As some of you may remember now that I’m mentioning it, I got married a few weekends ago. I got some lovely messages from well wishers in the week leading up to the wedding and the day of, which was so lovely and I appreciate it so much that you took time out to do that.
I started this blog shortly after Matt and I were forced to postpone our May wedding. It sucked, big time. I had always wanted to start something like this but never thought I would be good enough. Then COVID-19 hit and all the cares I had left to give flew out the window.
Over the past eight or so months I’ve ranted and raved and entertained many of you with my ever flowing sarcasm and not so internalized rage. It truly gives me a little kick when I see how well some of my posts do.
Now that the wedding is over and done with and all the stress that surrounded it is gone, I now have the energy and the mental capacity to actually work on my book and get back into the things that bring me joy.
“But Shannon, you were ranting plenty when you were drowning under all the wedding stress so why couldn’t you write then as well”
BECAUSE! My creative juices only flow under very strict conditions apparently and my ranty juices flow always.
Now.
The wedding!
It is not an over exaggeration to say that I was a stressed noodle the two weeks leading up the wedding. There was a very out of the blue request that we get a videographer for the wedding, two weeks before hand, which led to a not well hidden melt down at work. It also didn’t help that Matt was struggling with his own stresses surrounding his accounting job so he was pretty much useless to me.
Not to throw him under the bus too much but after one of my melt downs I begged him for help with the wedding and getting things finalized so that I didn’t have to do it all myself. He promised he would help…then he didn’t. He actually forgot that he had promised to help and what I had asked him to help with….
So that combined with the new vendor request that I was very much convinced I would have to organize myself because he might say that he would but then it would still be up to me to research and compare prices etc. etc. led to my melt down at work which my boss was very gracious and understanding about. I love her so much she is so very amazing.
Thankfully a few days later one of my good friends who’s sister had gotten married a few weeks prior (gorgeous wedding, so pretty and we both cried at separate times), sent through a recommendation of someone they had met with for the wedding but ultimately had not gone with.
We were able to meet with him as he hadn’t been booked out for the day of our wedding and sure enough he was very nice and easy to talk to. Problem solved.
Mum and I put together a list of all the things that we needed to get done and when we had to have them done by.
Matt and I spent many days putting together the bonbonnieres, centerpieces, table numbers everything else that we needed but had not yet done. There was a Saturday where we were running around for a good 10 hours from one shop to the other to get all the stuff we needed. To his credit, he did not bitch a single time that day…about the actual running around that we were doing. We both bitched about the traffic, people’s inability to drive also that we were getting hungry and that I was under caffeinated.
Week of the wedding I thankfully had off from work, for the most part. Ended up going into work on the Tuesday morning just to do the gap scan (scanning all the gaps in my department as a part of keeping track of stock counts) because my boss would’ve been absolutely screwed if she’d had to come in at 6am to then finish at 10pm. Tuesdays are ends change over days with the changing promos. Both myself and the other main grocery person were on leave on the same week so I kinda forced her to let me come in.
The rest of the week was a rush of hair and nail appointments. Phone calls and general insanity. Oh and Matt manage to piss me off two nights before the wedding.
He truly has a talent with it I swear to God.
Again, I came home yesterday and he was cleaning the whole house so…obviously he pays attention when I have a go at him.
But come on. He laid on the stripped bed, next to the clean sheets that were ready to go on the bed and a pile of towels that he could’ve folded while he was watching his Youtube videos. Meanwhile I was still running around the house trying to get it into a condition that wouldn’t make me feel like I need to tidy up after getting home from my wedding before I go to bed. AFTER he told me that I should relax that day because I’d already done so much and been stressing for so long.
If we hadn’t put so much money into the wedding by that point I might have smothered him in his sleep that night.
After I finished with the dishes and the laundry I ended up playing some Witcher before crawling into bed where I poked him awake so that we could make up before I didn’t see him for a good 24-36 hours.
Day before the wedding…
Dad and I went to the venue to set up the reception decorations only to discover that we didn’t have the dance floor that we thought we did. A misunderstanding at our initial meeting had Matt and I thinking that were hiring a dance floor from the venue while they assumed we knew we had to out source it.
I think if I had cried right then and there it would’ve been understandable.
HOWEVER.
I did not. I swore a little bit and then called our DJ to see if they had a dance floor we could hire while our amazing coordinator at Caversham House spoke to a gentleman who was setting up a dance floor for wedding that evening.
While the DJ’s dance floors were booked out the dance floor that was being set up that day would be moved into the Main House for our reception the next evening.
Easy enough fix and I didn’t feel like stabbing myself.
I spent the night relaxing with my parents watching The Greatest Showman and eating pizza and ice cream.
I had finally stopped obsessing over the weight that I put on during my month off in May and just accepted that the stress was not helping. While I may have not always ate on time I was able to not not eat at all. Though Matt did make me a lot of fruit smoothies which helped when I was feeling to stressed to eat proper meals.
Finally the day of the wedding came.
For the most part the day was amazing. I looked amazing. My bridesmaids looked drop dead gorgeous. My mum looked so damn beautiful I’m pretty sure Dad was ready to marry her all over again and the flower girls looked adorable and so sweet together. My nephew who did in fact get told off for acting up at the prospect of having photos taken ended up looking like he was almost enjoying himself. There’s even a photo of Matt and I with the kids were it looks like they’re our children. It’s hilarious and I love it.
The speeches were hilarious and heartwarming, my mum’s song had everyone clapping and there was cheering and encores and I was so damn proud of her. Matt didn’t step on my feet once during the first dance and the father daughter dance was a hit. I heard way too many comments about my dad’s butt, just saying.
I got to dance with all my siblings which was so nice. Jesse told me that I got to have one dance so I had the DJ put on a nice slow song just to really draw it out. Adam for the most part was more than willing to dance with me and Dan I think was just excited to dance.
I got to refer to Matt as my husband for the first time and it was weird as shit.
Despite there being a few hiccups, the day as a whole was one that I will remember and cherish forever. There were people that I wish could’ve been there but I know they understood. The day was filled with so much love and happy tears, at least I hope they were happy otherwise that’s awkward.
Probably one of the things that I will always remember as being so true to Matt and I was our vows.
Matt struggled a bit to write his vows in the last week, he wanted them to be perfect for me. I wrote my vows fairly easily as I’d been thinking about them for, lets just say a very long time. When the time came for us to say them, Matt went first. When he was done, I swore. They were so sweet and genuine and full of love.
Mine were a goddamn joke.
No seriously.
I wrote about the time that I got a concussion and he took care of me. I called him a giant pain my ass. I mocked him!
I can’t even with myself.
Now I get to spend the rest of our lives calling him my husband while he continues to stumble between partner and wife. I also get to try and figure out my new signature because ugh. I’m also going from the most common last name in the UK, North America, Australia and NZ to one of the most common Italian last names in the Perth area apparently.
According to one of those sites where you can see how common your last name is there are 423 people in Australia with our last name (soon to be 424) and there is a solid chance that Matt is related to every single one of them… and that they all live up to a forty minute drive from us.
At least I won’t be getting penalized for the crimes of some other Shannon Smith with the same birth date in another damn state that I haven’t been to since I was 12.
S.J Smith Books 