It Must be Wedding Season

OK - so this past week my time management skills sorts fell apart and I was up late many nights cramming in anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour of work.  As a result I watched alot of late night TV ... which led me to 2 thoughts....

(1) Who really calls into those sex chat phone lines????  And do they really believe they are talking to those horrible actress-bimbettes on the commercials.  And HOW can anyone be that bad at acting?  HOW?
and
(2) My late night viewing has included the two "Friends" episodes that were Ross and Emily's wedding in England and a few episodes surrounding Monica and Chandler's wedding. Thursday night I watched "16 Candles", which ends with a wedding and then Friday night I watched an episode and a half of "Say Yes to the Dress" .  And I got caught up on some recordings of "Bethenny's Getting Married". Lots of weddings.  Combine that with the fact that I recently reconnected with a high school friend on Facebook and part of our catching up included those how'd-you-meet-your-husband?  and how-long-have-you been-married? stories.  And then one afternoon at the neighborhood pool, a few ladies were discussing an upcoming wedding for one gal's either stepson or nephew (I never did quite figure out how she was related to the groom).  But they were going on about the bride and her family and the crazy details they were demanding everyone stick to. So weddings and such have just been on my mind and it's really got me wondering about myself and about my girls.  I was pretty laid back about alot of my wedding details and I wonder if my girls will be the same.  And if they aren't - how will I handle it?  Will I get caught up in all the craziness?  Or will I be able to be a voice of reason?  Or will I totally lose my mind during it all? (I'll probably lose my mind no matter what, right?)

In one of the "Friends" episodes Monica is chastising Ross for not realizing why Emily is so upset over the loss of her dream wedding venue.  And one one of Bethenny's shows she gets all sorts of crazy determined to have her wedding in a certain place.  On "Friends" Monica points at that Emily has probably been planning her wedding since she was 7 years old. She goes on about how that is what girls do and how as we grow up we all have this idea in our heads of our perfect wedding.  Bethenny too goes on about she has imagined getting married at this one spot and how it just has to be there - nothing else will be "her".

And while I get it, I don't get it.  I dreamed of getting married, I did.  And I pictured it a 1000 times in my mind.  But I was not really "dead set" on any of the tangible features of my actual wedding ceremony and reception. I had a good idea of the type of dress I wanted. I knew I would wear my mom's veil and carry her lace covered Bible with my flowers.  I knew we would get married at whatever church my family was attending at the time and I never really thought much about the reception. And when it came to the $$$ - ours was pretty minimal and I was fine with that.  I think we spent on our wedding what I see some girls on "Say Yes to the Dress" spending on their dress!!! But when I look back - there is very little I would change.  And please don't think I sit in judgement of those who had more to their weddings - that's not it.  I think it's just that looking back, I feel like it sorta highlights what I already know about myself - I am an odd little duck

But since I have been so bombarded with all things wedding-y lately guess what?? You, you lucky thing you, YOU get to come with me on my trip down memory lane ......
Or of course you can simply click out of this page .....

Looking back at what I would change if I could only a few things come to mind and really only one stands out as a big change:
I would change the bridesmaid dresses.  I planned everything so quickly and I didn't really have any one person helping/suggesting/guiding me. I had it in my mind that bridesmaids all wore the same dress so I went with that and tried to find a dress that everyone could wear - even the Hunkler girls.  At the time were married there were 4 Hunklers and they ranged in age from 8 to 3. And I needed to find it quick, our engagement only lasted 6 months.  Add to that the fact that the Hunklers were living in Virginia at the time, two bridesmaids were living in Dallas and two were living in Austin. So this is what my wedding party wore:

In hindsight - I wish I had just said to everyone: "Pick a sundress - whatever you want - just try to keep it light and bright".  I recently saw a wedding somewhere, I can't even remember if it was on TV, online, or in a magazine, but that's what they did and it looked so, so pretty. If I had to do it all over again - that is the one change I would definitely make.

My other changes are minimal.
I kinda wish we had had more flowers in the church but then, more flowers = more money and we were really trying to keep the spending to a minimum so while I say I wish I had more flowers, I wonder if penny-pincher me would have ever been willing to fork over the cash for them ...

And if you you were at my wedding or you met me soon after, you have heard me say, never, ever again would I send my husband to the liquor store with his brother and best friend. Oh my word - even with giving tons of it away at the end of the reception, even with the party I hear my little brother had back at the house, we STILL had liquor left over for a l-o-n-g time to come. But then again - those boys going overboard with the liquor purchase has made for some fun stories so then - maybe I wouldn't change that after all .....