Once upon a time, there was a bride-to-be planning out her wedding day who was turning herself into a horrible villain. She thought mean thoughts about other people involved in the process, she saved negative wedding memes to her phone and complained about how stressful it was to plan a wedding, and laughed at tiktoks making fun of grooms and other important people in a bride’s life. But worst of all, she turned on herself, with anger, resentment, fear, and worry.
She started to destroy herself. In fact, she began to think she wouldn’t be able to enjoy the day she had been working so hard for and waiting such a long time to come. Her maid of honor was worried and tried to intervene however she could best, by suggesting a silly thing that the villain dismissed. “You need a mantra.” “A mantra?” the bride-to-be scoffed and thought, “I need more than a mantra! I need a miracle!” She was scared, and nobody really knew what to do.
As the doom and gloom continued on, the villain sat behind her computer at a magical portal called therapy talking to her fairy-counselor. It was there that she confessed her feelings to this wise helper. As they talked, the bridely villain discovered a new tool that they collaborated on together. It was like a magical bulletin board that you could type on, add pictures too, and use emojis with. Their task: to come up with some magical spells (okay, she admitted, they could be called mantras too) that the bridely villain could look at and repeat whenever she worried or felt bad thinking about the wedding.
If she was mad at her groom? Well, she’d tell herself, “without my groom, I wouldn’t be getting married!”
If she worried what other people would think about a choice they made? “It’s about us, not about everyone else.”
If she felt uncertain about whether she was doing enough and might be forgetting something, she told herself “it will all be awesome.”
When people told her they couldn’t come to the wedding when she really wanted them to she said to herself, “The people who aren’t there still love us.” If people were rude to her about their RSVPs, she reminded herself “people do love us.”
When she would forget her purpose, she’d remind herself: “LOVE is the reason.”
As she inched closer and closer to the important day, the bridely villain was no longer a villain. She was ready, with her heart open, armed with her five guardian angels by her side, and at peace that she had done everything she could do. As she breathed in the beautiful fresh air, felt the ocean breeze against her face, and held hands with her true love, she let go of all fear and worry and could just be.
As family and friends arrived from all over the lands, she was excited and relaxed.
The morning of the wedding, she woke up earlier than expected, to a summery yet cool day with the perfect mix of blue skies, clouds, and sun shining. When she arrived at the palace in which her wedding would take place, she was greeted by a procession of a family of geese walking past the chairs her guests would sit in as they watched her marry the love of her life.
Her eyes wandered towards the water, where she saw a white heron, a nod to a magical spirit of her maid of honor.
When her soon-to-be fairy mother-in-law arrived, the pair looked to the water again, to find many swans swimming in a line towards the building where the most beautiful ball would take place later in the evening.
She spent the morning with the most important women in her life, her friends, her mother, the fairy mother-in-law, and her sister-in-law. They listened to music and were pampered by three enchanting artists who did their hair and makeup and made them look and feel like they were worthy of all the riches in the world.
Her father, the Flower Wizard, had his many friends from the realm of flowers come to make the entire day splashed with the brightest, most lively colors of flowers. There were flowers of many names, in colors one might think do not exist, from farms in distant lands, coming across the universe to make the world look more alive and brighter than any other day.
There were three special people tasked in recording the imagery of the day, pictures and movies that will last forever, just in case anything was ever forgotten or missed. They made the ladies smile and laugh, as if they really even needed that help, as they stood above on a balcony with their backs to the ocean, one side to the woods, and the other to the cityscape of the place the bride calls home.
“It’s 5’o clock, it’s 5 o’clock!” the groom was heard saying off in the distance. It was then that everything began to be set in motion, moving fast yet steady. As the doors flung open and the bride could finally be seen, any sign of the bride villain had disappeared forever. A yellow butterfly, sent from heaven, circled around her parents waiting for her, and up to the bride and her brother, as her brother reminded her to take each step slowly and carefully, then flew away into the woods. Her parents locked their arms in hers, and helped her walk down to greet her loving groom. A wise woman’s voice asked, “ Who has walked with this woman for all of her days until this moment of her marriage?” Her parents replied, “We have.”
The bride held hands with him and was blessed by her family and ancestors who lived in all times and places, love was shared, jokes were joked, shiny rings were exchanged, and grand promises of love and commitment were vowed to. Now, the bride and groom were husband and wife, and as they lit a cannon that blasted sparks into the air, the sparks in their hearts were set a flutter, and entwined forever.
The couple walked alone (along with their three documentarists) down to an island within a bay within an ocean, and looking all around themselves, it felt as if they were dreaming. Taking it all in, they knew they would never forget the earthly beauty around them.
As they eagerly rejoined their family and friends awaiting them as they entered the ballroom, the music started and they danced. In a whirlwind, the guests joined hands in a circle around the husband and wife all in the name of bringing them joy. The newly married bride watched in awe admiring all the people dancing around them as a group of the best and strongest men brought out two thrones for the man and his wife to sit in. As they were hoisted up towards the ceiling and spun around the room in the air, the bride let out a cackling laugh that could be heard from miles away. It sounded like an evil laugh, but it was made out of love and happiness. And then, as magic can be, many laughs and smiles appeared on the faces of everyone around them as the guests danced in circles around them.
More dancing ensued, including the fairy mother-in-law and fairy-father-in-law. They danced the most beautiful dance, swaying around the room, as if they were flying. Songs were sung. Congratulations were exchanged. People were merry, joyful, and having the time of their lives.
As the sun went down and the sky lit up in pink and purple, the bride and her groom admired the sky as if it were a dream. While others tried to pull them in different directions, they took a moment to look up and take a permanent picture with their mind’s eye.
You may have heard another type of story about weddings, a myth, perhaps, that the bride and groom might have trouble remembering all that occurred, they will forget their surroundings, the beauty of the day, forget to take it all in and admire the way everything really was, as if it were just a blur. But for the newly married couple, they know that what they experienced that night was nothing short of a miraculous, beautiful, real-life fairy tale.
When the clock struck 10:30 and the lights came back on, and she and her groom were snapped back into reality, another mantra came to mind: “Nothing could ruin the joy” that they felt that evening.
Marry a weirdo! 
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