July 16, 2008

Party of One

I came across an article on cnn.com about the “angst of being single in wedding season.” Naturally, being a single woman with two weddings to attend this fall, I had to read the article.

It points out a lot of things I’ve already experienced and offers ideas on how to keep the attention off your single self, as well as advice for brides to make their single friends more comfortable. For example, one of the suggestions for the bride is to put all the singles together. I guess this makes sense—misery loves company, or maybe, two of those singles guests could make a love connection. I suppose anything’s possible.

I’ve never gone to a wedding with a date, so I have a lot of experience with navigating the wedding waters as a singleton. I was always the one being dragged to the front during the bouquet toss and asked endlessly when it was going to be my turn. I can’t tell you how many times my friends have tried to toss the bouquet in my direction only to have it end up in the arms of some other girl. I suppose that’s a sign.

The worst weddings by far are the family ones, because most of the people there are well aware of who you are and what your status is. Plus, they have no problem being nosy and asking all the hard-to-answer questions. By now, I’ve come up with stock answers that include not having the time, concentrating on my career right now, and basically just telling them how much single life rocks—answers that all happen to be true.

Most of the time it really doesn’t bother me if I don’t have a date. (And yes, this is an honest declaration.) Although, there was this one time when I felt like the biggest loser in the room. About two years ago I was a bridesmaid at my friend’s wedding. She was absolutely beautiful in a gown that seemed to be made especially for her. The wedding was equally beautiful with some amazing food and a really fun after-party following the reception. Anyway, during the last dance of the reception, I was hovering around the dance floor talking to one of the other bridesmaids. The best man approached her and asked if she wanted to dance, so she turned to me and asked me to hold her drink while she was whisked away. So there I was, standing by a dance floor with two drinks in my hand watching all the couples (which seemed like everyone in the room) happily dancing together. It was like a scene out of some romantic comedy.

Deciding that I’d had enough of feeling like a loser, I put down the drinks and went in search of the cute single guy at my table whose dance offer I should have accepted earlier. I searched everywhere for him, but couldn’t find him. By the time he returned (he was in the bathroom—of course, the one place I couldn’t search) the song was over and everyone was getting ready to leave. The one time there’s a cute, available guy at a wedding and I manage to muster enough courage to do anything about it—the timing’s all off. Figures. Wondering what happened to the guy? I never saw him again after that night, and I’ve never asked my friend about him. I figured there was no point in trying to re-create a missed opportunity.

So, this fall I’ll be attending two weddings and I’ve already got a game plan all set. At Nichole’s (my fellow blogger) wedding, I should be OK. There will be no family members to harass me and I’ll have the company of my other single buddy, Devlin, to keep me occupied and join me in ooohing and ahhhhing when we see Nichole all decked out in her beautiful gown. As for the second wedding, since I’m the maid of honor, I figure I’ll be too busy tending to the bride to even remember that I’m single.

I say, bring on the weddings! I’m ready…I think.

Posted by Lori at 3:17 p.m.

Submit a comment

Name:

Email:

Title:

Comment:

---

To make something bold:
<strong>Text to bold</strong>

To make something italic:
<em>Text to italicize</em>

To make a hyperlink:
<a href="URL">Text to link</a>

---