Wednesday 4 July 2012

No More Sleeps Left!


Wedding Countdown * please ignore the ghetto presentation, I was consumed by wedding crafting to focus on making this pretty. 

Here’s a shot of what I’ve been looking at before bed each night since May…a “wedding countdown calendar” of sorts. The boy and I each took a day (he was even, I was odd) and wrote each other a little note to open before bedtime. There were memories from our relationship, and things we loved about each other. It was a great exercise in nailing down exactly why we were doing this whole wedding thing in the first place, and it contained some really beautiful surprises.  I had a moment where I had to readjust expectations…the boy is taciturn in nature, and I gush uninhibitedly. So of course my notes were mini letters, and his were three words long. It took me a few days to start listening to the love packed into those three or four words and to really get how wonderful this man is and how lucky I am to have him by my side.
The envelopes have been growing sparser day by day…

We leave for Italy today. Although the wedding is still a week and a bit away, today is the day I’ve been waiting for (technically tomorrow early afternoon when we touch down in Italy). It’s a little surreal finally being at the culmination of a moment that you’ve been planning for the last three years. I always have a moment of “pinch-me-is-this-real” when I travel. I’m a person who plans and daydreams and spends many many moments envisioning things before they are reality... so quite literally travel is always the fulfillment of a dream of some sort. I always feel so incredibly lucky that this has now become a reality, and that I get to add a string of memories to my life.

Traveling to Italy is always a return; a journey home to loved ones. Strange that this place that I’ve never lived in can feel so much like home, but I think it’s mainly the people that create that feeling. I am so incredibly blessed that the boy's family has the largest hearts and the warmest open arms.

This wedding seemed like a crazy plan…dragging so many of my loved ones half way across the planet to do something that could simply be done at home…with a lot less inconvenience and expense to all those concerned.
I know there are those that really wish they could come but aren’t able to due to a myriad of reasons. And I will so very much miss their faces on our wedding day.  I am overwhelmed by the number of people who are coming (getting on a freaking plane and flying across oceans for us!) and SO incredibly excited to create lasting memories with them in a place I love dearly.

One of my strengths is my ability to plan and organize, but it is also one of my greatest failings. I have been consciously switching off the control freak in my brain, and doing my very best to embrace every moment that happens NOW. It’s been a looooong time that I’ve been thinking about this, but if I don’t stop thinking and practice some BEING, all of this love and beauty will rush by. So my eyes and heart are wide open waiting to catch and store every beautiful joyous moment that presents itself.

I'm overwhelmed by the love surrounding us already. I can't even imagine what its going to feel like on our wedding day. 

Adventure, here we come!