A Wedding in Reverse

The awesome thing about my blog being private is that I can talk about stuff like the following:

Towards the end of October I had a friend from high school who I haven't really kept in close touch with send me a facebook message with the subject "addresses please"

It said the following:

"Updating my address book and sending out Christmas cards, send me your addresses please. I would love to send you a card."

Am I the only one that thinks that a single 24 year old woman thinking that far ahead about sending a Christmas card to her high school friends sounds a little unusual?

I wasted no time calling her bluff. And responded with:

"Christmas cards already? Are you sure your not secretly engaged and trying to surprise us? Haha."

Didn't hear anything after that UNTIL early December when I got an announcement from her that she had eloped with her boyfriend to Australia.

I thought this was totally awesome. I am a huge fan of the idea of an elopement. The older I get the more the idea of running off and not worrying about cake, flowers, dresses, seating arrangements, who to invite and who to leave out etc. sounds awesome.

I was supporting the whole thing until I realized that what I was looking at was not just an announcement but an invitation to a reception. What the?!

Isn't one of the reasons you elope so that you don't have to deal with all that stuff? I guess if you decide that you just can't wait to get married but still want to have the party with friends and fam (and all the gifts) I can understand that. So I put panty hose on and got a gift and went to the reception. It was formal. She was in her dress there were rented tuxes, there was a cake and flowers. In short it was a wedding. But the marriage was two months previous in Australia and nobody at the reception was invited to it.

I thought that was the end of that until this week when I got an invitation in the mail for a BRIDAL SHOWER for this same friend.

No. I will not. This is asking too much. If you wanted a shower with all the gifts and everyone to hem and haw at you and your engagement and marriage and what a pretty bride you'll be you should have followed all the rules. You broke the biggest rule which I think is awesome but you're undoing all of the awesomeness by doing all the things you forfeited by eloping.

I'm not going to the shower. I won't.

I'm not getting married. Not because I don't think I'll ever find a man to pop the question but because I don't see any way to have a fun wedding that highlights the importance of the event without all the stress and formalities.

Humbug.