From a Bride to a Wife

So, all wedding related events are over; I am no longer the bride, but now the wife. This fact excites me. Although I have loved our wedding process and all of the events and our day and the celebrations with everyone, the reason for it all was to get to this point.

While many women get confused between getting a wedding day and the actual marriage afterwards, it has rarely slipped my mind that all of the planning of the wedding was just to mark a different stage in our relationship - no matter how much I looked forward to a wedding day, I always looked forward to the marriage more..... and in the few instances where I lost sight of that I had a wonderful man beside me that reminded me of what is important.

On Saturday night at our cocktail reception I sat and listened while our best man & matron of honour, my father-in-law, and my father stood and gave speeches. Amazingly sincere speeches that brought me to tears, but made me laugh even more. After those four spoke it was our turn to get up and try to express our thanks to a room full of the friends, family & co-workers that have supported us throughout our relationship, not just on our wedding day. I knew I would cry; I tried to write my speech so that I would laugh just as much as I cried ..... I ended up laughing at myself crying and not being able to read my speech at points because the tears blurred my vision, but most importantly, I wrote the speech hoping that it would do justice in thanking not only the people that have most affected my life, but to everyone there to celebrate with us. I really wanted everyone there to feel that their attendance meant a lot to us.

Following my speech was Ty's - he had worked really hard on his speech and I couldn't wait to hear it. He did so well, it was heartfelt and so special. He was amazingly flattering and funny. I am constantly in awe of this man and this was simply just one more time in our life when I stood beside him and felt insanely proud to be his wife .......

After the speeches I was really surprised on the compliments about our speeches - people have quoted parts, people have said how beautiful it was, that it was the best (or one of the best) speeches they had ever heard, people shared in my tear shed because they were so touched ...... it has been so heart-warming and flattering. One of my absolutely favorite compliments came when someone very special told me that the greatest thing about us as a couple, which was highlighted in our speeches - and those of our bridal party & fathers, is that they felt a part of them, they were so real - they were not perfect, they were not traditional - but they made everyone in the room feel like they were a part of our family - our inner circle; they were emotional, they were full of embarrassing moments and favorite stories and well wishes. It was this person's feedback on the speeches that made me realize that what I wanted to accomplish that night in thanking everyone had been achieved ..... I had shared in my happiness and expressed my thanks in a way that really did touch people.

Ty and I really do make an effort to spend time and energy on not only our relationship with one another, but also with our friends and family ...... and I am honoured to have had such wonderful people there to celebrate our marriage ..... it was amazing!

xo,
S