After almost six months of nothing, we have made huge strides in our wedding planning in the past month and a half! Nick and I had gone back and forth throughout our years together on whether we wanted the big traditional wedding or a smaller destination wedding. We could see the pros and cons of both but kept flip flopping over which option was best for us. After we got engaged, however, it was like someone flipped on the light and we both knew that we wanted to get married on the beach. To be honest, the move to Oklahoma probably factored highly into that decision since we would not ever get married here and driving back to Dallas every weekend for a year to plan a wedding did sound appealing at all, but we just decided one night that we wanted a destination wedding. The move and my last semester in grad school kept us from making any other decisions beyond that until this summer.
After graduation, I began to scout out locations and stumbled upon a gorgeous resort in Cabo San Lucas. After browsing through the pictures and wedding packages, we knew that this was the place. I was terrified of becoming one of those horror stories of a bad vacation so I did my due diligence and read up on Trip Advisor and spoke with lots of people who had been to Cabo and even some that had stayed at this resort chain in other parts of Mexico. Dad's credit card in hand, the place was booked and we were confirmed to wed April 14th at 6:00 pm. The nice part of destination weddings is that they have an on-site coordinator to help you with everything. We just have to tell her our colors and she helps us put together the bouquets and decorations and decorate the cake. The resort is all inclusive so we don't have to plan much for the reception beyond choosing which restaurant to dine in after the ceremony. We will finalize most of the details when we go down several days before the ceremony (legal requirements for Mexico) but so far, everyone that I have spoken with has been extremely helpful. So far, so good!
Once we had the place booked, the most important thing left on the to-do list (in my opinion anyways) was to find the perfect wedding dress. I rounded up my best girls and tried on a number of beautiful gowns. We were able to narrow it down to two, but I needed a few weeks to make my final decision. Nick had two requests: that I wear my hair down and skip the veil, so these certainly played a part in choosing the dress. Final decision was made and I could not be happier. I cannot wait for it to come in... I might be one of those girls that try their dress on a few too many times before the wedding. The day I ordered my dress, I brought along two of my bridesmaids and picked out their beautiful dresses. Not only do I have the best friends that a girl could ask for, but I also have the hottest friends ever! All four of my girls are simply stunning, so it was very easy to turn the choice over to them because I knew they would look amazing in anything. Another plus of having hot bridesmaids is that extra motivation to ramp up my own workouts!
It honestly feels like everything is falling into place. After picking out the bridesmaid dresses, I carried around a swatch to help me find the perfect tie for Nick and his groomsmen. Men's Wearhouse has a great selection of ties with their tuxedo rentals and we found one that looked great with the bridesmaid dresses, but since we are getting married in Mexico a formal tuxedo is not exactly appropriate and you cannot buy ties separately from the tuxedo. Nick has decided on a khaki colored suit and so I wanted a bright tie to coordinate with the brightly colored dresses and flowers of our tropical theme. I found the perfect tie at Express (they have awesome men's clothes, by the way!) and we were able to check one more thing off our to-do list.
I was a little nervous about entered the planning stage of the wedding. I always imagined that this would be something that my mom and I did together and that my wedding would be princess like. My mom never did anything halfway, and as I write that I wonder if subconsciously her not being here is why I was leaning towards the destination wedding. It just didn't seem right to plan a big wedding without her and maybe this is my way of moving forward. I know that there is always going to be a huge hole in my heart without my mom here, and I have to experience that ache every time I hit another milestone. This reminds me of the tiny slip of paper that my dad found in their bathroom after the accident. For some reason, my mom clipped out this quote from a magazine. I read this quote at the funeral and have kept it in my wallet ever since.
"The agony is great and yet I will stand it. Had I not loved so much I would not hurt so much at her passing. But goodness knows, I would not want to diminish that precious love by one fraction. I will hurt and I will be grateful for it. For it bears witness to the depths of our love. And for that I will be eternally grateful."
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