Love is a verb. So is Trip(p).

Yoinks!

So we get married in 6 days.

I honestly didn’t know what I expected to feel 6 days before I got married, but here’s a synopsis:

• intermittently panicky (that I’ve forgotten a detail, even though we are innately low-key)
• in love
• overtired
• mildly nervous about all the family intros
• slightly undergroomed (save for having an actual groom)
• thankful
• did I mention overtired?

I’ve got almost everything set up to happen exactly as it should — the clothes, the ceremony, the food… you name it.  And being Wedding #1, it’s just LITTLE. It’s not some big thing with escort cards and 14 showers and a processional to plan and an argument about whether or not to use orchids or freesia (neither.)

Truth be told, I get in a tizzy thinking of how to make everyone comfortable, how to make everyone happy, and how to ensure that everyone has a good time… not just for the day, but for the week.

People will say, “It’s YOUR day, worry about YOU…” but it’s not a matter of it being my day (or worrying, for that matter.) It’s a matter of conveying to the people that we love that the only reason any of this works is because they’re there. Neither of us could be a good wife or a good husband unless we knew good wives and good husbands, and we had their connections to model.

And to the boys, we want to convey that I am so lucky to be joining their “guys only” family. They’ve accepted me from the very beginning in a very uncomplicated way. As long as I can take running narration of video games… as long as I like to laugh… as long as I remember who likes what and who doesn’t when it comes to cooking… I’m golden. I know that’s not the typical stepparent experience either.

I’d say that’s worth giving them a really good dinner, both the parents and the kids.

Which I think we will.

But I will relax a little more come Sunday, when I’m Mrs. Tripp (and finally have the name I’ve been living out in real time with various sprains, stitches, and calamities since I was a kid — and don’t think my friends haven’t mentioned that a hundred times by now….)