Lessons of a Wedding Weekend Away

A couple weeks ago I wrote about the planning that was taking place so that I could enjoy a weekend getaway with hubby to attend a family wedding. Well, with the wedding weekend behind us, I've learned an important lesson - I can't handle even the lightest of travel AND attending a wedding.

The early am meds kicked in and I felt semi good
at the church

I had a migraine the entire time I was away from home. I left home with the same migraine I arrived back home with 48 hours later. With heavy medication and a strong desire to see my family I managed to at least attend all the planned events. But I didn't feel well enough to enjoy them as much as I could. As a result I didn't get to talk to everyone I wanted to talk to. I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I wanted to. And I didn't have as much fun.

Part of the problem is that there were some unexpected triggers at the wedding receptions. I expected the music to be loud (though it was louder than expected as we were seated right by the speakers) and I expected flashing lights. What I didn't expect was the very chilly temperature inside. It was cold when we first walked in and I thought well, once the ballroom is packed with people it will warm up. It didn't. Then I thought once we got some food in us, it'll warm up. It didn't. In fact, by the time dinner was over I had been cold for 2 solid hours. As a result of being in the cold air I wasn't able to drink enough water because the water was also very cold. Between the muscle tension from the cold and the dehydration that followed, we had to leave almost as soon as the dancing began.

Hubby and I had hoped to get at least one dance in before we left but the dance floor was very small and very packed so there was no real room to do anything other than bounce in place. So we just went back to the hotel.

I'm not sorry we went because we did have fun seeing family we rarely get to see and we learned our animals do well with the sitter we found, which means we can leave them when we go up north to visit my mom in the future. Even though I'm glad we went, we will never again attend another big family function that requires travel.

Next year, almost exactly a year from now we have another family wedding. This one will take place in the area we live so I'll have another chance to get some of those pictures I didn't get this time around. Plus I will be better prepared for the potential triggers I didn't anticipate this year. It was a weekend of lessons learned.