If you read my last blog post, Give Up On Your Dreams, you know I told you that Isaac and I are getting ready to embark on a new adventure in our lives.
Now let's just go ahead and kill the suspense: we are NOT pregnant-- neither one of us. :p
I'll give you a moment to get over your disappointment...
BUT...
We DID just buy our first home! Yipeeeee!
Now, before I tell you about the home, I want to tell you our dream and the story behind it:
In one of my first years of teaching, I had the honor and privilege to accompany one of my lovely students prom dress shopping. This particular gem happened to desire a white prom dress, so we headed on over to a certain bridal store that shall remain nameless, as I’m pretty sure the events that transpired in said bridal store probably occur in most.
As I sat outside the dressing rooms, alert and ready to be helpful with my nods of approval or pantomime puking, depending on what the dress my student was modeling warranted, I noticed a group of bridesmaids doing the same for their lady of the hour. When the bride-to-be would walk out, they would “ooooooh” and “ahhhhhh” and give plenty of commentary, as all good bridesmaids do. After trying on several dresses, the young woman came out of the dressing room in a gorgeous gown, and with gasps and smiles, the bridesmaids all knew she had found HER wedding dress.
Now here’s where it got weird:
As she gave that tearful nod of approval, that nod that most girls can’t wait to give, that “this is the ONE” nod, the saleswoman handed her a shiny, golden bell.
“It’s time!” the saleswoman excitedly whispered to her, and the bride held that bell high above her head and rang it with shouts of joy and reckless abandon.
Seriously.
Simultaneously and inexplicably, all of the customers and employees began jubilantly clapping and cheering. Feeling my eyes become watery, I looked down only to find my hands clapping in approval as well! The excitement was hypnotic and addictive.
And we wonder why men don’t like to shop with us...
Amidst the celebration, there was one thing I happened to notice. That bell, while seemingly an innocuous way of making the bride feel special, was actually something completely different: It was a signal--a signal to every salesperson in that store to start circling; there was blood in the water. Within seconds, women surrounded the bride-to-be and began adorning her with a veil, tiara, shoes, jewelry, and anything else you can think of. How could she not feel like royalty?
The princess had no time to waver--
“Oh, you’ll want to go ahead and get these shoes; they may not be here tomorrow!”
“This veil is a perfect match! That almost never happens. Aren’t you a lucky girl?”
“Oh, you’ll want to go ahead and get this tiara. Once the dress is off, you may forget what it looks like, and you certainly can’t cart it around from store to store to shop for accessories!”
That blasted tiara? TWO HUNDRED FRAPPIN’ DOLLARS!
I could see the bride beginning to buckle under the pressure, and, not being able to help myself, I leaned over to one of the bridesmaids and mentioned that I just happened to see a tiara that was almost identical for $15 at Claire’s a few days ago. From a distance, you wouldn’t know the difference, and maybe it would be a good idea to encourage the bride to get a good night’s rest before making a decision that was quickly adding up to north of a grand. The maid got my drift and rescued her friend by politely shooing away all of the, possibly well-meaning but most likely manipulative, salespeople. She must have been a truly amazing bridesmaid and friend.
After recanting the tale to some of our friends, we found that this sort of insanity is actually quite common.
And thus is the wedding industry-- a frenzy of sharks financially feasting upon the blood of excited, emotionally vulnerable women. Two years later when I became a bride, no amount of cognizance of this fact could shield me from the temptation to accept the industry’s fake worship. I mean, it’s been ingrained into us since we were little girls. The wedding day is “the bride’s day” and we get to wear our princess dress and marry our prince charming and live happily ever after. Basically, we get one day of our lives to shamelessly worship ourselves, and in keeping with this practice, no expense, regardless of what it means for our future, is too much.
I get it, those salespeople are just doing their job. Many of them probably don’t feel they are in any way being malicious or manipulative at all; they are just helping make the bride’s day PERFECT. But I wonder if any twinge of guilt would creep in if they pictured the blushing bride 5 years from now, emotionally and relationally stressed to the max because she is still buried under a mountain of credit card debt from her "dream" wedding.
The point is, these experiences planted a seed of desire within my heart to step in and be something different. There began to stir a longing to meet and interact with brides in an encouraging, positive, and NON-manipulative way. When Isaac and I sat down to discuss our future and where we wanted to be in ten years, we both realized that our gifts and passions were pointing us to the same thing: we want to own a wedding venue.
Isaac loves to build and till and be creative in many ways, and I love to encourage and plan and interact with women who are in this stage of their life. We both feel strongly that it is an opportunity to be uniquely missional while making a living-- without financially gouging young and unsuspecting people who are entering into a beautifully blessed but often difficult time in their lives. We’ve talked about being able to host many other events and love on the people with whom we come in contact through these interactions as well. Best of all, God has revealed to us some of the unique and special ways that having land and facilities of this nature can allow us to care for people who cannot afford “to be a prince/princess for a day.”
So there it is. We want to buy land. We want to build. And we want to serve. That is the dream we have been given, and we are actively taking steps to pursue it.
The first step was to buy a home.
Oh, by the way, this is it:
Confused? Come back tomorrow for all the deets on our new RV and the traveling adventures that lay before us! :)
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