Mini-moon

And, there it went! Wedding #1. Amazing, wonderful, beautiful and sacred.

When at dinner, the server said "Make sure you enjoy it, you only get to do it once!"
Ben replied, "Well, twice."
She looked very confused and walked away. Ah, funny moment. It's true, we're doing a bigger Kansas City ordeal in 10 months, but no more of that for now.

After being up nearly all night and a 4 am call to my sister (thank goodness for the time zone switch to Korea) for one last implosion as all of the wedding industrial complex pelted my brain, I got a few hours sleep and was off and running on a fantastic marathon of a day. What was most amazing to me was how meaningful it was to have wonderful people manning every part of the day- going to get the flowers, decorating the courtyard, getting Ben and I there on time (a tougher job for Ben's handlers- they also had a long time at the bachelor party and a short night) and friends to make brunch, marry us and give beautiful toasts. For someone not superstitious, the hummingbird that flitted by during our walkthrough AND two days without rain in Seattle in November seems to point to something bigger looking out for us.

After the hubbub with friends, we had a beautiful 2 hour drive to our waterside resort, a bone-melting couples massage and delicious dinner. And... less than 24 hours later, a 2 hour drive back to Seattle to put Ben on a plane and wave to the other side of the country for another week. While we have many travels in the future, the 'mini-moon' was still a fantastic few hours to just be.

Advice to anyone doing this or thinking of it- do what you do best. I had to keep moving the morning of, sitting still just made me anxious. Rock out to your favorite jams while getting ready (thank you, T.I. and Pink). Whatever you wear should make you feel drop dead gorgeous, and if you're like me feel free to crack jokes during the ceremony to stem the drip of happy tears (ah, I blame it on my mom's leaky tear duct genes;). After the proposal, I had nightmares about being stuck in a frosted sugar-cake mold of a wedding that I couldn't escape and would still offend everyone who cared about me somehow. I was pleasantly surprised that after all the thoughtful planning to make sure it was us and our wedding instead of a pre-packaged "should do" event, it was still a lovely and somewhat traditional ceremony.

Next weekend's adventure- Family Programming with the military. I wonder how I'll look after I get programmed...

Word-of-the-day
Korean: wife= 아내
Military: LSR= Local Service Request