Weddings and Stress

Well my brother got married yesterday. What a circus! People get so stressed out preparing for weddings and the bigger the wedding, the more stressed out people get. This wedding was gigantic. For instance, we had 77 at the rehearsal dinner alone.

The funny thing about stress is that it is completely unnecessary. People were freaking out for hours before this thing, but once the wedding started everything fell into place. everything went so smoothly and everything was beautiful.

Why do we get so worked up over stuff? Sometimes it’s the same people who claim that they trust God in everything that get the most stressed out. I used to be that way, I would work myself up to the point that I wouldn’t get anything done. It was crippling. Now, I take it perhaps a little too easy. There must be a balance, though, between floating along the way I do and stressing out over everything the way others do.

Another great thing about this wedding was the emotional catharsis that it provided for everyone in my family. I held it together pretty well until the very end of the service when I had to escort my mom back up the aisle. This was tough for me, because I realized that my dad would be doing this if he were still alive. I lost it. I was crying all the way back up the aisle, but when I stopped crying I realized how happy we all were.

Then came the reception. I danced so much and saw so many great people. We had a blast. I mean, every stereotypical wedding reception attendee was there: we had the crazy uncles and middle-aged men who were having a little too much fun on the dance floor, we had the 980-year-old man with a neck brace dancing with a bunch of guests, we had the little kids who were dancing with the college kids and keeping us entertained and even the couple who was dancing awfully close and doing moves that are normally reserved for either the club or even the bedroom.

Stress can cripple us or it can lead us to act. Emotions are good, but sometimes they make it hard to do basic things like walking down an aisle or escorting someone. The tough thing is finding the balance and then living in that balance. If you figure out how to do that, let me know, because I have no idea.