I hate to fly. I am, however, required to travel often for work and I do so, but begrudgingly. Don’t get me wrong, I know all the stats about air travel being the safest form of transportation. Nonetheless, I am deathly afraid of heights (side note, ask me about my Trapeze lesson. Yes, only one).
Getting me on a plane requires weeks of motivation, encouragement and my poor, loving husband telling me, “Babe. You know that you’re safer in the air than on the ground.”
I know, I know. I get it. I just don’t like it. Therefore, when I am asked to travel for work, I secretly hope that the location of the client site is within driving distance. While most times my clients are located in places like Utah and Florida, all which are states too far for me to drive to, when my boss said, “Be in Pittsburgh on Monday”, I said, “Great! Can I drive?” The response, “I don’t care, just get there,” worked great for me!
I know that it only takes 1.5 hours by plane and takes six by car. I chose car and left my house at 4:45 a.m. My client, who left JFK at 9:00 a.m., thinks I was insane for driving, but everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. For me, it was the right choice. And for those of you keeping score at home, I arrived before she did.
During my six hour drive to Pittsburgh this morning I was thinking about the choices that all brides face throughout the wedding planning process and I was reminded of all the decisions and choices I faced just about two years ago. At nearly every turn, there is someone to say:
“I think you should…”
“If I were you…”
“You should really…”
“Did you think about…?”
While important to respect and value people’s opinions, ultimately your wedding day is all about you and your fiancé. Don’t get hung up on the opinions of other people who’ve done it all before. This is your wedding! This is your opportunity to choose. Sure, you might get a little bit of a weird look when you opt to carry balloons instead of a bouquet, but who cares? Choose what will make your day memorable and be happy with your decision. You have many choices to make so choose YOUR choice! You’ll be happy that you did; I was!
So come on – spill it. What choices are you making or have made that raised some eyebrows?
Great points! I chose to not have a rehearsal dinner. Instead, we had a rehearsal in the afternoon with the wedding party – and since we were having a destination wedding, in the evening we invited all of the guests to an evening of drinks and hors d’oeuvres (lots of ‘em) at a big house we were renting. I think folks had a great time and I believe this made the rest of the guests also feel more included.
That’s a great story – thanks so much for sharing! My husband and I also opted to forego the garter and bouquet toss as well – we got a little push back from Mom & Dad, but it just wasn’t ‘us’. Oh yeah, and we also chose to skip the “Chicken Dance”.
Thanks again for commenting!
You are SO right! A wedding should be all about what the bride and groom want. No overbearing parents:) We had great input from our family but I’ve heard horror stories about mothers who want the wedding they never had. No “Chicken Dance!?” We skipped that at our wedding too. No Electric Slide, Chicken Dance or Macarena!