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<\/p>\nWhen Peter and I got engaged, I promised myself that the wedding planning would be smooth and easy. Growing up, I wasn\u2019t like the other girls who spent their time daydreaming about their weddings.<\/p>\n
I just knew that it would eventually happen one day, and I would need cupcakes at my wedding reception. That was it.<\/p>\n
So, I always knew that when it came to the actual event, I would need my mother to guide me.<\/p>\n
My wedding was also going to be her chance at planning a wedding because my parents were not married.<\/p>\n
They were dating when they discovered that my mother was pregnant. Of course, my father promptly packed his bags and left before I was born.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that\u2019s just a thing of the past, Nicole,\u201d my mother told me when we went shopping for wedding dresses.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you\u2019re happy now, with Anthony?\u201d I asked her, watching her eye two dresses in particular.<\/p>\n
They were not to my taste, so I knew my mother was looking at herself in those dresses.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She was in a happy long-term relationship with Anthony, and I knew that sometimes she dreamed about a wedding of her own.<\/p>\n
But still, as we planned my wedding, she was a little too eager to help choose the flowers, the cake, and even the table setting for my reception.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom,\u201d I said to her as she sat hunched over my wedding notebook. \u201cYou need to back off just a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
She smiled at me and nodded, not saying anything. Which immediately made me feel horrible. But it seemed to be the gentle nudge that she needed.<\/p>\n
Because she did take a step back, only checking on the final preparations with Anna, my wedding planner.<\/p>\n
On my wedding day, I sat on the balcony of my hotel room, eating a banana, something that I had seen brides do on TV, and I felt a growing excitement that only hit now.<\/p>\n
I was finally getting married. But nothing could have prepared me for what the day was about to bring.<\/p>\n
I arrived at the church early with my hair and makeup artists ready to do the final glam before I walked down the aisle.<\/p>\n
As I stepped into the bride\u2019s dressing room, my excitement transformed into shock before my eyes.<\/p>\n
There, next to the floor-length mirror, sat my mother, in a full-on white wedding dress, holding a pair of shoes.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom? What\u2019s happening? What are you doing?\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother beamed at me, it was a smile so big and so bright that for a few seconds, I actually forgot what was going on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"