The plans we make

I was originally supposed to be married in October. October 2nd, 2005, that was to be my anniversary. I had this whole wedding planning album that I made, with ideas for bridesmaid dresses, check off lists, I had my dress picked out, I was researching venues, something in the redwoods perhaps? It was going to be beautiful. Not too big, not too expensive, but beautiful nonetheless.
For numerous reasons, it was important to my soon to be husband that we be married in February instead, in Arkansas, in the same week that I would meet my soon to be mother in law. Hi, yes, I'm Brandi, it's great to finally meet you, I have to go marry your youngest son now, but perhaps we should do lunch soon.

I didn't want to be married on Valentines Day (how cliche!) and Patrick's birthday is the 18th, so we decided....let's just throw our anniversary in the middle, on the 16th, and that's what we did. We were married by a justice of the peace, in her beautiful home, with no one there but us. There's something to be said for getting married that way. It felt so genuine. We weren't putting on a show, just pledging our love and devotion to each other, with no fanfare, just honesty and sincerity.

There's 2 tiny little things that bug me a little about the date that we were married though. For one thing, Patrick's birthday was still 2 days away, so I was like *gasp* older than him when we were married. Our wedding license proclaims it. I was 24, he was still 23. What a cradlerobber!
The other thing is, this time of year, I have Valentines day, our anniversary and his birthday all within 4 days. Do I have to get him a gift for each one? Such pressure. I try to do individual things for each, but for instance this year we're going out on the 17th, sort of a combined anniversary/birthday celebration. And that makes me feel guilty, like he's getting gyped somehow. But hey, he's the one who wanted to get married early.

Of course we still planned to have our wedding in October, the whole February thing was just a formality (and no, I wasn't even pregnant). But somehow, once you're already married, a wedding, where you're going to be paying thousands of dollars, seems outlandish, frivolous, pointless really.
It didn't happen. When October rolled around, I got pregnant instead....