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For many of my college friends, wedding season is like a part-time job. It comes, with the commitments of showers, bachelorette parties, and other pre-wedding events, dotted by weekly nuptials of sweet and excited couples. One after another, weddings, and their weekends, come and go, but for Mr. Right and I, ours is one of the first.
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Somehow his friends seem to escape wedding season—bachelordom in full swing—and my friends' weddings are unwittingly spaced out from year to year.
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How is any of this relevant to current wedding planning? I'll tell you. I'm calling it “wedding shopping,” and it took full effect last weekend. I was really excited about this wedding—the couple is absolutely adorable, two total peaches. But when we stepped through the doors of their reception, my “oos” and “aahs” were followed immediately by iPhone photo taking and sound recording, frantic text messages to my maid of honor, and email drafts to our wedding coordinator.
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“Ali, remind me to play this song during our cocktail hour. So cute! Recording attached.”
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“Angie, LOVE THIS DRAPERY. How can we copy? Photo attached.” Side note to fiancé: “Do you love this? I love this. I'm sure Angie will know how to do it.”
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As soon as the DJ announced the happy, newlywed couple, my attention went back where it belonged: on them. But I couldn't help but notice during the first dance when the couple next to us exchanged the familiar, “Are you reading my mind? Take, note: I want that” look. I thought we'd invented that. They must be getting married soon, too. By the end of the first dance, my suspicions were confirmed. They were getting married too, and on the same date! (If this were another blog, I'd go on about how my fiancé immediately pointed out the awkwardness that the couple of the hour would have to choose which wedding they'd attend. “Guess we'll see who they like more, haha”—of course he did. Who ought this guy? That is a post for another time.) Anyway, their look was about the first dance song. They decided on it that night—turns out, wedding shopping is a thing. And when our respective hubbys-to-be got up to get a cocktail, our table neighbor and I were chatting it up about everything from our weather fears to my tablecloth envy.
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By the time her fiancé came back with a fresh cocktail and I caught the site of mine donning a sailor hat prop and a ridiculous facial express in the photo booth, solo, (again, story for another time…) I'd fallen in love with the wedding at hand and created a list of notes to transcribe and apply to mine when I got home.
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The wedding was an absolute blast, the couple was glowing, and it was a great inspiration—but surely, I am not the only ide-to-be who does this, right? What great ideas did you get from weddings you’d gone to just before yours? Any lessons learned vicariously?
