telling me how impressed he is.

After the wedding, I’m planning on working more with my photography business. I was always a little scared of starting a business on my own, but I have more confidence now that I could organize something as complicated as a business, if I wanted to.

Family drama. My family’s relatively healthy, but there are always those family members that… well, you know what I mean, you’ve probably got some too. At this point, I really feel that (a) I can predict pretty well who will be dramatic and how they will act out, (b) I am too old and have been through too much to worry about what they think of me and (c) I’m too focused on my own life to care. I find that having this attitude actually encourages people to respect me more. In fact, I anticipated drama where there wasn’t much at all. Another “go figure!” here.

Domesticity. I hope it was merely coincidence that, on the same day I told the D.J. I’d like us to be introduced as “Mr. and Mrs. [Fiance’s Name],” I went out and bought the sewing machine. I know there are some ways in which I’m thoroughly modern (hello, first marriage at the age of 30!) and others where I’m just like my great-grandmother. I still feel a little conflicted about it.

There are so many more things I could list. I think this post will require a sequel!

Anyone else? Is all this time/energy spent planning your wedding going to help you later in your life?