Wedding Planning!...and Wisdom Teeth (My Life Recently, Part 2)
Here is Part 2 of my recent life updates. The second half of my summer vacation has turned into a whirlwind of preliminary wedding plans. And on top of that I also had my wisdom teeth removed and had to take time to recover. It's been a challenge getting through it all, but by now a wedding date has been set, venues are booked, and my teeth are healing. Here's a window into what's been going on.
David and I returned from our trip to New York/Niagara Falls (now newly engaged) on Sunday, July 16. It was kind of nice to get engaged while on a trip because David and I could enjoy being engaged all by ourselves for a few days without the pressure of starting to plan the wedding and answer a million questions from friends and family. We called and texted some close family and friends while on the trip but we waited until the night we came back to make it "Facebook official" and now public knowledge. (Social media has certainly transformed the process of announcing big news.) I find it nice, but a bit overwhelming to get that many "likes" and comments on a post.
Choosing a Wedding Date
Then I went to visit my parents the next day (Monday, July 17) and was immediately presented with my mom's pile of wedding ideas. Apparently she had been saving invitations, save the dates, programs, photographer and DJ recommendations, menus, reception venue ideas, and more from every wedding my parents had attended in the last 10 years or so. (My mom does nothing in life without a great deal of careful thought and planning.) David and I were hoping to set a date about a year from now (summer 2018) and my mom urged me to start researching and contacting reception venues ASAP, worried those dates would be already booked up. So I got to work immediately to secure something for next summer. (Although as it turns out, there were plenty of dates available at the venues I found. But we probably couldn't have waited much longer.)
I searched on The Knot and Wedding Wire for local venues, picked some that seemed promising and started calling and scheduling appointments. We ended up visiting 7 venues in the span of 5 days. The first three appointments were discouraging since my parents seemed to find a problem with every venue we visited. I worried that we wouldn't find anything that fit our price range and met the standards my parents were hoping for. But on the fourth appointment (Thursday, July 27) we finally went to a venue that seemed like a serious possibility for all of us. Then we saw another promising one the next day. We took time over the weekend to consider the top two choices and I took David to visit both of these (since he'd been at work during the time of initial appointments). Eventually we settled on choosing our favorite venue (a golf clubhouse that had the best value of amenities for the price). I called them on Monday (July 31) and placed a hold for our preferred date.
It took a few more days to get the wedding date fully settled. We couldn't get a meeting with the priest at the church until Tuesday, August 1, since he'd been on vacation the previous two weeks. Things had finally started to come together with the reception venue, so I was a little nervous that somehow the date we wanted wouldn't been available at the church (or with Father). But it was available, so we booked the church and signed a contract for the reception. So we are officially getting married on Saturday, August 4, 2018. It's a perfect date for having plenty of time to plan after the previous school year ends and yet still time to go on our honeymoon before the next school year starts.
Wisdom Teeth Pains
Several months ago, I scheduled wisdom teeth removal surgery for Thursday, July 20, 2017. I wanted it done after the New York trip, but with plenty of time to recover before school starts. I was very nervous about the surgery since I had never been put under anesthesia before. (Hard to believe at the age of 29, but it's true.) I was also worried about the recovery and possible complications. But I knew it had to be done since my teeth were badly impacted and dentists had been urging me for years to get it taken care of. I spent the three days between returning from New York and having the surgery calling and making reception appointments, but all appointments were scheduled for the week after the surgery. (And I truly hoped I would not be a puffy chipmunk anymore by that time.)
The surgery itself was easier than I expected. The anesthesia wasn't too scary. (It was more sedation in the end. I was partially aware of where they were working in my mouth the whole time, even though I couldn't feel any pain.) I was pretty swollen and couldn't eat normally for several days but I got through it with lots of soft food, pain medication, ice, and heat packs. Recovering from wisdom teeth removal is less miserable when you're staying at your mom's house and can distract yourself with wedding ideas. But I was still extremely impatient with the whole healing process and wished the pain, bleeding, swelling, and stiffness would go away faster than it did. (I really should have sucked it up and done this when I was younger.)
