Weddingbee Blog

I know, I know. I have been AWOL for a whole week now. But I have a good excuse, I promise. For the past week I have been on a North Island road trip with my family. On it we managed to squeeze in some fun wedding-related things that I can’t wait to tell you all about including my hair and makeup trial, an ear piercing, and more.

But before I delve into all that (and to buy me time while I hunt down my camera card reader) I want to talk about two pieces of advice I was given on this trip.

The first came from a woman who is a bit like my Mum’s surrogate mother. She and her husband looked out for Mum when she was 19 and naive in the big city (Wellington, that is). We visited them on our way through Wellington and this lovely lady told me: “Your parents’ wedding was the most beautiful wedding I have ever been too, and that was because of the people. The people make the wedding, not decorations or having everything perfect.” My parents’ wedding was far from lavish.

At the time they were broke Bible school students. People didn’t remember it for the details but they sure have remembered it for the atmosphere that was created by a couple hundred friends and family all coming together to celebrate Mum’s and Dad’s happiness. It rained on their wedding day, the wedding cars were a disaster, and Mum was very, very late for the ceremony but they didn’t let that dampen their joy, and that joy was infectious.

The second piece of advice came from my third cousin once removed (yes, on my dad’s side of the family we keep track of those cousins. It makes guest list planning awkward) who is currently helping plan her daughter’s wedding. She told me to not be afraid to let people help when they offer. I don’t have to do it all myself, and weddings should really be about community. I think she is right. And I want that community-type feeling to be obvious on the day.

Lately I have been stressed out with planning and a million other things and it has seemed like all too much. But both of these ladies reminded me that 1) Mr E and I are not alone in this wedding and we have many friends and family who are more than happy to lend a hand if we let them, and 2) I might be stressing over favors or something like that, but that is not what will make or break our wedding. I’m marrying the love of my life! You wont be able to keep the smile off my face on the day and I’m pretty sure there will be a whole lot more people smiling along with us. And smiles can make the things that might go wrong seem so much smaller.

I’ll leave you with a pic of some happy people at a wedding from one of my favourite blogs. It just makes you want to smile too, doesn’t it?

Ruffled Blog

What are some wise words on weddings that you have heard lately?