Wedding
Alright, here it is - the Wedding Post. It seems like a lot more happened than this...
I think the last time I was as busy as I was during the three days before my wedding was when I graduated from Covenant and was packing up to return to Maine. Two former Covenant roommates of mine, Ashley and Susannah, and a fellow Oxford Study Abroad participant, Courtney, had arrived then to help with decorating. I spent what time I wasn’t tying ribbons to tulle doing my best to talk to them because I have no idea when we’d actually see each other again.
The strangest thing was that I realized that my wedding was the first time all the different worlds I’d lived in throughout my whole life were finally going to become known to one another. I’ve sometimes written about how disconnected my life sometimes feels, since no one in Maine knew anything of my life at Covenant, no one in Covenant knew anything of my life when I studied at Oxford, and only my Oxford friends had actually met Tim but didn’t know much of the story afterward except for little updates in e-mails. But now, Ashley and Susannah met my Maine friends Leah, Norrie and Gill, and everyone met Courtney, Chelsea and Kanika. It all led to a very odd mix of emotions that I felt on my wedding day, because I knew this would probably be the only time my worlds could finally become singular. I felt very close to these girls, some of whom traveled quite a distance, and I didn’t want to let that go.
What I did want to let go of was a white baseball cap my aunt gave me with “bride” written on it in gold letters. Some of these girls I do love dearly made me wear the thing into a bar in Rockland on the Thursday before the wedding. Luckily, the thing was giving me a headache so I was allowed to take it off.
The next day was a race to get to the rehearsal dinner, after decorating the church, getting nails and toes done, finding some last minute potted plants and then getting back home to change before going back to the church. The rehearsal went fairly well, particularly when Tim told his dad to stop taking pictures of everyone. That night, we had a little pre-wedding party for all of the younger generation who had arrived by then.
Then, suddenly, it was The Day. My dad and the girls not involved with the wedding may have had the busiest morning, putting the finishing touches on my house for the reception. My four bridesmaids and I spent the morning getting our hair done (Ashley pointed out that it was a total Steel Magnolias moment), and were actually all dressed and ready to go an hour and a half before the wedding was supposed to start. Tim, of course, slept in until some inexcusable hour but was at the church in time for the pre-ceremony pictures. We did the whole “bride and groom don’t see each other until the ceremony” thing, but got what pictures we could out of the way to save time later.
I don’t remember a whole lot of the ceremony, except that I don’t think anything went wrong. The reception went on pretty well too. I talked to a lot of people, didn’t get to eat very much, and didn’t spill anything on my dress. In fact, the day went on pretty perfectly until my grandmother fell down a couple stairs leading from our dining room into our living room, and fell into the punch bowl. She didn’t break anything, except the punch bowl, and she said she’s not going to tell anyone about the incident (even though she knows she shouldn’t have been on the stairs in the first place). Tim and I decided we’d had enough wedding after that and left. With the presents, of course.
For the following week, we stayed in a cottage three miles away from my house, owned by one of Tim’s groomsmen. It’s right by the ocean and was perfect for us to be on our own, but still be close enough to everything we needed to pack up still.
We left Maine on the Friday after the wedding, and took a bus to Boston. My aunt and uncle (not the ones who gave me the white hat) had given us tickets to that night’s Red Sox game, which Tim knew about beforehand but I didn’t know until our wedding day. They were playing the Rangers, who they totally should have beaten but for some God-unknown reason DIDN’T. The game only lasted until a little into the sixth inning because it started raining. We were thankfully sitting under cover.
We flew out of the Boston airport early Saturday morning for England, and Tim introduced me to our…um….cozy home in Oxford. It’s pretty tiny, but it serves its purpose. Besides, aren’t all married couples supposed to live in a ridiculously small place at first? We’re in university couple accommodation outside the city center. The house would be better if it were designed with a little more thought - for instance, the kitchen only has two outlets. Two. Well, one really if you consider that the microwave takes up one of them. And then, there’s the group laundry facilities. There are a lot of people living in this little housing complex, and only THREE washing machines and THREE dryers.
And can you believe that English people apparently don’t want flavored coffee creamers? The stores don’t sell them!
Well, that’s enough tales from the newlyweds for now I guess. Who’d have guessed there would be so much laundry and dishes to do?
