MY wedding!
"What?" you must be asking yourself. "She's already married! Recently, too!"
Yes, i was married to my sweet husband, V on 01-01-10 at approximately 7:30pm in New Life Vineyard's chapel in Ohio. Only some of my closest friends were in attendance, as my husband and i decided on this wedding as an elopement, 24 hours beforehand. Both our parents "attended" via Skype from Washington and Poland.
It was a special day, and it was bittersweet to have such a small get together, but we are SO happy.
but i digress...
V and i had lightly discussed getting "re-married" in a ceremony in Poland, in his church, with his family present. When the idea was presented to his parents, they were excited! I am also excited, though our vows will be in Polish... and i should probably practice them 100 times before i say them to make sure i get them right. Throughout the move and all of the stuff going on here in Ireland, i had put the wedding idea in the back curtains of my mind.
Recently V brought home his vacation schedule, with which we can actually set a date and start the planning!
But really, what brought my mind back to the wedding planning and all of this was a conversation i had with my dad last night over Skype. He and his wife are planning a special trip to Utah to see a "special friend" of theirs get married in one of the LDS temples.
The trip to Utah will be quite an adventure for him and his wife. As you may know, my dad is classified as a quadriplegic from an auto accident in 2007. It's a 12 hour drive from Washington to Utah through mountain passes and over hill and dale. I know this first hand, after driving with my brother to Utah from Washington for dad's wedding and driving a car from Utah to Washington for my dad after his wedding. They have to pack supplies (catheters, his special hoyer lift, and myriad medications), stop several times along the way for catheterization, rest, etc, and make sure the accommodations they stay in are handicap friendly (which is harder to find than it sounds. Many hotels/motels profess to be handicap friendly, but are not wheelchair friendly, or aren't helpful for transferring a guest from wheelchair to bed, or don't have accessible showers... etc, etc.)
Quite the adventure indeed.
It's hard for me to hear that he's making this special trip, because through the many efforts of myself, my husband, and some wonderful friends; through plan-changes from Ohio to Washington to Alaska specifically so he could be in attendance; through all of this (and by no fault of his own), my daddy couldn't be present at my wedding. I couldn't walk down the aisle with my daddy. I couldn't hold my daddy's hand when the pastor asked "who gives this woman away?" and my daddy repys "i do."
i couldn't dance with my daddy at my reception or show my daddy how pretty i look in my wedding dress before my husband saw me for the first time on our wedding day. There was no speech from my daddy at a reception in our honor.
I must say... i am jealous of my daddy's "special friend" and wonder if this "special friend" realizes how privileged they are to have my daddy at their wedding.
I am happy for this "special friend" and that he has found someone special in his life to be married to. There's no greater thing in the world, than knowing that the scriptures say "man is not made to be alone" and knowing that you're not. I wish him well in his life with his new family...
but i hope he understands just how much it means for my daddy to be present at his wedding, and hope he can enjoy it a little extra for my sake. :)
I hope my daddy thinks of me for just a moment while his friend is getting married, and knows that i love him and would have given anything for him to be at mine.
UGH! *wipes tears* I'm such a baby.
BUT the past has passed and there's nothing more inspiring than the future, right?
My goal to lose weight + the idea of a summer wedding has inspired me to begin the all important search for "the" wedding dress...
again.
haha!
After viewing dresses for what seemed like an eternity (ok... it was really only a couple hours), i've come up with :
A.) This conclusion - i will probably either commission or make my own wedding dress exactly how i want it and save money.
B.) PHOTOS!!! lookie!
Cute, right?!
I wanted a tea-length dress for our wedding in January... but it was January. I ended up finding a floor length dress and being happy too (but secretly wished it was a tea-length).
i'm pretty excited at the thought of making my own! now to just lose the weight, find the pattern and fabric, and start sewing!
all things in due time. Weight loss doesn't happen overnight. You can do this, Shannon, you can do this.
