Blog Challenge Day 15: The Day Before the Big Day

Believe or not, a year ago today was my last as a single lady.  As I prepare to document my first year of marriage, I feel it important to close out my single life.  With so much excitement and people around you, everything happens so quickly in the days before your own wedding that you often miss the opportunity to reflect on the change your are about to make in your life.  That being said, by the time your wedding day arrives, the hope is that you've spent enough time thinking, praying and looking at what your future will be with your intending that you are prepared to make the change.  I felt prepared to take on the change that marriage would cause in my life; the wedding being the catalyst of the change.  But the wedding feels like the beginning. And the wedding day is the first day of your new life not the last of your old.  In this way, I think that there often isn't a closing of the book or chapter of your old single life.  During the first few months of my marriage, I was waiting to feel some sort of big change as now I was married, not single but I didn't.  Considering my husband and I had been together 8 years before getting married, I figured it was because it wasn't that huge of a change.  Now that it has been nearly a year, I am seeing the difference in myself.  However it is not one big change, you don't suddenly morph into a different person.  The wedding does not cause and instant change suddenly propelling you into the married version of yourself.  It is the beginning of a progression from being a single person focused mostly on yourself and your life to being part of a union where the focus is for the greater good of both people.  Even with this being said, I still don't feel that I had real closure on my single life.  But maybe that is a topic for another day.  Ok, now on to the fun stuff...

The day before the wedding is a hopefully a day of fun and pampering followed by an evening of rehearsing the wedding and thanking all that have helped you along the way.  The plans (hopefully) are all set and this day is the first that as a bride, you get to enjoy the fruits of your labors.  I definitely felt this way the day before my wedding.  It began at a nail salon where the women closest to me and I were able to enjoy a little pre-wedding day pampering.

After the pampering, it was, of course, time for more food so we all enjoyed lunch at the pizzeria next door.  As I remember, the food was very good and this was the last time we were all able to be together to enjoy some "free time" before everything really began.  

After lunch some of us parted ways as there were errands to run and things to do before the rehearsal later that afternoon.  As the bride, even though I had made lists upon lists, upon lists and time lines for the entire weekend, I still managed to forget the clothes I was planning to wear to that evening making me late to my own rehearsal.  However it was either show up late or show up in the leggings and tank top I had been wearing that morning.  It was important to me to look nice for my last meal as a single lady so I figured, they can't start without me! Ha!  The rehearsal went perfectly with all my nit picky questions being answered and even though I was standing there at the altar with my future husband for some reason it seemed like a dream.  It felt like we were practicing for a play or maybe someone else's wedding.  It still didn't feel like this was all for me.

Then came time for the rehearsal dinner.  We enjoyed a great meal at a restaurant I've been dining in since I was a little girl.  I had at "breakfast for dinner" and ordered my favorite meal on the menu: Hash and Eggs.  Hey, I was the bride and the bride gets to do whatever she wants especially the day before their wedding, right?  Instead of a lot of fluff and extra money that can often go into the rehearsal dinner, we just wanted good food and a relaxed atmosphere to enjoy time with our family and wedding party.  Since we are out of state, many of these events that might seem like a chore for most engaged couples were special times for us to spend with people we don't get to see as often as we'd like. 

Although there were still some details to take care of before my last single sleep, I felt ready and excited for the next day.  I was honestly still in disbelief that it was finally here but as I fell asleep in that hotel room with my girls, I felt confident that I was ready to give up my old life and move into my new life with my husband.

Thanks for reading.

BC15-8/13