"Bridezilla"

If any of you knew me during my wedding planning you knew that I wasn't thrilled with the idea of planning a wedding.  Don't get me wrong, I love weddings, flowers, beautiful dresses, I just wasn't excited to plan my own wedding.  I'm a daughter of divorced parents and almost everyone I know over the age of 30 has been divorced at least once, so I was apprehensive about marriage and lifelong commitments.  But when I met Jade and we fell in love, I knew I wanted to marry him.  When we decided to get married, I was excited to run away and elope with a handful of people in a beautiful destination.  Slowly, our visions of a simple ceremony began evolving.  Every bride knows that when you get married, you aren't throwing a party for you and your husband to celebrate your love, you throw a party for your parents.  My small dream wedding of 8 people turned into a guest list of 80 and an ever expanding budget.  All the little costs kept adding up, and the stress began to mount.  Suddenly when the venue wanted to charge me extra for a huppah that I wanted as my alter, the tears started flowing and I began stomping my feet like a child...no, a Bridezilla.  When did this change in me occur?  What happened to my simple wedding of running away with my husband and family?  Was I really a Bridezilla?  People warned me that wedding planning could be stressful, but my anxiety began to build.  I ended up deciding the few hundred dollars extra wasn't important and moved on.  I started to relax about seating charts, music, and flowers and let the coordinator worry about the details.  After the wedding I forgot about the pain and stress that came before, and as the cliche goes, it was the best day of my life.  My family and loved ones stood by me and made the trip to see me marry the love of my life, and it was a beautiful ceremony and vacation for everyone.

A picture of our beautiful ceremony.

Jade and I completing our sand ceremony.

All of our guests (minus Amanda) that could make it.  Love you Manda!