Weddingbee Blog

Today—November 30th!—I am celebrating my Golden Birthday. A Golden Birthday (or a Lucky Birthday or a Champagne Birthday) occurs when a person turns the age of their birth date. So, even though a lady is never supposed to reveal her age, I’ve just given you enough information to figure out how old I am going to be. That’s right, I’m going to be celebrating the big three-oh. I’m officially entering my 30s. I’ll be a thirtysomething bride.

Image via Zazzle

I remember the first time that I ever heard of Golden Birthdays. I was five years old at a classmate’s birthday party, complete with balloon animals and pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. I burst into tears once I realized that I wouldn’t get to celebrate mine for another 25 years. In between hiccups, I wailed, “I will be sooooooo old and a mom. You don’t get special gold dog balloons at mom birthdays!”

Clearly, even at this young age I assumed (among many other things) that I would be married and have children by the time I was 30. Some of this stems from the fact that my own mother was married at 26 and had me, her oldest child, when she was 28. I operated under this timeline well into high school and throughout college. I’d get my BA degree and then move to a big city, meet a nice guy there, and settle down. This is what happened to many of my friends and acquaintances from high school and college. All of this happened, of course, to me as well. The hitch in my original timeline, though, is that I didn’t meet this nice guy, Mr. Mole, until I was 27. We didn’t get engaged until I was 29. We won’t be married until I’m 30—this year! I’ll probably be at least another year older when we have our first kid.

Thirtysomethings

Timeline or not, I believe that things worked out for the best. At 30, I am with the most caring and generous man that I have ever met. I am in better health and shape than I was in my 20s. I am more financially stable. I am more secure in who I am, where I want to go in life, and what I need to be happy. I think that this is going to be a great decade for me. (And, knock on wood, I hope my 40s will be even better!)

But, honestly, I sometimes still experience that niggling thought of how far off I am from my original timeline.

How old will you be when you get married? How old did you think you were going to be when you walked down the aisle? Do you ever feel conflicted about your hypothetical timeline and your actual timeline?