Wedding Bells

Is it just me, or is the wedding spirit EVERYWHERE this season? Everybody wants to get married in the summertime right? Hence, you get couples grappling for dates and locations, writing invitations, finding dresses, ordering decorationss (or is that just the bride and her family?). It's a particularly interesting time for those young unmarried persons who are invited to all of these weddings. And it's ESPECIALLY interesting when one of the people getting married is your sister.

Following her around last week from bridal salon to bridal salon, I was overwhelmed by everything. Looking for the perfect dress for the perfect price, trying on a gazillion dresses before rushing to the next place for more hurried dressing up. My sister and I have always been inseparable, so it was a bit of an emotional ride going through this with her. Seeing your older sister (who you scampered around, climbed trees, argued, and shared boy secrets with) attired in a white satin wedding gown is quite surreal...the whole thing really hits you.

It started making me think about my own future and potential marriage. I'm only 21, so I don't expect to hear wedding bells for quite sometime, but it's going to happen (and that's scary!). I found myself looking at my sister in the dresses and wondering how I would look in them. I started to put myself in her shoes...and it sort of played psychological tricks on me! I would look in the mirror and think, "I should lose weight so that I'll look perfect in my wedding dress," before realizing that I had years to worry about that. My sister would send me decorations, and I'd examine them as if they were for my own wedding. Then I started worrying about whether or not I'd be able to find the right person to marry at all. I'd look at my sister and her fiancee and feel jealous that she'd found THE ONE GUY and I hadn't. And then I reminded myself that I'm WAY too young to be worrying about these things. It was silly!

I talked to one of my friends whose sister is already married, and she relieved me by admitting to having experienced similar symptoms. "It just kind of happens..." she said, "You can't avoid it. It gets you thinking about your own life and relationships, and you get freaked out!" It felt good to know I wasn't the only one who'd felt this way. After awhile, the psychosis wore off, but the wedding invitations are still pouring in. It's weird to think that my friends might be getting invitations from me 5-10 years from now...