I will never know how many hours my mother poured into our wedding.
Every time I came home to visit my parents she was knee-deep in another wedding-related project. When I asked her how long it took her to remove the intricate beading on a back up veil she purchased in case the veil I ordered didn’t come in on time, she said, "No time at all! It’s not a big deal, really."
I assure you it took her hours.
When I asked her how long it took her to tie flip flops together and stamp decorative numbers on feminine labels to note their sizes, she replied, "Just a little while. I had a movie on, so it went by quickly!" (The flip flops served as "dancing shoes" for the women to wear to dance at our reception.)
She went wedding dress shopping with me… many times.
She helped me and my sister tie together programs and menus and secretly finished the majority herself after we went to bed.
She bought me numerous pairs of wedding shoes when I was in a frantic hunt and was convinced I would never find the blush pink pumps I wanted.
She helped convince my dad that chiavari chairs were a very important thing.
She calmed me down during my first dress fitting when I tried on my dress two weeks before the wedding and it was several sizes too big.
She told me it was okay to cry when we were sitting in the emergency care clinic the day before the wedding. She was a best friend, a mother, a confidant.
I know I touched on it briefly in a previous post, but I was blow away by the way my mother looked on our wedding day.
I was stressing out over my make up when I walked into the hall with my sister.
My mom was hurrying down the hall, back to our suite, after a brief stop at home to change into her dress and check on my dad.
My sister and I gasped when we saw her.
She looked incredible. She looked healthy, strong, alive and… happy.
For a woman who had been battling breast cancer for the past two years, seeing her look so radiant literally took my breath away.
Tears began to flow. I looked over at my sister who was wiping tears from her eyes.
“You look amazing,” we told her.
She was clearly surprised by our tears.
So were we.
I never expected to be so moved at seeing my mother on my wedding day. I assumed she would look beautiful, but I didn’t think how she looked would affect me so deeply.
I think seeing her look so vibrant made me realize just how far she had come in her journey against such a terrible disease. It made me realize just how lucky I was to be able to share this day with her… to have her zip me into my dress. She was beaming the whole weekend.
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