I think the last time I was as busy as I was during the three days before my wedding was when I graduated from Covenant and was packing up to return to Maine. Two former Covenant roommates of mine, Ashley and Susannah, and a fellow Oxford Study Abroad participant, Courtney, had arrived then to help with decorating. I spent what time I wasn’t tying ribbons to tulle doing my best to talk to them because I have no idea when we’d actually see each other again.
The strangest thing was that I realized that my wedding was the first time all the different worlds I’d lived in throughout my whole life were finally going to become known to one another. I’ve sometimes written about how disconnected my life sometimes feels, since no one in Maine knew anything of my life at Covenant, no one in Covenant knew anything of my life when I studied at Oxford, and only my Oxford friends had actually met Tim but didn’t know much of the story afterward except for little updates in e-mails. But now, Ashley and Susannah met my Maine friends Leah, Norrie and Gill, and everyone met Courtney, Chelsea and Kanika. It all led to a very odd mix of emotions that I felt on my wedding day, because I knew this would probably be the only time my worlds could finally become singular. I felt very close to these girls, some of whom traveled quite a distance, and I didn’t want to let that go.
What I did want to let go of was a white baseball cap my aunt gave me with “bride” written on it in gold letters. Some of these girls I do love dearly made me wear the thing into a bar in Rockland on the Thursday before the wedding. Luckily, the thing was giving me a headache so I was allowed to take it off.
The next day was a race to get to the rehearsal dinner, after decorating the church, getting nails and toes done, finding some last minute potted plants and then getting back home to change before going back to the church. The rehearsal went fairly well, particularly when Tim told his dad to stop taking pictures of everyone. That night, we had a little pre-wedding party for all of the younger generation who had arrived by then.
Then, suddenly, it was The Day. My dad and the girls not involved with the wedding may have had the busiest morning, putting the finishing touches on my house for the reception. My four bridesmaids and I spent the morning getting our hair done (Ashley pointed out that it was a total Steel Magnolias moment), and were actually all dressed and ready to go an hour and a half before the wedding was supposed to start. Tim, of course, slept in until some inexcusable hour but was at the church in time for the pre-ceremony pictures. We did the whole “bride and groom don’t see each other until the ceremony” thing, but got what pictures we could out of the way to save time later.
I don’t remember a whole lot of the ceremony, except that I don’t think anything went wrong. The reception went on pretty well too. I talked to a lot of people, didn’t get to eat very much, and didn’t spill anything on my dress. In fact, the day went on pretty perfectly until my grandmother fell down a couple stairs leading from our dining room into our living room, and fell into the punch bowl. She didn’t break anything, except the punch bowl, and she said she’s not going to tell anyone about the incident (even though she knows she shouldn’t have been on the stairs in the first place). Tim and I decided we’d had enough wedding after that and left. With the presents, of course.
For the following week, we stayed in a cottage three miles away from my house, owned by one of Tim’s groomsmen. It’s right by the ocean and was perfect for us to be on our own, but still be close enough to everything we needed to pack up still.
We left Maine on the Friday after the wedding, and took a bus to Boston. My aunt and uncle (not the ones who gave me the white hat) had given us tickets to that night’s Red Sox game, which Tim knew about beforehand but I didn’t know until our wedding day. They were playing the Rangers, who they totally should have beaten but for some God-unknown reason DIDN’T. The game only lasted until a little into the sixth inning because it started raining. We were thankfully sitting under cover.
We flew out of the Boston airport early Saturday morning for England, and Tim introduced me to our…um….cozy home in Oxford. It’s pretty tiny, but it serves its purpose. Besides, aren’t all married couples supposed to live in a ridiculously small place at first? We’re in university couple accommodation outside the city center. The house would be better if it were designed with a little more thought - for instance, the kitchen only has two outlets. Two. Well, one really if you consider that the microwave takes up one of them. And then, there’s the group laundry facilities. There are a lot of people living in this little housing complex, and only THREE washing machines and THREE dryers.
And can you believe that English people apparently don’t want flavored coffee creamers? The stores don’t sell them!
Well, that’s enough tales from the newlyweds for now I guess. Who’d have guessed there would be so much laundry and dishes to do?