Unfortunately, I ended up with some lingering numbness and muscle tension on the right side of my lower jaw that still hasn't healed completely. (It's now been three weeks since the surgery.) It seems to be improving, but it may be a few more months before it's completely back to normal. But other than that I'm doing all right.
Impressions of Wedding Planning
Planning a wedding is exciting and fun, but definitely stressful for many reasons. Weddings require coordinating lots of people, which always means unpredictability and clashing expectations. Everyone has opinions and visions of how it should go - myself, David, my parents, David's parents, the various vendors we're hiring, and any friend or family member offering to share their own experience. I know that Saturday, August 4, 2018 is going to be a beautiful day and I will enjoy every minute of finally marrying my true love and celebrating with all our family and friends. But I'm definitely not a fan of the logistical chaos required to get there. (And yes, I know, I'm only at the beginning. I have 12 months of this total.) This video from College Humor captures pretty well how I'm starting to feel. (*Note: There is some profanity.)
Thankfully the times when I've felt most at peace with this process have been when I was dealing with the church aspect of wedding planning. So far that's meant meeting with Father to book the date and complete registration paperwork for Catholic marriage, completing a marriage prep survey, and signing up for a marriage prep seminar. We've had one small hiccup tracking down David's baptism certificate (since the church he was baptized in closed), but otherwise the small amount of church planning so far has gone smoothly.
I try to remind myself every day that even though our secular culture emphasizes the worldly aspects of a wedding (the reception, the dress, photos, food, what's posted on social media, etc.), the truth of it all is that marriage is a holy, sacramental commitment. The vows we say to each other in the ceremony and the celebration of the Eucharist that follows is what matters most that day. God brought David and I together and what matters most is that we honor God on our wedding day and every day through our marriage. If we can keep focused on this, I have to trust that all the secular trappings of the wedding will fall into place. Unfortunately, I have a tendency toward overplanning and overanalyzing (as does the rest of my family), so remembering this truth about what really matters for weddings and marriage will be a daily task I can't neglect.
So please pray for David and I in the months to come as we embark on this marriage prep and wedding planning adventure. Photographer and DJ bookings are the next project, along with continuing to work on the tentative guest list... and it's almost time for me to go back to school.
Come Holy Spirit! You and me together, we've got this.
David and I returned from our trip to New York/Niagara Falls (now newly engaged) on Sunday, July 16. It was kind of nice to get engaged while on a trip because David and I could enjoy being engaged all by ourselves for a few days without the pressure of starting to plan the wedding and answer a million questions from friends and family. We called and texted some close family and friends while on the trip but we waited until the night we came back to make it "Facebook official" and now public knowledge. (Social media has certainly transformed the process of announcing big news.) I find it nice, but a bit overwhelming to get that many "likes" and comments on a post.
Choosing a Wedding Date
Then I went to visit my parents the next day (Monday, July 17) and was immediately presented with my mom's pile of wedding ideas. Apparently she had been saving invitations, save the dates, programs, photographer and DJ recommendations, menus, reception venue ideas, and more from every wedding my parents had attended in the last 10 years or so. (My mom does nothing in life without a great deal of careful thought and planning.) David and I were hoping to set a date about a year from now (summer 2018) and my mom urged me to start researching and contacting reception venues ASAP, worried those dates would be already booked up. So I got to work immediately to secure something for next summer. (Although as it turns out, there were plenty of dates available at the venues I found. But we probably couldn't have waited much longer.)
I searched on The Knot and Wedding Wire for local venues, picked some that seemed promising and started calling and scheduling appointments. We ended up visiting 7 venues in the span of 5 days. The first three appointments were discouraging since my parents seemed to find a problem with every venue we visited. I worried that we wouldn't find anything that fit our price range and met the standards my parents were hoping for. But on the fourth appointment (Thursday, July 27) we finally went to a venue that seemed like a serious possibility for all of us. Then we saw another promising one the next day. We took time over the weekend to consider the top two choices and I took David to visit both of these (since he'd been at work during the time of initial appointments). Eventually we settled on choosing our favorite venue (a golf clubhouse that had the best value of amenities for the price). I called them on Monday (July 31) and placed a hold for our preferred date.
