Decompression

Even love takes a toll on your body, did you know?

The day after the wedding, I collapsed on a lawn chair while everyone else went swimming. There had been so many goodbyes already that morning, so much sorting of wildflowers to be given away, little golden animals gone missing, gone hiding, some peeking their little heads out of unexpected places.  The groom was fairly hungover, and was dragged out of our tent by my mom to record a thank you video message to my Great Aunt, who doesn't speak any English (and I don't have to tell you that he doesn't speak much Cantonese). I think even my eyeballs were tired.

We had more goodbyes, surreal hugs with people that hinged on denial (we won't lay eyes on most of them again for another year), jumped on a motorcycle (almost got squashed/pinned TWICE; oh the threat of Death on Day 1 of your marriage), sailed on two ferries, and then.......

7.27.13. A Collection of Memories: Part Two

Edit: To extract optimum enjoyment from this post, we recommend that you stroll over to 8tracks and stream this playlist while you read. Thank you.

BJ's Parade Anthems from joannsnliu on 8tracks Radio.

THE PARADE


So after we wiped our joytears away, it was officially time for the celebration portion of the day to begin.

If you had to guess, between me and Bry, who it was that suggested we have a parade between the ceremony and the reception, who would you pick?

What? You would pick he who is spontaneous, lover of fun and going down things really fast over she who loves staying home on Friday nights to watch movies, and having dinner parties for four? Well, a big capital B for Bingo for you!

Out of all the questions we got from our guests prior to the wedding, I would say that inquiries surrounding exactly what we meant by a parade was most frequent... probably because we challenged people to find a 'creative source of locomotion'. It turns out that it is kind of hard/expensive/crazy to rent a tandem bicycle, or borrow miniature horses from the island, or put in the time --on top of everything else-- to create a float from a trailer. So.. walking it is!

It was about 15 minutes into the parade, after I had seen the surprise canoe bubble bar, and my quasi-broinlaw rollerblading, and all the stomping and waving of the golden flags I had slaved over... that my stomach unknotted itself. And I became present. (Better late than never.)

Joyeux!!

07.27.13: A Collection of Memories, Part One

MOMENTS FROM THIS DAY--

I woke up in our tent at 6am; my heart in my throat. My guts and whatever organ it is that holds in fear were there too, if I'm being honest about it.

I went down to the meditation rocks to sit by the sea for an hour, before anyone else in the Meadow started to stir.

I'm going to become a wife today. I'm going to become a wife.

xo

More Than One

** I lied. I am getting my wedding pictures back any moment now, so while I said last post that I'm a girl who indulges in the non-chronological from time to time, I now realize that I don't know who I was kidding... I am as linear as they come. Thus, no honey(moon) until after you've had your supper.

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      As a young girl, I never fantasized much about my wedding (although when I mentioned this to my mother, she said I was a liar and that I used to say that I would have a big, big fancy wedding and ask if she would pay for it). I was a flower girl when I was eight, and pretty much hated the burgundy, long sleeved velvet dress I had to wear. It was stuffy and everyone told me to smile too much.
Then I didn't go to a wedding until I was in my early 20's, whereas my best friends (one dating older dudes; one who is Indian) seemed to go to 10 a year. As a FRIENDS fan, when Monica finds out how much Chandler has saved in the bank and says that the amount is exactly what they need for her Option A Dream wedding, I hissed at the TV and was outraged that she would think that spending his years of  financial hard work on ONE day was sane.

So I didn't really have... perspective, shall we say, of what a wedding could be. What a wedding is.

It turns out that it is more than just the one day...that what it represents lives in the breaths and smiles and foundation of how much everyone supports you and your new husband.

Life in Pictures: The Other Things I Did This Summer Aside From Getting Married

So school is rearing it's beautiful/daunting head soon (I should really remind myself what day *exactly* it is that I am a Responsible Employee again--any YT readers know?), which means that Summer 2013  is almost at its bittersweet end.

Bittersweet because I could really, really get used to this lounging around, not getting properly dressed until noon, deciding what to make for dinner as the most strenuous thing I've done all day, mentality thing. Meaning, that at the heart of me, is a puddle of a totally content lazybone sloth-creature. It's better for my sense of self-worth, contribution to society and bank account for school to be starting again.

This ending prompts me to post some pictographs of this glorious summer, aside from the whole 'I was a Bride' bit. That comes later. Be patient. (I'm mainly talking to myself, as I am verrrrry eager to get my album).

Clutch your sunbeans closely, everyone! It is swiftly becoming Autumn up here.

June. Secluding ourselves in a cabin in the woods to write our vows.

Withdrawal

It's been one week + one day, and I'm getting the shakes...
the lightning bolt flash of memories that appear and then disappear....
the sweats.

I'm in withdrawal from my wedding.

I wrote in the last entry about how there was no way I'd have postpartum following the wedding weekend, and I was right-- to an extent. I have no signs of depression because the time of planning and pinteresting are over : I'm effin' relieved.

The withdrawal is from all the love. THE LOVE. Newly named Husband B and I are feeling plenty of marital love over here in Brooklyn, but I am slowly feeling that my didn't-even-know-I-could-get-addicted-to-it prescription of Friends + Family + New Friends + New Family love needs a hit. I'm a SaturnaLoveFest'13 junkie.

So in desperation, I emailed the amazing Stephanie Rae Hull, my beloved photographer, and she sent me some images entitled: The Fix.

Oooooooh.... she's a good dealer. It was just the fix I needed.

LAW (Life After Wedding)

Crickets on the blog. Chirp, chirp, chirp.

Sorry for my absence-- all 6 of you who are reading this.
Silence on this Internet end usually means a lot of noise in the In Real Life end. There has been an abundance of that.
Some good noise, in the form of shrieks from friends we haven't seen in a year, the muffled noises of urban city life that we've missed so much, the whiz of bicycles behind and in front of us as we bomb down Ontario St.
Some not so good noise, in the form of the clattering of laptop keyboards as we send copious emails to various people about various wedding related things, the tone of impatience in each other's voices when we're tired or hungry or haven't had enough coffee to deal with anything W related.