I am going to admit it and throw it out there.  I have not always holding it all together.  There you go.  It’s out there.  Of course my closest friends are saying that’s not a revelation.  My fella might have a few things to add to that.  I try to be my authentic self, throw away the cape and remind myself not to put it back on.  Sometimes I just share too much of myself, try to please too many.  As I hand painted our wedding invitations there were those who thought that was nuts but this is what I know and am learning…

  1. you are never going to please everyone.  Even with the best of intentions that job is impossible.
  2. it is “we/us” and not “I/me”.  I am not alone and do have help. having a partner makes it better.
  3. those things that are important to me (like making my wedding invitations and making them me) are good to tackle.
  4. who needs a wedding cake. Restaurants have deserts and I don’t even like cake nor those silly looking ceramic bride/grooms they put on top!  Give me a good canoli any day.
  5. so many want to share with us and for that I am thankful.  We are blessed with awesome friends and family and learning there are limits (i.e maximum seating capacity) is just a fact of life.  refer to lesson #1.
  6. sharing this special day with our families coming together is what this all means to me.  Yes, the invites, the ceremony the details, etc. are part of that but not the priority.
  7. No matter what it is in life………let it go. things will go wrong, invites will not be perfect.  You are not perfect.  Let that shine through!  Imperfection is perfect in it’s own way.
  8. I am beyond blessed with friends who like to shop for dresses, champagne flutes, and so much more.  Those same friends should be worried about my creepy razor back/tank top tan lines.  Yep!
  9. it is important not to lose the reason for all of this…………us!
  10. ……..stay true to you.

So when it comes to holding it all together all the time I am not so great.  I moan, complain, shed tears, walk and talk the ears off of friends, call my parents at very unreasonable house to which my dad always says “put a nickel in the can”.  I smile through it and I know I am SO not alone.

So without further ado………my imperfect but so perfect wedding invitations!  THEY ARE ME.  and I am SO glad I did them!

Wedding1 Wedding2 Wedding4

I enjoyed the process….

Wedding3

 

and what do you do when you screw up the time…….coordinating post-it’s of course!

Wedding6

 

As we put a few things behind us, a few weights lifted off our shoulders I know look forward to the countdown to enjoy our friends and family coming together.  So for those saying I don’t know how you do it I say this….it is important to pick out the things that are important to us.  John knew that if I sent out an invite and did not put my personal touch (despite the boo boo) that he knew I would regret it.  He was right.  Focus on what is important.  The rest will come together.

Let yourself be a perfectly imperfect human being. Let yourself feel what you need to feel and process your life the way you need to process it. Let yourself BE in all your beautifully imperfect human-ness. And give everyone else the same grace.   Bad days will pass, overwhelm will dissolve, and the sun will come up again tomorrow morning, just like it does every day. And tomorrow you will learn to do a little better than you did today. Or maybe you’ll backslide a little. After all, you are human, aren’t you? It doesn’t hurt to give your sweet self a break once in a while.”