Old New Borrowed Blue (and a sixpence in your shoe)

**Okay y'all sit back because I am about to tell you the best story in the history of the universe!  If your heart isn't glowing and you don't go around hugging everyone in sight by the time I'm done, you're probably dead inside.  I'm just saying.  But for real though, I didn't post anything yesterday because I was just marinating in everything that happened and now I'm ready to share and it's freakin AWESOME!  I'm seriously thinking of making a 'best of' section on MY OWN BLOG because that's how awesome all these posts are about to be.  And you know what, I'm not even nervous that I'm hyping myself too much because that's how AWESOME this past weekend was!  Okay, I'm going to get on with it now.  IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!! (And I promise to use a variety of words, not just awesome.)

So, Friday I woke up to rain, rain and more rain.  I was totally bummed because the ceremony was Saturday and I had no back-up plan.  When I met with the photographer last Wednesday she was all, 'so what are you going to do if it rains?'  I was like, 'uuuuhhh, do everything in the gazebo??  Take pictures in the rain?'  It just couldn't rain, but there it was, freakin pouring down.  I even considered writing a 'rain, rain, go away' post and that's all I was going to put - but I was too depressed to even do that.

Most of the day I was pretty melancholy, especially because I felt that the day before my wedding I should be more excited, anxiously counting the hours until I became a wife.  Honestly though, I wasn't.  I felt sort of numb, and when my best friend called me to check on 'the bride' it didn't feel like she should be talking about me.

It was in this full-out funk that I spent most of the day Friday, aimlessly searching on the internet, randomly reading blogs, not really taking anything in.  So when David, one of my co-workers came to the reception desk, I just kind of looked up at him all Ross-from-Friends and was like, "Hi."

David said, "You need to go to the San Marcos conference room.  I'm going to watch the phones for you."

I snapped up real quick.  "What for?  What did I do?  Am I in trouble?"  I knew they had some spyware on my computer, I knew they were just compiling their information and were just waiting for the precise moment to confront me with all my internet non-work-related activity and sack me.  Damn you Bejeweled!  All this went through my head in about 2.3 seconds.  He said he didn't know but that I needed to go and he would watch the phones for me.

I briefly considered not going - they can't fire you if they can't catch you but then I was like, fine.  Just what I needed on this nasty, raining, day-before-my-wedding day.

I walked into the conference room, which is really just an empty office with a table and chairs in it to find.......

ANGELS!!!!!

The days prior Kesha and Velia had been peppering me with questions, like what was Drew's full name and how do you spell it, what's my favorite color, what would my wedding colors have been...  I figured they were going to give me a gift of some sort but I had no idea how touching and thoughtful it was going to be.  There were wrapped presents in the middle of the table and when it registered that they were giving me a bridal shower, I started bawling. 

Warning:  I was down and feeling sorry for myself.  I was going to wash my hair that night, therefore I didn't do anything to it that day.  I also didn't wear makeup to work and I do not cry pretty.  You have been warned.

The first thing they gave me was a letter detailing the meaning of the gifts that they were giving me.  Reading that alone just about did me in.

The first thing was something old.  They got me a beautiful tablecloth that I could totally see draping over a keepsake-type table for the baby's room, or putting it somewhere in the sitting room.  I tried multiple times to compose myself and failed miserably every time.  The picture on the left is me trying to take huge deep breaths to try and stop crying but of course no luck. 

Trying to process what was happening - my friends are amazing, I was actually having a bridal shower that I didn't think I was going to get to have, I'm getting married tomorrow and my amazing friends who gave me a bridal shower weren't going to be there - was entirely too much.

My next gift was something new, this one from Velia and her husband.  Since we weren't having a formal wedding with formal invitations, she made one for us.  It had both of our names on it, stating that we were joining our hearts on Saturday October 10th at 1:00 pm at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens and it included a beautiful scripture (which of course escapes me right now.) On the other side was another frame for our wedding photo.  I could NOT stop crying.

 My something borrowed was also my sixpence in my shoe, but in my case it was a peso, to honor and remember my mother and because, you know, I'm Mexican.  Except then, I remembered my mother and that she wouldn't be there and I started crying all over again. 

Next came my something blue - Kesha got me a beautiful blue pin with a flower on it, which had me immediately thinking about where I could pin it on my dress since I wouldn't carry flowers.  I'll give you a close-up since I'm sure by this point you can imagine what my face looked like.

I had no idea that they were going to do all this and I was so absolutely touched.  I hugged the both of them so hard and I'm quite positive there were tears and snot on each of their shoulders.  I was so humbled that they cared enough to put forth this kind of effort - they very easily could have just given me a sympathetic pat on the back and gone about their business.  These are girls I've only known since December!!  Sharing that moment with them made it feel a little more like a wedding was going to happen, that I had received some positive female energy to prepare me for the transition from single girl to married woman.

I thanked them over and over again for what they did for me, but 'thank you' seems so silly and flat compared to the depth of gratitude I feel toward them. 

They gave me back some of my dream and for that there are no words.

Dammit, I'm crying again.