Ventalicious

I'm starting to get the sinking feeling that people are misreading my ability - and, sometimes, preference - to talk about things other than the wedding as a shortcoming.

As though what I feel is necessity to keep my life grounded by talking about things other than my wedding equals a less-than wedding. A non-wedding wedding.

I happen not to much like being the center of attention, and fielding tons of questions relating to the wedding makes me feel: (a) like the center of attention; (b) like my (our) choices are the center of attention; and (c) like I need to overly explain all of our choices, in part in order to defend them.

Just because J and I chose a backyard wedding does not mean that we value our wedding less than a "traditional" wedding or that we see it as being less of a wedding than other weddings. Also, just because J and I chose a backyard wedding does not mean that we tried to or did "take the easy way out". We have to include all the same elements that we would at a reception hall, but we are responsible for orchestrating them. In fact, I'd call it more work.

For us, though, it just fit. It's sentimental to have our wedding at our home. It's also fiscally responsible as the money we will invest in our venue - our backyard - will be an investment. Further, we're homebodies who enjoy being at home, so it makes sense to have one of our most important moments at home.

This may all sound like a defense - see point c, above - and it may be. But really I'm just tired of feeling defensive and feeling the need to explain our wedding back to importance. Yes, I can talk about other things but no, that does not mean that the wedding isn't important to me because it is. And you can ask J, who will tell you that basically all I do is worry about the wedding.

Whew, that vent session made me feel a little bit better as I let out a big sigh in front of my keyboard.