(Here is the second post from Bride Guest Blogger Liz Garcia. I photographed her wedding to movie star Joshua Harto in September last year at the Carneros Inn. Liz is a screenwriter in LA. )
OTHER PEOPLES’ ADVICE
I hated when people wanted to give me advice about my wedding. Normally, I love advice. I use my facebook status as a means of soliciting advice – best restaurants? Skin care? Good books? Directions? But wedding advice all bears one hideous characteristic in common, a characteristic which chafes at love and romance like sandpaper in a diaper: practicality. No, thank you, I don’t want your practical advice. I’m engaged and in love. I have one day in my life during which I have permission to make my dreams come true. No… just thanks anyhow. My wedding laughs confidently at your practical advice, ‘cause we won’t need it. All the inspiration photos pulled from all the blogs and magazines, those luscious centerpieces and layered fabrics and calligraphied cards and those twinkle-light roofs and glowing paper lanterns, we’ll have all that exactly as pictured. That fat-cheeked flower girl with shiny patent leather Mary Janes – yes, that, too. And the wee custom dress she wears so adorably – yes. All this, and it will all come way under budget. Way. The dance floor underneath the stars where the songs you’ve forgotten you loved issue forth from the band and you gasp in delight, and you and your guests dance with limbs loosened, and good-looking shoes inexplicably comfortable. The grievances temporarily forgotten, gaps bridged, secrets spoken aloud and toasted to and laughed off. We’ll have that. And it’ll last all night. In fact, it’s going to last the whole weekend, and possibly for several more weeks. And everyone I love will be there, and they’ll never leave. We will form a new community, a new country with it’s own rules and it will all come way under budget. Way.
So thanks anyway for your advice, but I know I’ll have no regrets, and I know my wedding’ll be exactly as I pictured.
How to say this? It is. It is exactly what you wanted, though not what you pictured. Because you don’t remember how it looks. And the advice you want to shun? Yes, it is practical, but it is something else, something you’ll like: it’s romantic. Because what those married people are trying to tell you about your budget is that it doesn’t matter. The flowers, the lights, the placecards – all that is fun, and beautiful, but the time and money you spend does not matter. What matters… (Ready for it? ) is what money can’t buy. What only photographers like Anna can capture. What matters is how your wedding feels. And it feels like bliss. It feels like your first night in the new apartment, auspicious and giddy and free. It feels like your childhood dreams, but with the added sweetness that now that you know it’s a dream, you know how special it all is. You know that daily responsibilities and time and practicality – yes – they have decided together to give you a break on this night and step aside for what is larger: matters of the heart. Against all practical reason, you and your mate have made love the first priority. And it feels so sweet. No matter what, it will feel so sweet.
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415.401.0806 
anna@kuperberg.com
