Time to stop stressing about the fact that, at 9 months away, I hadn't checked all the things off my "wedding to-do list" that other brides had at their year-away mark. Why? Because those women were CRAZY! Okay, maybe not crazy, but definitely focused on the wrong thing.
I have to admit that when I think about all the stuff we have yet to do, I literally feel my pulse quicken and my body tense up...I have to fight the impending stress and feeling of doom that accompanies the realization of all the stuff I haven't checked off that list. But then I wonder, who came up with that list? Who decided that weddings had to be this big, expensive, stressful, social etiquette-laden thing? When did it become about more than celebrating the new union between the husband and wife and their covenant with God?
Galen asked me to marry him and be his wife, not just wed him and be his bride. The idea is that the marriage itself will last far beyond the 10-hour wedding...right? So why is it that so many of us brides-to-be spend 90% of our focus the year leading up to the wedding day on the wedding itself, and maybe 10% on the marriage?
While I can't think of an answer to that question, I can definitely say that I will not be the bride that wakes up the day after the wedding feeling empty because the "big event" is over. I won't put so much energy into fabrics and flowers that I've neglected to put any into cultivating a strong foundation for my marriage.
With that, I vow to spend our engagement focused not just on wedding planning, but marriage preparation so that once the wedding is over...the *honeymoon* is not.
:)
--JeLisa
