Wednesday, October 3, 2012

The final chapter

Today. Today marks the 1 month to go mark. This time in approximately 720 hours I’ll be almost smack bang in the middle of having tied the knot. And I’m in total denial about it. I feel like if I admit to how close it is, I’m going to lose my shit again. As much as I want to marry my Fiance, the love of my life, I know that I’m really going to miss this process.

The best way I know how to describe the feeling, is when you’re reading a really good book that you can’t put down. Late nights spent reading in bed, when you can’t keep your eyes open but you can’t bear to put the book away mid chapter. A bitter sweet feeling as the equilibrium shifts the moment you cross that half way point, you have read more pages than you have left and although you’re eager to get to the end, you’re also acutely aware that ‘the end’ is nigh as the pages become thinner and thinner. The book you’ve become so attached to, the characters that have filled your psyche for a duration of time, will be finished, closed, and stowed away. Until you find a new book.

So that’s where we are at. We’re speed reading through this last chapter, the most exciting and eventful one of all. Lots happening and lots to do. How easy it would be to go off the rails now, but we’ve come too far. Just have to keep it together for a little longer.

Fiance remarks at how calm I appear. I don’t know how to respond. I think I’m hibernating in my own anxiety. Perhaps I’m removing myself from the process as a way of shielding myself from the impact of its impending absence. There could be numerous psychological explanations for how I’m currently feeling. Truth be told, I’m actually a little exhausted. I think the shoe episode really took it out of me.

It may also be that RSVP week has just closed. Mostly without a hitch, besides a few, last minute broken relationships that have thrown a spanner in the works for some guests scrambling to replace their ‘plus ones’.

Back to my clever book analogy, I have actually come to a conclusion of sorts. We actually need very few things in order to solemnize our nuptials. I need 1) a groom b) some rings c) a celebrant d) a couple of witnesses. That’s it. The rest is totally incidental! And I have those things. So we’re pretty much sorted. And that, beloved readers, is just how far I have compartmentalized my real thoughts.

My dress, an incidental, is almost finished after a brief fitting yesterday, cut short by my spontaneous and completely out of the blue, little moment of weakness in the legs - to this end I believe I was thoroughly talked into by the crazy dress lady. She gave me a red snake and made me sit down and drink water from a purple plastic wine goblet while she fanned me with my train - definitely a moment I won’t forget anytime soon.

Once I had been extracted from the dress and been somewhat composed, it was time for another lecture on nutrition. Although this one was different from the last, “what not to eat”, instead “what TO eat” to maintain the cm’s in the final few weeks whilst dealing with “nervy tummy”.  For those playing along at home, the bride diet plan for the last few weeks leading up to the wedding consists of the following:
Breakfast – porridge and banana
Snack – a strawberry and coconut milk smoothie
Lunch – a “nice” Chicken and Hommus sandwich
Dinner – Some nice organic chicken with some lemon and some coconut oil.
Snack – coconut oil. Cook with it, eat it on its own, bathe in it.

So much more than just a dress shop. I think it’s a sort of verbal disclaimer for them in the event that you continue to lose weight, struck down with nervy tummy syndrome and ruin the fitting of the boning and therefore rendering your dress non-couture.

Plenty of excitement to be had in the upcoming weeks, and I’m likely to forget the things that I’ve been meaning to share with other brides to be, or just single chicks that might get married one day. These are things that no one tells you, well no one told me, and although it’s nice to be on your own journey of discovery, here’s a heads up on a few things anyway:

1.    The bit of your left finger, closest to your hand, is actually quite a fatty area. If you lose weight, your finger will lose weight and you’re engagement ring will become loose.
2.    Tiffany’s want 21 days to clean and polish a ring. Albens Master Jewellers will do it in 2 hours.
3.    Don’t expect to ‘feel’ a certain way when you find your dress.
4.    Don’t expect to ‘feel’ a certain way at any point apart from desperate to marry your best friend.
5.    It’s best not to have to many expectations on anything at all, take it as it comes and deal with it in the best way you know how.
6.    No one cares about your wedding as much as you do. Get that straight from the start.
7.    Bridal shoes are ugly. In general, stay away from anything that gives itself the ‘bridal’ label, it’s going to be old fashioned and overpriced. You can find a pair of earrings that will be perfect without getting them from the ‘bridal’ section. That’s where all the shit, ugly stuff lives.
8.    Surround yourself with a good team of suppliers and trust them to do their job.
9.    Not everyone understands RSVP date. They just don’t. Be prepared for this.
10.    Have a makeup trial and a hair trial early. Don’t leave it until the last minute.
11.    Remember at all times that you only need a few ingredients to actually make It happen, it’s about you and your Fiance embarking on a beautiful new chapter together.

So as we are hurtled into the remaining weeks, I’m going to take some of my own advice, stop being a serious slow learner, stay safely inside the bubble and maybe never come out. Oh, and stock up on coconut oil.

To be continued….

No comments:

Post a Comment