Sadie

Have you ever seen "Funny Girl" with Barbra Streisand? It's one of those musicals that can give you goosebumps consistently throughout the show and yet, at the end of it you never want to see it again. Anyway, there's a song in that movie called "Sadie, Sadie, Married Lady." Well, that's what I am. Weird. Totally, completely, incandescently AWESOME, yes, but weird.

The three months before my wedding were a strange combination of blissful suckiness for me. On one hand, I was engaged to the most amazing and attractive man on the planet, and on the other, I was attempting to plan a wedding with hours that didn't actually exist. As a sidenote, just as a woman gets maternity leave in order to produce a human, I think she should also get matrimonial leave in order to produce a marital union. I have never in my life felt so close to shacking up in the loony bin. And I had relatively little to plan, as Bryan and I had opted to go wedding festivity-lite. When I think of all my friends who went the whole hog--ceremony, luncheon, and reception with 455,000 guests, I feel a deep sense of wonder and awe.

Friends, I don't know how you did it.

Particularly when most of you were in school and working at the same time. You are better women than I. I floundered. I whined. I struggled. My apologies to my family, friends, and co-workers who had to deal with me on a daily basis. I'm sure I was simply a joy.

But somehow, finally, the madness ceased and the day arrived. It was beautiful. Everything turned out just as we hoped. We had no major catastrophes. The weather was PERFECT.

My dress fit just as it was supposed to, with no last-minute tearing or mysterious shrinkage. My hair stayed virtually CEMENTED to my head.

My family members were all on time to the ceremony and dressed appropriately.

My mother was calm and collected.

My father seemed happy to get rid of me.

The flowers arrived even before we did and were absolutely beautiful.

The cake was just as I hoped it would be, and I hear it tasted fantastic (I didn't really get any).

The decorations and colors weren't aesthetically overwhelming--as I'd feared they would be.

The sappy slideshow we put together worked seamlessly with the equipment we rented and played without a hitch.

Everybody we asked to speak at our dinner did so wonderfully. After listening to the speakers, I felt like my whole life had somehow been validated in a twenty-minute period.

Honestly, I felt almost GUILTY that everything went so well. I couldn't imagine how life could possibly get any better.

And then, just about the moment I got up to thank everyone for coming, it hit me what had actually happened that day. It was HUGE. The most important and all-encompassing thing that would ever happen to me. I was eternally tied to someone. The most incredible man I'd ever met. He was mine...like, forever.

Suddenly I realized how close we can actually get to heaven sometimes, wholly independent of flowers and linens and cake (although cake usually makes even heaven a little bit better).

Naturally, all these sudden revelations resulted in a blubbery "thank you" speech that I'd rather forget, but the realization is still with me, and I'm pretty sure it's not going anywhere.

In the nearly two months since Bryan and I tied the knot, I have experienced a strange shift in my universe. While we can hardly call ourselves veterans at this point, we are well on our way to making an actual life together. And now, after the years and years of dreaming and hoping and praying that one day I would be lucky enough to find that one poor schmuck who would be willing to put up with me indefinitely, I kind of have to just look around and marvel. He's here. It's happened. I'm a Sadie.

And my life is infinitely blessed.

***All pictures courtesy of Elisabeth Kate Studios--Kate and Brady, we love you dearly and recommend you whole-heartedly to everyone we meet. Thank you for making our day so special!