Welcome to the rest of your life…

Secrets are not fun when you absolutely MUST keep them inside yourself. Surround yourself with your favourite trustworthy friends and taking some time to enjoy great company and tasty cocktails. Naturally, the evening will gradually become more perfect, and ever so gradually you will begin to burst with anticipation at that incredible secret piece of news. So much so, that it hurts to say anything at all, for fear that it will spill out of you before you notice your error… and the world ends.

Trust me. I know. It nearly happened to me – a lot.

Recently, I kept an unfathomably enormous fact hidden from the world for quite some time. As it got closer to revealing this surprise to my loved ones, it became more and more difficult. It was so difficult, in fact, that it reached the point where I’d ‘let it slip’ to people I was certain I’d never see again, such as my beautician, the lady at the jeweller, and the staff at the very swish cocktail bar that just opened around the corner. I found myself thriving on their reactions of sheer excitement and elation, and suddenly realised I was only days, hours away from commencing two weeks of much needed holiday leave.

I, the lady who was always too frightened to even begin planning a wedding, married my fellow blogger/fiance Dave van Aalst on the 14th of this month. I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful, less stressful wedding. In fact, I wouldn’t have believed such a perfect day possible. The weather was to die for, and our wedding lunch was purely orgasmic… You see, we did the crazy thing and eloped, while celebrating what was originally just going to be a fun weekend away for his birthday. As exciting and magical as it was, people continually ask why we chose to do it this way; without having our family and close friends there to share the day. Oh, we have our reasons!

We have been together for a hundred years.
Well, Six and a half years, if you want to be correct about it. It feels like forever. When we discuss our history, all we can remember is that blurry time when we were young and futile, before we met, then fell instantly and insatiably in love with each other. We have since created our own fairy tale, and had several ups and downs and excitements and epiphanies… the latest one being that we are surely going to be together forever, as there is no other way. And, we have been engaged for about four years, and quite frankly; I was SO sick of people asking us when our big day was.

I am somewhat afraid of spending money.
(I am getting better, though!) I will still, however, go without buying new work shoes for months at a time until mine have holes in them, even if it means Dave forcing me, dragging me to the shops, and not letting me out until I have made my purchase. Sure, the week that we wed and celebrated cost more than an average week away would, but even with a wedding ceremony, seafood platters, hotel rooms, designer sunglasses and flights and this and that, it was still several thousand dollars cheaper than the wedding I had planned in my head. Screw budgets, compromises and all that rubbish – a womans wedding is one day to be the beautiful bride and call their very own day. Eloping, without having to worry about guests, catering, a proper dress, a DJ/MC… I still managed to make absolutely no compromises whatsoever and could not be happier with the result.

There is nothing more special to us as time away from the rest of the world, together.
We had a whirlwind holiday all planned months in advance, with stacks of quality time planned, but realised we had nothing to do while there. What’s a crazy getaway without a full agenda? Anyway, it was totally worth it to call our family and friends and embrace their reactions, and it’s already making for a highly entertaining story that I don’t believe I will tire of telling in the near future.

So, we ran away, got married, and didn’t tell a single important soul until that afternoon. You can see how it was by far the hugest secret I have ever successfully kept almost exclusively to myself. Almost. The sneaking around and private conspiratory gestures that seemed blatantly obvious to us sounds delightful in retrospect, but was anything but. It was definately 100% utterly, totally and completely worth every minute of stress, my weeks of confusion and bewilderment, and Dave’s clearly exhausted uncanny ability to keep a steady head about everything in life.

Someone has to welcome the new me into the world, so I shall take the liberty to do it myself: Hi, Mrs Sarah van Aalst! The world thinks you are incredible and we can not wait to read more of your lovely writings in the future.