How my fiancé lost his finger tips and our friends saved our wedding
Well, technically my fiance didn’t “lose” anything — both severed finger tips are in the back of our refrigerator. I spent one sleepless night trying to decide how I felt about still having our wedding, knowing that the medical payments are going to be a part of our lives for a long time. But now it feels important, necessary even, in a way that it never really did. Now more than ever, I want to celebrate my relationship with our friends and family. Daniel is the most incredible person I have ever known, and I can’t wait to call him my husband.
It took a camping trip to gain the perspective that saved our wedding
I hear it said that “everyone has pre-wedding jitters” — what ifs and cold feet. But I had a full-on panic. Like, “I woke up crying and told my fiancé that I wanted to cancel the wedding” kind of panic. I came home that same day to a living room full of camping supplies. My fiance said that he had to get me out of here. Too tired to fight it, I allowed myself to be scooped into a car packed with blankets and hot dogs, and driven two hours out into the wilderness. It saved our wedding.
How being a bridesmaid taught me to embrace my inner fancy bitch
When I got married two years ago, budget budget budget was the focus of the day. This meant forgoing a big expensive dress, keeping costs low on the honeymoon, having a lunch instead of a dinner wedding. Looking back on my wedding, I have no regrets and didn’t miss wedding planning afterwards. But then I got invited to be a bridesmaid for my little sister. Upon hearing that I could choose my own dress and shoes, something deep deep within me that had been suffocated since my own wedding has reared its head.
I thought I was friendless: how my wedding put social anxieties into perspective
I’ve always thought of myself as pretty unsociable. While my husband is Mr. Sociable. In fact, my initial vision for the wedding was a very small gathering — the two of us, our parents and brothers, a total of 11 people. Obviously this was never going to fit with my other half’s plans and we ended up having about 100 people there. This was the cause of enormous and paralyzing anxiety to me in the run-up to the wedding day.