you don't get do-overs, but if i did.....

i should have posted this when you couldn't turn your head without hearing about the royal wedding. better late than never, right? confession: i truly only cared what her dress looked like. i don't need to watch her take four minutes to walk down the aisle, or listen to the haunting soprano of a children's choir.

it did make me wonder what i'd do differently. my big day is not even two years behind me, and there's already a list of changes i'd make.

a little background story on my wedding process....engaged in february, pregnant in june. date changed from january 2010 to october 2009. in hindsight, that was an excellent choice, considering i was bedrested for the last two months and definitely wouldn't have made it down the aisle.

being pregnant changed me into a very strange, mellow, almost indifferent sort of bride. i always predicted myself to be a bit of a bridal nazi when that day rolled around, but that was the furthest from the truth. my bridesmaids got to choose their own black dresses! thank goodness for the creative people i surround myself with, or it would have literally been thrown together. there were all sorts of loose ends, and i simply didn't care. i just floated through the whole process. i can't believe it turned out as well as it did.

here's what i definitely would change:

MY FLOWERS: they were done by one of the best in our small town, and he does great work. i had no reason to expect different for my occasion. i told him what i wanted, and he told me that wasn't what i wanted. being indifferent, i just let him have his way. what i ended up with were nice flowers, but not the fabulous blingy ones that i wanted. they did have black feathers in them, so that was one thing i should be glad for. i had to ask for those specifically.

MY MUSIC: we had a typical cheesy dj, but he wasn't so bad. however, we picked music that was good to drive to, clean house to, have a barbeque to. i wish we would have chosen better music to dance to. thankfully, the little kids didn't care what was playing, they were out there on that floor, breaking it down. kids will cut a rug to anything!

DIFFERENT CEREMONY: ours lasted twelve minutes. it might have been the shortest ceremony in history. that's another thing we can pin on my indifference. i didn't want to stand up there and be gawked at, so we didn't have any songs in the middle. i didn't want a unity candle. all that was really left was a reading by a dear friend and the actual vows. i don't remember anything that was said during our snippet of a ceremony....i just couldn't wait to sit back down! i think i'd keep the reading and change everything other thing about it.

MY RECEPTION HALL: it was extremely spacious and extremely expensive. i got back 300 "yes" RSVPs and only 100 people came. that was pretty frustrating, since we had to pay for all that food and they didn't let you take it with you. we could have had it in a smaller, cheaper facility.

honorable mention-WHAT I WORE: my dress was pretty. looking back, i might have chosen something a little funkier. it worked for a pregnant bride, though, since it had a corset back and accomodated my growing midsection. i can tell you that it was heavy and hot to wear and i could not wait to get out of it, and not for romantical reasons, either. try going to the bathroom with that contraption on-it required assistance from my maid of honor. i made her earn her title the hard way :)

i wouldn't have changed my bridesmaids or their dresses, my pew bows, my centerpieces, or my amazing cake. i loved that i had a candy bar and terrific food. the whole evening was a smiley blur. i think i was more excited to get to hawaii than anything else.

and if i had to do it all again....honestly....i'd just elope. yes, really.