Dear Debra
I told you after the wedding that I had so many things to tell you that I could not find the words. So now, a few weeks, have turned into months later and this is my attempt to express a small bit of what you have done for me and my family.
I was never the girl who dreamed of her wedding day. A tomboy. Did not care for dresses and not wedding dresses for sure. Wedding dreams never really swirled in my head to be quite honest.
I never thought about weddings really until I heard someone whispering about how sad it would be that I would never have the opportunity to walk down the aisle with my Dad or have my Father & Daughter Dance on my wedding day. For the next several years, I thought over and over again how no matter what, I never ever wanted to hear people whispering about how sad they were for me, and if it meant I would never have a wedding, so be it. I went from never thinking about weddings to thinking I was never going to have one.
After Justin and I met, within months, we seemed to be the kind of couple that would be together forever, wedding or not. Marriage was not necessary...but then one fine day...came the ring. ECSTATIC!! In the days after the proposal, we had a decision to make. A small non-wedding with just family or a big wedding celebrating the joy, love and hope in our future together....this was what my family had always wanted for us...what everyone (even tomboy me) had always had reserved in the back of her mind as a possibility. Justin told me it was up to me, if I did not want to 'deal' with those whispering voices real or in my head, we could just have small family ceremony.
Would my wedding be sad? Would I break down? Would people feel sorry for me and not happy for me? Would my family be okay?
The choice was already made. I was going to celebrate this to the fullest. I had high hopes. I was not sure how yet, but I knew it was going to be good.
And then I met a wedding planner who lived on hopes, and made dreams come true.
From the minute I talked to you, I knew I was in excellent hands and it was the best decision of the decade to have you as the maestro of all celebrations!
Debra, our wedding was the best day of my life. I do not remember feeling so happy, so comfortable, so 'taken care of'....so hopeful and eager to continue this voyage with my new husband and our new joint family. When I see the wedding pictures and the snippets of wedding video from our day, the first thing I see is pure bliss in my face. Surrounded by friends and family, I was blissed to the max, and it was contagious! Everybody on the both the night of the wedding and weeks later kept telling me how wonderful, fun and joyous our wedding was.
Post script: One of the stories I heard the very next day after our wedding day.
The night of our wedding, one of our wedding guests (a nurse) saw the doctor she works for in the lobby with his daughter, they were returning from the Nutcracker performance that evening.
He asked what she (the nurse) was doing at the hotel lobby, and she said "Well I am here attending a wedding..." The doctors seven-year old daughter inquired if she could see the wedding, and reluctantly, we let her take a peek inside.
After just seeing the Nutcracker, her only response to what she saw in the room of our wedding celebration was "THIS is the most beautiful wonderland!!!"
Yes, it was!!!
Love,
