1. "How are the wedding plans coming?" Invariably, this is the question I hear from friends I haven't seen for some time. What's odd is that it's an even more common question from complete strangers. I have just about perfected the monologue:
"Well, when Mike proposed he had a month before he was headed back to school for the last semester of his graduate program. He mentioned that he was more than happy to help with all the planning so I didn't have to do everything, so we jumped into it right away. By the time class started for him 3 weeks later, we had nearly everything planned."
The most common response: "WOW! You guys are really on top of it!" The segue may not seem clear, but I assure you they're related:
2. "Now it's time for all the last-minute details!" I can assure you that while I'm certainly aware that there are things that will have to happen in the next 3 months, there are not THAT many details to be taken care of. In fact, there are not that many details I'm concerned with at ALL. As a matter of fact, that leads me directly to the next question:
3. "You must really be getting stressed now." Why must I? Having considered the previous two questions, what is there to be stressed about? It's not as if all of a sudden one day we decided to get married and have that to be nervous about. We'd spent a year and half dating nd ultimately discussing in great detail our faith, our plans, our values, our futures- not to mention the hours praying and surrounding ourselves with people who share those values and helped us grow our relationship to what it is today.
Culturally, it must seem odd that I'm not nervous in the least, but it's funny how that can happen when you're in a Christ-centered, loving and monogomous relationship. Is that redundant considering I started the description with "Christ-centered? As far as last minute details, I've recruited a dear friend to play "day-of-coordinator" because my plans for that day are as follows:
1. Wake up
2. Get Married
3. Celebrate with people that are JUST ABOUT as excited as we are about our marriage- note: marriage, not just wedding
4. Enjoy my new husband (Take from that what you will. I'm entitled to anticipate that as we begin our life together!)
