Friday, September 4, 2009

PS: Things Will Go Wrong

A. at AccordionsandLace wrote a great post yesterday on the things that went wrong at her wedding, and how she simply could not be bothered to give a shit. I was sincere when I signed off in my last post, but I couldn't resist the chance to spread the word: Things Will Go Wrong. There will be mistakes. But you can choose not to dwell on them. You can decide that today you just aren't going to give a shit. And your wedding will still be awesome.

I can honestly say that I've never seen anything go wrong at a wedding I've attended (with the exception of the one where the groom was incredibly hung over and looked like he was going to barf at the altar). I once assumed that I didn't see any snafus as a guest because everyone else ruled at wedding planning and orchestrated everything perfectly.

Now, I know better. I'm sure that at every single one of those weddings, something went wrong -- maybe lots of things. Maybe small things, maybe big things, but SOMETHING didn't go as planned. I also know that I, the guest, had no idea.

Snafus at our wedding included:
* My family broke venue rules and took beer from the bar before it was officially open -- a massive no-no according to our contract. Thankfully, I don't think the venue manager noticed!
* The ceremony programs we spent 2 days designing and printing didn't make it to the chairs because of the rain.
* The string quartet messed up the processional, after refusing to attend the rehearsal on the grounds that they were so awesome they didn't need to practice their timing with us.
* The outside cocktail hour got rained out, and the decorations we put up on the patio got soaked. (My mother took home a very soggy box of decorations!)
* No sparkling wine was poured for the toasts.
* Our menu cards were droopy and the candles kept going out.
* I didn't get to try both flavors of cake!

Did we notice all of these things? Obviously. Were we a bit sad about some of them? Yeah, mostly the programs.

Was our wedding "ruined"? No. Absolutely, positively, completely NO. Did we give a shit on the day of the wedding? Again, NO!

Because our ceremony was magical -- the rain parted just long enough for us to say our vows outside, and our officiant was warm and inspiring and uplifting. My friend brought her tiny newborn preemie, a little miracle in and of himself. Our friends promptly snatched the droopy menu cards out of the holders to read them, and to analyze the wines we'd selected. I waltzed with Econo Boy in front of everyone and didn't feel self-conscious even once. And then, our guests didn't leave the dance floor until the DJ announced the last dance.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a "tree" person rather than a "forest" person -- I tend to get caught up in the small stuff, wedding-related or non-wedding-related. But on the day of the wedding, for once in my life, I didn't care about the small stuff. Because I was married to a man who loved me more than anything else in the world, and I love him back just the same way, and we were surrounded by family and friends who loved and supported us and our new marriage.

Yeah, that's sappy. I don't care about that either.

x-posted to my new blog: PetiteChablis.wordpress.com.

5 comments:

anna and the ring said...

Yay for sappy. I shall just ignore the bad things.

Anonymous said...

You were sad because you worked on the programs and knew they were supposed to be there, but I can assure you no guest ever gave it a thought.

I've never attended a single wedding in my whole life that had programs!

Mouse said...

Boo about the programs, but you're so right, darling--I'm sure nobody noticed, and that it was gorgeous.

Plus, rain?? Where is the rain in your photos? Could've fooled me!

xo

Bride in Exile said...

Mouse, that reminds me of more brilliant words of wisdom from AccordionsandLace -- perfect weddings are the creation of great photographers! David made sure that the rain appeared in our photos in only the most artistic and attractive ways possible ;-)

Anonymous, you're absolutely right -- I'm sure our guests didn't give it a moment's thought! And the programs do make a beautiful keepsake for our families :-)

wedding accessories said...

It's a very positive message that you delivered here. This is very true fact that something or the other has to go wrong, as you cannot have full control over everything, being more focused on your event. In my cousin's wedding also things went wrong, but then we help the spirit of the occasion, and tried to manage our best.