Post Wedding – Looking Back

Sunday marked two weeks since our wedding and my feelings about our wedding day have changed so much since the actual day.

On the day I felt a mixture of stress, anxiety, excitement, happiness, and immense pressure to be everything to everyone. I felt quite queasy during the evening as the stress got to me, and felt terrible that I wasn’t walking to as many people as I wanted to.

The next day I felt 100% relief that it was over and we were married (yay!). The following few days I was on a rush of pure happiness combined with huge guilt for not speaking to enough people, or getting photos taken with everyone (we had table photos taken with about 50% of the tables, but didn’t get to everyone). I also was filled with worry in case people were upset that I didn’t speak to them enough or have enough photos taken with them.

Now though, 2.5 weeks later, those feelings have faded and instead, having spoken to so many of our wonderful friends and family who were with us on the day, I feel totally at peace and happy with how our wedding day went down.

What I think of now and remember the strongest, are the feelings of love and pure joy that consumed and surrounded us. I’ve never seen Alec so happy or smiling so much, and my parents still can’t stop talking about how happy the day made them. We’ve fielded many many emails, phone calls, letters and in-person chats with guests who tell us what a wonderful, loving wedding it was, and it makes me so happy that the focus that we tried to put on all things regarding our wedding day certainly seemed to shine through for everyone present.

My highlights of the day:

• Alec arriving in the morning and exchanging gifts with me.
• Getting dressed with my bridesmaids.
• Road trip to the venue – a vintage Chrysler with no air-con and seat belts, belonging to the best man. Hairy ride to say the least. Seeing the people in toll booths do double-takes when we paid the tolls,  looking like we were on our way to a major costume party – priceless.
• Seeing my mum in full hostess mode, loving talking to all of our guests.
• The moments just prior to, and then walking down the aisle, with my dad.
• The entire ceremony. I thought my face was going to fall off it was so sore from smiling so much. I have never been so happy in my life so far as I was at that one moment.
• My friend Beck reading the poem “I carry your heart with me” during the ceremony – I got teary. 
• Accepting congratulations from all of our guests straight after the ceremony finished – so much love it was overwhelming.
• My sister-in-law Michele and cousin-in-law Liz performing a stunning rendition of “Bubbly”.
• Seeing the cake my friend Julia made for us – it looked stunning!
• The speeches by our dads. They were so funny and touching, I’m so glad I have them on video.
• Our bridal dance to the Hawaiian version of “Somewhere over the rainbow”. We just swayed a lot, but it was a beautiful moment.
• My dress – it made me feel like a princess. I want to wear it every day as my one outfit.
• Calling Alec my husband for the first time. “Where is my husband?!” 
• Waking up the next day – married! The most amazing feeling ever.