Be ready for hurt feelings: 8 lessons learned from eloping
Wow, it’s been an amazing couple of weeks since our surprise elopement! Now I’m ready to download on the whole experience of eloping for my own piece of mind, and hopefully to help others considering it! Here are the eight lessons I learned from our elopement…
I took off my ring yesterday
I took my ring off yesterday… I needed one day, just one, where I really considered whether this marriage was something I wanted. Throughout the in-law drama I would ask my my fiancé if he was absolutely sure he wanted to marry me. I realized I’d never really considered the question myself.
How Offbeat Bride saved me
I have never seen such amazing love, support, and genuine helpfulness from complete strangers. Not only did Offbeat Bride readers help with my problem, they lifted me up, and (pardon the cliche) removed a heavy black cloud from my shoulders. They showed me not only ways to move past my problems, but, in meeting some of them who have already done so, showed me it could actually be done.
Losing my mother and honoring her memory through my own offbeat wedding
I have taken so much joy (if that’s even the right word) in seeing how other Offbeat Brides have made touching, bittersweet acknowledgements of those who can only be there with them in spirit. It seems that those rituals are surprisingly absent from “traditional” wedding magazines and blogs. My mom passed away almost two years ago, but my parents didn’t get married until four days before she died. And I know that being a part of that wedding has empowered me to craft an offbeat wedding that I can proudly take ownership of.
How do you include the non-tech-savvy into your tech-y wedding?
How do you dealing with the fact that, technology-wise, you are living in the 21st century, but your parents and their friends are not? I’m finding I’m having wedding planning complications with our evites, the online-only registries, and the concept of photo sharing.
I want NO BRIDAL SHOWER, but my future mother in law won’t let it go
My future mother-in-law has decided that she is throwing me a bridal shower. My wording there is intentional — she did not ask if I wanted one, she did not ask if my bridespeeps were throwing me one (they’re not, because they know I don’t want one), she Just Decided.
For many reasons, I’ve tried to be polite and just say “no thanks,” but she’s insisting.
I have no interest in this event, although I realize that it is very nice of her to offer to throw me one. How do I get out of this?