Chris and I got engaged September 6, 2015. I knew that running a business and planning a wedding was going to be a challenge. Always hearing that planning a wedding was a full time job, I knew I was in for it. So I committed to make sure that nothing falls in between the cracks in both the planning and with the studio. I had this!
In order to ensure that was the case and to not turn in to a bridezilla in ANY WAY, I was going to commit to making it to my yoga mat AT LEAST three times a week, NO MATTER WHAT and commit to a daily meditation practice. I do that normally but just wanted to make sure I kept up with it.
I have to admit, I did it for about a year consistently. Some days it didn’t happen but I would not beat myself up about it. I would get back to where I left off. I could definitely feel in my mind the days I didn’t sit in stillness for a couple of minutes. My body could also feel the days I didn’t make it to practice.
What I realized throughout the whole year of planning is that I didn’t really sweat the small stuff, thanks to yoga and meditation. Chris and I decided on a stations wedding so we didn’t have to stress about table settings and who sat where. We didn’t have this long list of photos that the photographer “must” take. Creating playlist is so fun so we had a Must Play and Do Not Play list for the dj. Simple and not stressful. No bouquet toss, no garter stuff. Again, big party. Lots of food and booze and people are happy.
Flowers? No biggy. The caterer literally called me THE WEEK OF and said “What flowers are we doing for your centerpieces?” I laughed and said… “Ummmmmm, what are our choices?” He said, “We could do hydrangeas?” Me, not knowing what the heck a hydrangea even was, says sounds good and was about to hang up until he said, “Well, what color?!?!?!” I giggled and said, “Let’s do orange since the linens are blue.” Done!
I wanted it to be a big party and wanted it to be a lot of fun. And I didn’t want to stress. I am 40 years old. I’ve been in a lot of weddings and have been to many weddings. I’ve seen MANY brides be really tense and stressed out during the ENTIRE planning process. Isn’t this supposed to be the happiest day of your life?
My make up trials were horrific. I haven’t worn foundation my whole life and every make up artist insisted “I had to for pictures”. Why in the world would I try something NEW on the biggest day of my life where it made my face look weird, wrinkled and caked?!?!?!? Anyway, we were getting married in Havre de Grace, Maryland. Being a boating town, there were slim pickings as far as salons go. So instead of going crazy about where I was going to go and how I was going to go foundation-free, I figured out a way to resolve it. I was going to do my own makeup for my wedding!
GASP! WHAT??? It probably wasn’t a direction many brides would have went but a daily yoga AND meditation practice kept reminding me to not sweat the small stuff. Thank goodness for YouTube videos. I bought a ton of product and experimented for 2 straight weeks. Applying fake eyelashes was fun and I had it down to a T thanks to using two sets of tweezers! Amazing! Discovering the Jaclyn HIll Becca highlighter palette was a game cha
nger! I learned that I could use lipliner not to just line my lips but to color the full lip and just add gloss. Perfection! Obsessesion was an understatement. I was loving it. LOL. And it all worked out! My face looked flawless and my pictures turned out GREAT!
The week before the wedding came and everyone kept telling me how calm I was, including our vendors! The caterer, DJ, and wedding planner were in awe of how relaxed I was. At the rehearsal dinner the night before, my husband and I decided that he was going to stay with my dad and help with the crab fest we were having for our 50+ guests coming in from out of town. We agreed we were going to divide and conquer. I was going to make sure the rehearsal went smooth and he was going to set up so when we got back, everything was ready to go. PARTY TIME!
We get to the rehearsal and our officiant, who is a close friend of ours, was SHOCKED when I told him Chris wasn’t coming!!!!! His exact words were “I think this is the only time in history when the officiant is more stressed out than the bride!” HAHAHA. I wasn’t going to argue that but I also wasn’t going to stress. Again, we wanted a big party. We refused to sweat the small stuff! And ya know what, it ALLLL worked out!
For those of you who know me, know I love Michael Franti! I wanted his song “Life Is Better With You” played after the ceremony as we walked down the aisle as husband and wife. That song has reminded me of Chris since our very first days of dating because my life was good, really good when I met him. But with him in my life, it was better. A bonus. So I wanted that song to be our first song together as official husband and wife.
Well, there was a hiccup in the system and the song that the dj played (right before the image of the petal toss above) was horrific. So horrific I wouldn’t walk down the aisle. My mom and the officiant went up to the dj and was like “What the heck is this song??!?!?!! This isn’t the right one!” What was showing on her screen was Life is Better With You, but what was playing was some song about being stuck in a cage. TRUE STORY. Horrific right? We took a deep breath, shook it off. In my head “big party, no stress, nothing but fun”. We walked down the aisle finally and the photographer, the amazing Kilho Park, captured that shot. Probably one of my favorites out of all of our wedding photos.
The dj was all stressed out, literally shaken up and apologized up and down. I got over it quickly again, because yoga and meditation helped teach me to not be so reactive and it was all good. The weather was picture perfect, we had 220 guests there and it was the biggest party of our lives!!!!!
And the reality of it is, how many people could tell you what flowers we had as centerpieces? They don’t care. They just want a night out, a night out without kids for most. A night out, all dressed up with lots of laughs surrounded by good energy. SO FUN!
The next week or so as all the vendors checked in with us and kept saying how I was the calmest bride they have EVER dealt with! How I was a real pleasure to work with. These people have been in the industry for over 20 years! What a huge compliment and an inspiration to write this blog. They asked “Ang, be honest. How were you so calm and relaxed through out this whole process?”
My answer was simple:
“I practice yoga and I meditate.”
