First: Start with a guest list that includes every single person you know, at least 300 people! Second: Make it a formal masquerade ball in the largest most sought after venue you can get your hands on! Third: Choose the most expensive caterer for your food! Fourth: Open bar! Fifth: Provide the most intricate masques possible as party favors! Sixth: Go into debt for the rest of your lives before you've even said "I do"!
Or
Realize this day is first day the two of you will openly share the love you have for each with your loved ones and that they will be sharing their love with you and make it about that. I didn't realize that was what was happening the day Brian and I got married until the day was there, I was in the middle of it and realized that day did not belong to just the two of us. Our wedding day did not happen because we loved each other that much, it happened because other people loved us that much.
I loved our wedding, but I didn't think anyone else would think much of it. It just wasn't "big". It was put together in 2 1/2 weeks and we were pretty broke. The cost was minimal, especially for Brian and me. We had planned on a simple JP kind of thing. That's not what we got. What we got was a ceremony, a catered lunch at our favorite restaurant, a dress, shoes, rings, flowers, a photographer, a cake. We got a wedding, everything you could want. Certainly more than I had expected, hoped for, dreamed of, you name it. We had all of it, because other people love us, love us enough to make our day something to remember and nothing to regret. No "if only", "I wish we could have" or "someday we'll do it again right". We did it right because we did it with love, and not just our own. As it turns out, it was The Biggest Wedding EVER! I didn't know that at the time, but I do now.
I thought a wedding was all about the vows. That you are making a series of promises to this person in front of everyone you care about. This is what made the idea so real to me, I knew if I promised these things in front of my family I was bound to keep them. And pretty much that's a wedding, right?
This is what I learned: Our wedding was about sharing the love others have for us with each other. It was about learning how important we are, to others, that our love and commitment is important, to others. Every time we talk about "our wedding" we are talking about a day that belongs to more than just the two of us, it belongs to everyone who brought their love to us that day. Our marriage is bigger than Richelle and Brian, it's as big as the love so many share with us, and that is endless.
And that, my friends, is how you have the Biggest Wedding EVER! Make it about all the love that surrounds you, all the love you send out into the world, and you will have a wedding and marriage that is bigger than the 2 of you, and infinite. How can anything that starts off that big and strong do anything but get bigger and stronger?
Remember I said I didn't think anyone else would think much about our wedding? Well, someone did, recently our wedding was featured in an online bridal magazine. Here's the link to the article about The Biggest Wedding EVER! if you'd like to read more about it and see just how a whole family came together to fill up one day with so very much love. (spoiler alert: it's awesome!)
http://poptasticbride.com/2014/04/kaleidoscope-cafe-wedding/#.U2egoF49bKG
No comments:
Post a Comment