Old, New, Borrowed,and Blue

A lot of wedding traditions seem silly, or even annoying, to me, but there are a few traditions that I think are cute and fun. 

Tosses and Almonds
We won't be tossing a garter or my bouquet.  There are many reasons for this:

• I don't want to wear a garter
• I want to keep my bouquet nice and not destroy it
• Neither John nor I have ever really enjoyed being pulled into the mass of singles trying to catch "luck" or whatever that's supposed to be... though, I did catch the bouquet once about 2 years ago, but I don't think it sped up the process for me and John
• We're not so much a fan of John going under my dress in front of a crowd of people.

However, we have a sort of replacement.  In Greek tradition, there is a silver tray of almonds at the front of the church during the ceremony, and after the ceremony, each single woman gets an almond.  She puts the almond under her pillow for three nights after the wedding, and on the third night, she supposed to dream of the man she'll marry.  We'll have a tray of almonds.

Almonds are also in another Greek tradition.  Each guest gets a bag of an odd number of almonds as a sort of favor.  These have some neat wedding related symbolism that we'll have explained on the menus at the reception.

The Dress
This one has been hard for me.  I love my dress, and I want to ramble to John all about it.  But I haven't.  I got the nice bridal portrait print yesterday and put it in a frame.  It looks sweet!  It's hard not to show it off.  I didn't though.  I taped a paper over the front of the frame, so John can't see it.  I look good in the picture, so I'm excited to show it off to John after the ceremony.

Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue
This was fun, and I like my selections:

• Old - A necklace of my grandmother's that she left to me when she died.  It's a very pretty necklace, but it's gold.  I mostly wear silver jewelry, so I haven't had many occasions to actually wear the necklace.  I'm excited to remember my grandmother by wearing it on my wedding day, and I decided to do that before I ever even found a dress.  Now that my whole look has come together, I also know that it goes perfectly with the look I'm going for and with the dress.
• New - The veil and the dress are both new.  There's nothing sentimental to say about them because they're new, but they are both gorgeous and make me look gorgeous too.
• Borrowed - A bracelet borrowed from my Mom's side of the family.  My Mom, her sister, and my Grandmother have all worn the bracelet.  My Mom and my aunt both wore the bracelet in their own weddings.  It, like the necklace, is also gold.  The bracelet is a bit old and faded, but still looks very nice in my bridal pictures.  It's neat to know the journey it's been on with my family and now with me.
• Blue - My Alpha Delta Pi pin.  It is silver and lined with blue stones.  I will wear this under the skit of my dress, so no one will actually see it, but it will be there.  I got this idea from another ADPi who did it.  Every single one of my bridesmaids and house party is an ADPi sister of mine.  I love that sisterhood and that I can share this special day in my life with them.

Only 7 days... 1 week, and then, I'm getting married!