Things I've Learned While Planning a Wedding

Do you all watch Say Yes to the Dress? If we happen to be home when it's on, we usually watch it. Sunday = football, Friday = wedding goop shows. It's a fabulous compromise.

If you've never seen it, let me catch you up. Brides with an entourage (which usually includes one uber-opinionated mother/father/grandmother and/or bridesmaid) shop for a dress, which in my opinion, is usually overpriced by about $10,000. They argue and debate and in the end, find something that moves them to tears and wild face-fanning, in true beauty pageant queen style.

I tried on about six dresses in 45 minutes and went back to the second one I donned, knowing in my heart it was my dress. I hesitate to say much more than that here, fearing I'll say too much (aka post a picture because I'm so stinkin' excited about that DRESS!)

I sent a picture of myself in the dress to one of my friends that night and she asked if it was really the right dress because she wasn't sure I had "the glow." I assured her it was indeed the right dress - and still know in my heart that it was.

But it bothered me that I failed to glow like the brides of TV. Do I, perhaps, have some bridal defect?

Many people have mentioned how different this wedding is than the wedding I laboriously laid out in my twenties. The one I typed, single-spaced, to be carried out with much precision.

That Bekah would not have picked out a dress in 45 minutes. (She would have still ended up with the same dress, but only after 4 days - 24 hours of combined shopping - a host of "no way" tries, and an exhausted bridal party.)

That Bekah would have taken votes on hairstyles, driven herself to an ulcer hand-stamping her own invitations, made elaborate Pinterest-inspired "will you be my bridesmaid?" care packages, organized an overstuffed planning binder, and not slept the night before the wedding, worrying that someone might stand outside the assigned formation on the platform.I

There would have been a lot of tears, but it's doubtful they would have come from that giddy moment of finding something to be right and good - and more from exasperation.

This way (for me) is so much less stress.

And here's what I've learned.

I might not have cookie cutter looks for my bridal party, but I was moved to tears in the decision to honor Kirk and Angela in said party - because it's such a joy to do something to remember two people who so greatly shaped my life and made me into not a bride - but a WIFE of good character.

I might not have shed beauty-pageant-queen tears at the selection of the perfect dress, but I wept and shivered with great joy when I read the fully written ceremony my brother-in-law emailed to me this week - because I love the symbolism it portrays.

I might not have a guest list of 250 sitting in an overheated church, fanning themselves with programs and complaining about giving up a Saturday afternoon to dress up - but I have a tiny cloud of witnesses planning to sit on a beach and watch the union, and the sacrifice of that few joining us moves me so greatly.

I might not have a bridal registry, but I have an inbox full of emails from people who can't help but offer what they've learned about God from watching our relationship and that means more to me than any set of towels.

The wedding may look wildly different from what I ever expected, but I'm 100% excited about what it represents and how it honors the love story God has scripted. And THAT makes me say yes to this marriage - and this man. This love sent from the Lord.