Actress Singer Educator
And So It Begins...
I thought that maybe I was alone on this, but luckily I discovered an amazing book called “A Practical Wedding” and it has changed the way I view my upcoming nuptials. This book is a must read for anyone planning a wedding. It’s so, well, practical.
I love the idea of a wedding, but when it comes down to it, weddings are expensive, and for no good reason. And then there’s the expectations. The endless, mind numbing expectations. For me, it’s a celebration of love and commitment and I just don’t see where floral arrangements and $5,000 dresses come into the equation. I love weddings, but not for the decorations or matching bridesmaids dresses or three course dinner, but for that moment during the ceremony when even I (a total unromantic, unsappy person) feel a little choked up. I also love weddings for the reception where you get to dance and drink the night away with your family and friends in honor of this couple that you love.
In the book “A Practical Wedding,” Meg Keene says, “A whole industry is set up to sell you a beautiful wedding; it’s set up to sell you how things will look. But what matters on your wedding day, what you will remember until you are old and gray, is how it felt.” Yes! I want a wedding that feels good. I don’t want to spend money that I don’t have for expectations that I’ll never meet. I want us to craft a day that celebrates who we are and what we have accomplished, not a day that feels ordinary or uptight.
We may not know what we are doing when it comes to planning this shindig, but there are a few things that we do know. We want to be a room with friends and family on the day that we become an awesome, new family. We want to have a band because we are musicians and having our party feel like a rock concert is important to us. We want to eat lots of dessert and drink booze. We might even want a margarita machine and fajitas. We want to get sweaty from dancing. I want to laugh at him while he’s dancing on the dance floor. He wants to laugh at me because I don’t actually know the words to songs that I think I do. We want to dance with our friends and siblings. We want our friends from growing up to be in the same room with our friends from our life now. We want to be in a room filled with nothing but joy, laughter, and happiness as we celebrate something pretty awesome. We want to say nice things as we make a verbal commitment to each other in front of these awesome people. We want to celebrate the last 10 years of our lives that have led up to this moment. These are the things that are important to us and I think that’s a great place to start planning a wedding.
Throwback Thursday
My Love Story
We were late to the concert. I had no idea how long it would take us to get from Astoria to the York Theatre! We were about 15 minutes late and missed the first song that Rob sang that night. The concert was fun and I did get to see him sing a duet later in the show. Afterwards we met in the lobby in front of the now extinct pay phones. He was cute. And tall. I liked that.
Julie and I joined Rob and his cast for a drink afterwards and Rob was complaining about having to lug his guitar with him to a friends birthday party later that night. I offered to take his guitar back to Astoria since we lived near each other. I figured he could come by and get it at a later date. Believe it or not, this was actually just me being nice and not me masterminding a grand, romantic plan. I am from Texas after all where we are bred to be polite.
I saw Rob again the next week when we went to see some really terrible theatre together. It was supposed to be a group outing with friends but everyone cancelled so it suddenly became a date. Interesting how that happens. We walked around the San Gennaro Festival in Little Italy and I kept making “Into The Woods” jokes. (bonus points if you know the joke I was making)
Rob eventually came over to get his guitar and I made him dinner. We flirted. We kept seeing each other over the next few weeks and eventually he swept in for a kiss when I wasn’t expecting it. He’s sneaky like that.
Those magical months were almost 10 years ago. We’ve managed to figure out this crazy life of being performers living in New York City. I think. Maybe we haven’t figured it out completely but we are trying together.
Last month Rob took me to The York Theatre where we met to see a show. Afterwards he said that he had a meeting with the company manager to talk about getting a show produced. We walked back into the theatre and this happened.
Flynn Says YES! from Mike Bradley on Vimeo.
I’m really excited about celebrating 10 years together with this amazing man and I can’t think of any better way than with an exchange of vows and a killer dance party. It’s gonna be awesome.
