Seeing the World Through "Wedding Glasses"

What a whirlwind travel schedule: Houston to New York for work. Then back to Houston (after two flight changes, due to Hurricane Ike). Then three days in Houston with no power (but at least candles are oh-so romantic). And now I'm in Central Florida for a week to celebrate my best friend's birthday.

Although we've got fun stuff on the docket (e.g., a walk on the beach, a film festival, a dinner party, a run at Gemini Springs, etc.) we've also got lots of work time.

I've brought along the other half of our thank-you cards, and I worked on them diligently (only because I couldn't figure out how to get my wireless internet to connect!).

Matt and I divided the list in half. I started with the cards to my friends and family, and he started with his. We've both finished our original set, but now we're flip-flopping so we can write on each other's cards.

The process is the same thing we did for our wedding invitations. We wanted to write personalized notes to our guests to genuinely convey how important they are to our lives and how ecstatic we would be if they could join us.

Being able to compare the invitation writing process to the thank-you writing process has led me to an interesting realization.

I noticed that I am much more relaxed and sensible about the thank-you cards. I simply write the message, read over it once, and send it.

On the other hand, when I worked on the invitations, I was much more neurotic and insecure. I would read each message multiple times to ensure I hadn't made a mistake. I tripled-checked them to make sure there were no smudges.

It makes me wonder if a special phenomenon exists. I'll call this phenomenon "Wedding Glasses." It's as if we see the world through a different lens when we're planning a wedding. This lens has a tendency to make us more neurotic, more obsessed, more insecure, and more anxious.

Ironically, those feelings are the exact opposite of what you actually want to feel on your wedding day. Argh!

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