When You Need a Friend

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I've been going full steam ahead on wedding planning lately, even working on things that can't actually be "done" yet (like seating charts and table numbers) so that when the time comes, I have the basic thing done and just need to make a few tweaks. Even though we're about 11 months out, we have a venue, two ministers, a dj, cake, florist, my dress, bridesmaids dresses, my shoes, my veil, and our wedding website is waiting in the wings for people to see when our save the dates go out. I'm doing all this now knowing that while unemployed, I couldn't spend all of my time looking for work, but that in a few weeks I'll be working full time, and then in August I'll be back in school part-time too, right up until a month before the wedding.

For the most part, I'm doing this on my own. Don't get me wrong, C will contribute to decisions if he has an opinion, and he will tell me if what I'm doing looks nice or not, and my mom is handling a bunch of logistics since we're getting married in our hometown which is 350 miles from where we live now, but when I'm copying addresses over or tying to figure out how to make things fit and look good in the process, it's me on the couch with my laptop (and maybe a beverage).

Let's be honest. I don't make friends easily. I do have a couple good friends, but I don't get to see them often. Only one of my close friends/bridesmaid K lives in the area, and our schedules often conflict. I got a chance to see her at our city's 4th of July festival, which was great, but while there found out she won't be able to go to a bridal show with me in a couple weeks like we had planned. In the grand scheme of things, I know it shouldn't be a huge deal. She has a work trip, we're both adults, things happen. But I don't really get to feel like a "bride" very much. My mom, FMIL, and FSIL went to a bridal show a couple months ago and had a great time without me, since I couldn't drive 6 hours each way for the afternoon. Even shopping for bridesmaids' dresses was fun but the saleswoman just stood there looking bored and the three of us ran the appointment by ourselves. I was the one zipping them in and out of dresses. We did that with each other in college, but going into a bridal store I expected interaction from the person trying to sell me something. I had bought my dress there as well and had a much better experience. I don't mean to sound like a spoiled brat, but I just want to feel special once in a while.

A lot of these feelings were brought to the surface by this post on A Practical Wedding. July's theme over there is Friendship. I love APW, and certainly agree that friendship and marriage are two things that need to be discussed relative to each other. But the level of appreciation and support that were expressed in that thread were hard to read. Intellectually, I know my girls love me, but it's hard when you're separated by hundreds of miles and crazy schedules. I'm not sure what the next 11 months will bring. I know everyone plans on being there for a couple days leading up to the wedding and that R feels bad about not being able to be around more. In the meantime, I'm not sure how to "fix" what I'm feeling.