i’m back in ‘bama. i had to come back to do a few last minute wedding preparations…liking trying on my dress that had come in while i was away living in california, check out the wedding rings that had been ordered via the phone and picked up since i have been away, meetings (with the wedding director, the florist, the musician, and some more which have escaped me at the moment), and a few showers.
i was set to arrive in montgomery from my red-eye at 8:30am. due to delays in atlanta, i, in fact, did not arrive until 10am–just 1.5 hours until my first shower. i picked up my luggage, and while waiting for mom to pick me up, i pulled a superman and made a quick costume change in the airport bathroom. since it was freezing here, i rummaged through my bag for the warmest clothes possible…not settling for the springier outfit i had chosen to wear back in a more milder, sunnier california.
mom picked me up. we skipped any sort of greeting and needless chit-chat and went straight to business. i finished wrapping the hostess gifts mom had begun to wrap (leaving them undone when i called to let her know that i had arrived–earlier than the arrival time on the website), wrote out thank you’s to the hostess, and then assembled the gifts. done…now we could relax. or could we?
we headed to dad’s to pick up anne so we could all ride together.
as we waited for a few minutes at dad’s, we discussed not knowing what to do. you see, the 3 of us are normally on the other end of these kinds of things–the giving, not the receiving. we didn’t know what time to show up, what to say, or what to do. never having been in this situation before.
the bride.
the mother of the bride.
the step-mother of the bride.
but we’re here now…
and so we made our way to the shower, which was a lot of fun. a mixture of people with whom i had spent a lot of time–now grown-up girls who were in the youth group, mom’s of girls and guys in the youth group, and moms who helped out with the youth group. it was fun to see them all…even if it had been years. it was fun to spend time around them again. it was like old times…but not. we’re older. our lives have changed. but it brought us back–back to that place, back to the relationships we shared, back to memories of great times we shared in the past.
fun times…a reunion of sorts.
and it was a different kind of shower. we made our own individual pizzas. the pre-made crusts, the toppings, the choices. each on their individual piece of parchment paper then stuck in the oven to cook. yum!!
it was time to open gifts, so i was told. not sure how to begin this, or if i should be the one, i went to the appointed chair, along with my compadres taylor (who was collecting the wrapping paper) and hayden (who was recording all the gifts+givers). i sat there. one lady asked me about faisal, another wanted to know the story. i figured maybe story time was in order. so i began my program.
it felt like old times. spontaneously coming up with a plan. calling the ladies to order. demanding their attention. beginning my program. but this time it was personal. what to say, how much to say, what details to include. so i began to tell the story, our story…and invited the ladies who were already there into our story.
it was good for me to recall. it was good for me to recall around these ladies who had already been on my journey. my journey of dating a previous guy. my journey of being single. my journey of waiting. and now, my journey of beginnings. my journey of engagement. my journey of planning. my soon-to-be journey of marriage.
and yesterday, each lady imparted something to both faisal and i to begin our journey. gifts. and more importantly, blessings. blessings recorded in print for us to read. i am eager to read them all, but want to share these for the first time with faisal. these ladies. their gifts. their blessings. their prayers.
overwhelming…
then, the goodbyes…the last minute photo ops and the party favors (uh, yes for all you non-southerners…monogrammed cookies).
