In the blink of an eye

The wedding was wonderful - perfect. The closest thing I can compare it to is seeing particularly good visual fan-art, and having that moment of, "Oh my god, here in front of me is that person I imagined," except it was nothing like that.

If I had dreamed the wedding... well, it would be nothing like this, because in my dreams/anxiety-prompted nightmares, nothing went right. On the day itself, everything went right. I could not have wished for it to be any more beautiful.

We had tons of friends from a variety of places fly in-- Alaska, Washington, Minnesota, and Ohio represented-- and many of them stayed with us before the wedding. I was nervous beforehand about having house-guests, but they were all wonderful. The two who came in early and stayed with us a while (Mace and Devon) before the wedding were seriously the best house-guests you could ask for; they made those last anxiety-filled days so much easier. We all laughed so hard we probably seemed like crazy-people. It was wonderful - and then even more friends came in, and then family I haven't seen in years. Remarkably, air-travel cooperated; several people were early, and not a single person got into the airport late, so our five trips into Logan were relatively easy.

The day of... everything was beautiful. The anxiety dissipated during my hair-and-makeup appointment, after which the sentimental feeling made me nearly cry every time I saw a new person in the bridal party. Have you ever seen women fanning their faces with their hands, usually in silly TV shows and such? I never thought I would actually do that, but lo and behold...

There are a bunch of pictures posted in the Chatter forum on the Message Boards, and I'm sure more stories will come out there if you want to know more. For now... I'm checking back in to real life, with some of the best memories of my life to cherish and hold on to.

Yours,
Mrs. Atwater-Rhodes

PS - yes, we're each keeping our own names, but yes, I am using the Mrs. I fought for the right to be a Mrs in the Massachusetts State House. I'm wearing the title.