It took a few more days to get the wedding date fully settled. We couldn't get a meeting with the priest at the church until Tuesday, August 1, since he'd been on vacation the previous two weeks. Things had finally started to come together with the reception venue, so I was a little nervous that somehow the date we wanted wouldn't been available at the church (or with Father). But it was available, so we booked the church and signed a contract for the reception. So we are officially getting married on Saturday, August 4, 2018. It's a perfect date for having plenty of time to plan after the previous school year ends and yet still time to go on our honeymoon before the next school year starts.
Several months ago, I scheduled wisdom teeth removal surgery for Thursday, July 20, 2017. I wanted it done after the New York trip, but with plenty of time to recover before school starts. I was very nervous about the surgery since I had never been put under anesthesia before. (Hard to believe at the age of 29, but it's true.) I was also worried about the recovery and possible complications. But I knew it had to be done since my teeth were badly impacted and dentists had been urging me for years to get it taken care of. I spent the three days between returning from New York and having the surgery calling and making reception appointments, but all appointments were scheduled for the week after the surgery. (And I truly hoped I would not be a puffy chipmunk anymore by that time.)
The surgery itself was easier than I expected. The anesthesia wasn't too scary. (It was more sedation in the end. I was partially aware of where they were working in my mouth the whole time, even though I couldn't feel any pain.) I was pretty swollen and couldn't eat normally for several days but I got through it with lots of soft food, pain medication, ice, and heat packs. Recovering from wisdom teeth removal is less miserable when you're staying at your mom's house and can distract yourself with wedding ideas. But I was still extremely impatient with the whole healing process and wished the pain, bleeding, swelling, and stiffness would go away faster than it did. (I really should have sucked it up and done this when I was younger.)
Unfortunately, I ended up with some lingering numbness and muscle tension on the right side of my lower jaw that still hasn't healed completely. (It's now been three weeks since the surgery.) It seems to be improving, but it may be a few more months before it's completely back to normal. But other than that I'm doing all right.
Impressions of Wedding Planning
Planning a wedding is exciting and fun, but definitely stressful for many reasons. Weddings require coordinating lots of people, which always means unpredictability and clashing expectations. Everyone has opinions and visions of how it should go - myself, David, my parents, David's parents, the various vendors we're hiring, and any friend or family member offering to share their own experience. I know that Saturday, August 4, 2018 is going to be a beautiful day and I will enjoy every minute of finally marrying my true love and celebrating with all our family and friends. But I'm definitely not a fan of the logistical chaos required to get there. (And yes, I know, I'm only at the beginning. I have 12 months of this total.) This video from College Humor captures pretty well how I'm starting to feel. (*Note: There is some profanity.)
Thankfully the times when I've felt most at peace with this process have been when I was dealing with the church aspect of wedding planning. So far that's meant meeting with Father to book the date and complete registration paperwork for Catholic marriage, completing a marriage prep survey, and signing up for a marriage prep seminar. We've had one small hiccup tracking down David's baptism certificate (since the church he was baptized in closed), but otherwise the small amount of church planning so far has gone smoothly.
I try to remind myself every day that even though our secular culture emphasizes the worldly aspects of a wedding (the reception, the dress, photos, food, what's posted on social media, etc.), the truth of it all is that marriage is a holy, sacramental commitment. The vows we say to each other in the ceremony and the celebration of the Eucharist that follows is what matters most that day. God brought David and I together and what matters most is that we honor God on our wedding day and every day through our marriage. If we can keep focused on this, I have to trust that all the secular trappings of the wedding will fall into place. Unfortunately, I have a tendency toward overplanning and overanalyzing (as does the rest of my family), so remembering this truth about what really matters for weddings and marriage will be a daily task I can't neglect.
So please pray for David and I in the months to come as we embark on this marriage prep and wedding planning adventure. Photographer and DJ bookings are the next project, along with continuing to work on the tentative guest list... and it's almost time for me to go back to school.
Come Holy Spirit! You and me together, we've got this.
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