I used to always tell Paul that the NEXT time I get married it will be in a church. He was not amused once he realized the implication.
Now I think about what I would change if I could do it again. HIM. I’m just kidding!! It would be less about the ceremony and traditions – cake, flowers, music, clothes – and more about celebrating with friends and family.
Paul and I had a fairly unorthodox wedding anyway. We got married in my mother-in-law’s backyard and had the reception in the house. My mom and her friends took care of the food. It was low-key, but we were surrounded by family and friends.
My bridesmaids were the best – until they weren’t. Don’t get me wrong; they did all the things bridesmaids do: running errands, helping with odds and ends, calming nerves, helping me get dressed, doing hair and make-up. So it made sense for me to give them our suitcases to put in the car so we could leave for our honeymoon immediately following the wedding. It never crossed my mind to lock the suitcases since I was handing everything off to such responsible people.
I believe it’s safe to say I placed a little too much faith and trust in them. As we were pulling away in our Just Married car, I pulled down the visor to check my make-up in the mirror, and I got showered with confetti. Not just any type of confetti but the kind made out of cellophane. The kind that sticks to everything and refuses to be cleaned up.
As I’m sure you can imagine, you can get a lot more confetti in a couple of suitcases than you can keep hidden underneath a car visor.
I’m not certain that the hotel we stayed at found it as funny as we did, but we laughed and said we would probably be still finding the confetti when we celebrated our 10 year anniversary. It’s been 30 years, and we still occasionally find some.
The other day I heard a story, and I don’t know if it’s true, but my very soul wants or needs to believe it is.
According to the story, there was a little boy who was carrying confetti in his pocket, and when his mom found out she asked him why on earth he had it in there. He said it was his emergency confetti. She went on to question him as to why he might need emergency confetti, and he explained as if she were a bit slow, that, of course he had it in case there was good news, in case good things happened and he needed to celebrate.
What an amazing thought. What a fantastic way to live life-– not only always looking for something good to celebrate but being prepared for it. Believing so whole-heartedly that good things are around the next corner that you have confetti at the ready.
As Girl Scouts, our motto was Be Prepared. We had tents and sleeping bags, extra matches, and first aid kits. We were prepared for almost any eventuality. As a leader I was even told to back my car in when parking at a campsite. In case there was an emergency and I had to get a girl to a hospital, I would not be wasting time backing out. That’s preparedness.
While all of that has its place, being ready to celebrate at a moment’s notice sounds like a much better way to approach life. This means I might need to be prepared to celebrate; it means I might need to start carrying some confetti with me, and as luck would have it, I happen to know just where to find some.
