Adventures of a Bride-to-Be

Adventures of a (Second Time) Bride-to-Be
March 1, 2011

So, as of now, I have my dress chosen, Laura and I are working on the invitaiton suite, booking of vendors is going along perfectly and I was going to have the pretty wedding in the tropics I had a vision of in my head…I could almost taste the salt of the seaspray as I said my vows, I was that absorbed in the whole process.

It’s early December now and I received my Save the Dates from Laura. So adorable, “slithers of shiny” (as my Australian friend have deemd my wedding papers!), and perfect. Except, I am me an can never leave well-enough alone, so I always like to add a bit of glitter to just about everything I mail out. Knowing I had to get these to the post office pretty quickly, I had been laborously glittering my trifolds, double-checking labels, lining envelopes, and cutting handmade papers. I love when things I send (Christmas cards, inviations, thank you notes, etc.) really “wow” people, and this was not the time to do anything other than that… So, I carefully folded my cards, stamped the envelopes waiting for all my cards to be done, cut the handmade papers, and adhered the address labels. They were going to go in the mail just after the first of the year and I was just about done…

In the meantime, Laura & I were working on proofs of the other little slithers of shiny, many pieces for a destination wedding, all in a gorgeous thermography that actually gleamed on the shimmer paper. We finalized everything, I received my flatprinted maps, magnets, and my larger signs that I’d ordered…I waited to see the final product of our collective hard work on the invitations…and it was close. I knew I’d have them soon, give or take, depending on the printer’s schedule for the holidays.

Then…then…IT happened. It did. I should have predicted it if only because I say I live “The Murphy’s Law Life”. Nothing ever truly serious happens, but IF “it” is going to happen, it happens to me. It’s been this way my whole life and you’d thing I’d just get used ot it. But I haven’t and I still get disappointed. So, “it” happened and “disappointed” would be an understatement.

My venue had to change. Through circumstances beyond our control, we were unable to marry in Key West in April. Yes, a bride’s worst nightmare.

Details are truly uninteresting, but I have to say, the people we worked with down there were AMAZING. We’d put down deposits, signed guarantees, and consumed hours of time with people that gave us one-on-one attention since we were from out-of-town. As soon as Lawrence & I made the decisoin, I called each vendor personally or emailed my contact and explained the situation. It is very humbling to have to ask somoene you don’t know for a favor, but each vendor was overly accommodating to our predicament. We were released from contracts, guarantees, and wished well by folks that had spent their precious time with us. With that, for all the vendors we did work with, I especially thank Ocean Key Resort and Hyatt Regency Key West for all the accommodations they made for us… In the end, it worked out vendor-wise, but personally, I felt devastated. It was by no means the end of the world (so many things are so much more important), but it was MY world for the previous three months and I felt like I was watching it all crumble.

As all of the phone calls were being made and the items cancelled, I also contacted Laura to halt the printing of our invitatoin suite so that we could print them for another date, time, and venue. Unfortunately, as it turns out, everyting had been printed a few days prior and were in the process of drying for mailing to me.

Of course. OF COURSE.

A few days later, I received a package with my invitations in the hopes that some items could be used no matter what. Alas, as it turns out, only two slithers of shiny would still work: the RSVP envelopes and a memorial card (for “in lieu of gifts”). Everything else was unusable as they were printed and I would need to start everything all over again. Blood, sweat, tears, and a lot of money went into all of the paper I had in front of me, with very little of it unusable.

All of our work…Laura, her team, me, my fiance’…had to start over.

But first, where were we going to have the wedding and when were we going to have it? I couldn’t think about that just yet. I needed time to recover, which I did among all of my Key West slithers of shiny, so I sat down & had myself a good, old-fashioned pity party. It was a good one. I throw a fine party.

So, if you think your own wedding planning isn’t going so well or there are unexpected bumps in the road as you’re doing it, now you can say “thank God all I had to worry about was…”.
And, until next time…

“Courage doesn't always roar.

Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying,

‘I will try again tomorrow.’”

~~ Mary Anne Radmacher

xoxo,
Alycia