Final Words From the New Missus

We are married! Woohoo!

I must say, our wedding day was just lovely. At the risk of sounding really corny, our wedding day felt magical. You just can't match a day when not only did I feel so special and beautiful, I felt overwhelmed with love: love from Matt, from our families, and from our friends.

How wonderful, I should get married more often! Kidding, kidding...

During our 16-month engagement, the Wedding Kool-Aid got ignored, sipped, and other times gulped. Since I have been married for nearly two whole weeks, I would like to wrap up my blog with some parting words of wisdom about wedding planning.

Great advice from other people that I actually listened to:

• Best advice from my new husband: It's not all about you (just mostly), so go wedding dress shopping. Have fun with your mother and sister. You just might enjoy it.
  
  
• Best advice from my friend Katie: Spend money and effort on stuff people will remember, and don't bother on the stuff they won't remember. People will remember food and fun, which means get a great menu and some kickass music.
  
  
• Best advice from my friend Parag: Whatever you can do in advance, do it. There's so much to do the last few weeks, so you'll be glad for any little thing done early.

• Best advice from my friend Celeste: As you walk down the aisle, just keep looking at your husband-to-be. He's the one that matters in the moment.
  
  
• Best advice from my hairdresser: At your wedding, don't bother trying to talk to everyone. It's YOUR day, so spend it the way you want to. If people really want to talk to you, get a photo with you, whatever, they will get to you. (We did a receiving line at the church so we could take that moment to greet all of our guests.)
  


• Best advice from my coworker Kate and my friend Jess: Take a few moments to just look around your wedding reception, preferably with your new spouse. The day goes by so fast, so really grab some moments and hold on to them.
  
  
• Best advice from my coworker Meredith: Wear false eyelashes. You won't look like a hooker.
  

Do I have any regrets?

• It might've been nice if we had gotten engagement photos. We talked about it but just never bothered. However, I now kind of wish we had professional pictures of us not all fancied up in wedding garb.
  


• We had a professional videographer for our ceremony (SO glad we did that), and though we didn't want a videographer for the reception, if we had it to do over, we would've had the videographer capture our introduction and first dances at the reception. Our families came out to American Land by Bruce Springsteen, Matt and I came out to You're The Best (from the Karate Kid), and then our first dance was to Can't Help Fallin' in Love by Elvis. Awesome song choices, I know!
  


• I wish I'd eaten more of our wedding cake because it was unbelievable! (My compliments to Desserts of Distinction.)

Pretty impressive if those are my only regrets!

And here's the most important thing that I figured out on my own: don't do anything just because it's tradition. You get married once, so make it right for you and your groom.

If you think a wedding tradition is lame or just doesn't suit your bridal self, bag it. (Plus, the less stuff you buy, the kinder you're being to your wallet and the planet.)

For example, we didn't bother with favors at our shower or wedding (we made donations instead), a toss bouquet or garter, bubbles or bird seed, or a guest book. We made up our own rules for the procession into the church so it was meaningful for us. However, I did go super traditional and walked down the aisle to "Here Comes the Bride. " We picked the traditions we liked and disregarded ones we didn't like.

(I didn't care about that new/old/borrowed/blue thing either. I almost gave my poor friend Alisa a heart attack that I didn't have something blue on my wedding day. She was like, you HAVE to have something blue! I was like, really, I don't. Luckily I convinced her that my wedding could go on in the absence of blue.)

And on that note... folks, it's over!

Or perhaps I should say, Matt and I have just begun . . .