Yoo 397 - Thoughts On Being A Bride

This is an advanced apology for the sheer volume of kissy pictures in this post. Proceed at your own risk.

I'm really just posting all of these pictures so the Kyoomom can help me pick one for our "thank you" cards. But I'll add a bit of bride drivel and call it legit!

I have to admit, I wasn't real excited about being a "bride". I've never put a lot of thought or effort into how I look and the idea of bunches of people (x 2) gawking at me and judging how beautiful I was (or wasn't...) was less than thrilling.

Nails? Hair? Make-up? Teeth whitening? Jewelry? Lose weight?

Not to mention a MODEST wedding dress...

Everything about being a bride nowadays is high-maintenance! And I understand it. (mostly...i still think it's a bit over-done but don't get me started...) I wanted to look my best, but it seemed like such a tall order! One I felt quite inadequate to meet. Beauty and style are not my strengths. Everything about being a bride seemed like it was exploiting my weaknesses and setting a deadline to parade them about.

I really did try to avoid it. It was one of the main reasons I wanted to scale back the wedding and not have a reception or make a big deal out of it. I wasn't confident I could look the part of a bride. And it was stressful! Trying to pick out shoes (colorful and crazy or traditional white?), jewelry (are pearls too simple? do these even match??), a hairstyle (ha! like my hair can do that!), and so on and so forth.

I hated all of that. And I felt alone in the process.

But looking back, it doesn't seem as bad as it did at the time. Of course! Everything came together and I felt MIGHTY FINE walking out of the temple with that boy of mine. My nails weren't professionally done and my face was a little pimply and my make-up was a lot smeared with tears (and sweat...july in san antonio...) and none of that mattered.

I had a husband! I had my family and his family there! I had friends from hundreds of miles away surrounding me! We were at the temple!

Everyone tells you not to stress over the little things when you're getting married. And they're right. And I knew they were right from the start. But it gets hard to remember that as the weight of your wedding bears down on you.

If I could go back and tell the pre-wedding Kyoo one thing, it would be a reminder to relax. Don't stress about the details of trying to look beautiful! Happy people, in love and having fun, look GOOD.

In the end, being a bride wasn't so bad.

Have a great day :-)