When thinking about my wedding, there wasn’t a whole lot that was keeping me up at night out of fear things that were going to go terribly wrong. The main thing I worried about, aside from everyone having a terrible time and hating everything, was that I would be sick on the wedding day. I thought about how terrible that must be, and sure it has to happen to people, because it’s life and life is messy, but OH MAN how much would that suck? So could NOT get sick on the wedding day. For which I probably shouldn’t have picked a wedding in Vegas, but that’s neither here nor there, because ever since I quit smoking? Never been sick from Vegas. I get that crappy “I’ve been on a plane” dehydrated feeling, but never sick.
At least until the wedding.
We got in to Vegas on Wednesday; giving ourselves a day to do silly things like get a marriage license and have a nice dinner together before the family and friends arrived. Got in to airport, got car, got license, got checked in at Aria, got bumped up to a nicer suite but naturally I was unhappy with it because it smelled like smoke (you think I will store my wedding dress in this??) and also lacked the second bathroom that was what appealed to me about the suite type I *had* booked. Jason called down and explained it to them; that while we really loved that they tried to do something nice and bump us up a suite level; we kinda wanted what we had asked for in the first place. That, unfortunately, was not available, and so to compensate the lovely folks at Aria put us in the Executive Hospitality Suite, which OMG. Square footage-wise, it was bigger than our house; though a large bit of that was taken up by the giant boardroom in the suite. We should have video conferenced everyone in and called it day. It was awesome having that space, especially when it was wedding day morning and 10 women needed to be in one room, getting made up and hair styled. But I digress… Got ready for dinner and started to feel tired and icky. Normal for post-flight, so ignored it. Went to dinner and had a lovely time despite my grilling the waiters on where all the seafood is from and frowning when told it was from Gulf Coast. (I like my shrimp with two eyes, thank you!). Noticed on the way back to Aria that I was a bit winded. Now at this point I hadn’t been able to run for a couple of weeks (doctor’s orders) but even with that someone who has been running for 45 minutes at a time should not get winded walking from MGM to Aria. Something wasn’t right.
Decided a good night’s sleep was in order, got it and woke up Thursday still. feeling. crappy. At that point I then debated myself on if I would go to a doctor or not. I figured 90% chance I just had a cold and would be told such and sent on my way. But, my lovely Maid of Honor had herself been feeling ill earlier in the week and thought it might have been the flu, and if it was and I now had it I needed to get to the doctor ASAP! But it was probably really me just being a wuss. After debating for several minutes I decided screw it, there was really no better time in life than now to be *that girl*. Fortunately there are three (3!) urgent care clinics on the Las Vegas Strip (2 Walgreens, 1 CVS – file that away for later) so it wasn’t a tough trip at all. Short wait even! I expected to meet with the doctor, have her tell me I had a cold and to suck it up, and which point I would demand for some antibiotics anyway because sure it was a cold NOW but what if it got worse and hit right when I was on my honeymoon? It’s Las Vegas, it can’t be hard to get someone to write you an unnecessary prescription, right?
Lo and behold, when the doctor did her exam she informed me that in fact I had a sinus infection and would be leaving with all sorts of prescriptions, no begging required. Awesome! (Not really) On the plus side, I told myself I was catching it early and that since I was getting the drugs started now, I wouldn’t feel any worse than I did right then – just a low grade crappy. Crisis averted!
And it totally was, until Thursday evening when while I should have been enjoying party time with my bridesmaids and family, I was sitting in a corner feeling like absolute crap. No fun, party of one! So much for my plans to teach the girls all about the joys of yelling “Pai Gow” in a crowded casino. I went off to bed at a totally crazy hour – something like 10pm. Had I actually slept, it would have been awesome.
Friday I woke up having not really slept the night before and feeling feverish and exhausted. I told my lovely groom that perhaps it would be best if I skipped the wedding rehearsal. I know a lot of brides wouldn’t even DREAM of such a thing, but ladies, let me tell you – it sure is a great way to see how your guy does under pressure! And honestly, when you feel bad enough, you don’t even care. The bride really only has one part in the ceremony, and as long as my Dad knew what he was doing, we’d be good. I was totally confident that Jason and Dacia had it under control. [Also ladies? Make sure you have an awesome Maid of Honor. If you're not lucky like me and have a best friend who is also awesome at organizing and coordinating and getting shit done, then you have a tough choice ahead. Choose wisely!]
I felt absolutely terrible for not being there. I should have been there, it was my wedding for God’s sake. It was so upsetting. When I finally woke up and felt like moving to the couch in our RIDICULOUS suite Aria so nicely upgraded us to; it kinda hit me that I was missing out on the awesome wedding weekend I had planned. Aside from the significance of Las Vegas in mine and Jason’s relationship, aside from the fact that we both love it; a big reason for getting married there was because it would be FUN and we could hang out with our friends and enjoy time with our favorite people in our favorite place. And I was sleeping through all that.
I was able to rally for a cocktail welcoming happy hour for our friends and family, which was important to me as it really became the only chance I had to see folks aside from the big day. There’s a photo from that night, just me and Jason, and it’s my favorite from the entire weekend – because in that one shot is all the emotion and love that comes from letting yourself be vulnerable enough to want and need someone else. It’s tough to be that way, and often it’s only when we’re sick or hurting in some way that we show it (and by “we” I pretty much mean me and about 3 of you reading this) – but that’s what a marriage is about. Admitting that while you are awesome and wonderful you would in fact be better having someone awesome by your side. My hope for you, future bride or random person reading this, is that you don’t have to get sick on your wedding to figure that out.*
The wedding day itself was wonderful. It went by too quickly, and I didn’t get to see enough people or talk to everyone. But I got to marry the love of my life and be surrounded by friends while doing it; so I can’t really complain. I would have loved to have not been sick that weekend, of course, but other than that I think I wouldn’t change a thing. Well… there was one thing.
*But if you’re not sure, book it to the Imperial Palace with a pack of cigarettes and sit at the Geisha Bar for a few hours – smoke the whole pack, drink cheap wine, and touch everything. Breathe deeply. Rub your eyes.