I’d been engaged for nearly two months and though it was great, I did get the occasional time when I’d be lying in bed thinking about the wedding and suddenly…BAM…major freak out!
How on earth do you plan a whole wedding? The flowers, cars, cake, clothes, invitations, photographer etc. Very overwhelming.
It was at this time I read Wedding Zen by Susan Elia MacNeal. The book takes you through chapters such as ‘Wedding and Wanting’, ‘Where Wedding Fantasies End and Real Life Begins’ and ‘You Mean There’s Life After the Wedding?’.
Within it's pages are little pearls of calming wisdom for the bride. I really liked the following quote:
"When a couple is planning their wedding, unexpected things may happen. The dress order gets lost, the officiant has a nervous breakdown, or the caterers go out of business. To paraphrase a popular expression, stuff happens.
Of course, you’ll have feelings about these things – who wouldn’t? To deal with these unexpected occurrences, sit down and really feel the feelings they bring up. Then decide to let them go.
Remember that just as labelling an event a ‘disaster’ will surely make it one, labelling the experience as just that – an experience – neutralises it. You’ve then opened yourself to a whole new set of possibilities.
Something you had planned for your wedding didn’t work. So what? Something else will. The real disaster would be if you let unforeseen glitches stand in the way of your enjoying your wedding day."
The book taught me how to slow down and breathe…and trust my capable mum to handle some things!
Wedding Zen was very helpful in putting a lot of the facets of planning a wedding into perspective. There were parts that I would personally disregard because I don’t practice Zen, but on the whole I found this book very calming.
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. William Shakespeare
though it was great, I did get the occasional time when I’d be lying in bed thinking about the wedding and suddenly…BAM…major freak out!