My grandpa passed away unexpectedly yesterday and we're all still reeling a little bit. I haven't given much time to any of my online work, but I had a few thoughts that I wanted to share in remembrance of him.
When Kyle and I first decided that we wanted to get married in Walt Disney World, I was immediately worried about my grandparents. Being in their mid-eighties, they were going to have a hard time making the trip from Napa, California, all the way down to Florida. The weather might be hot, the rain might be hard, the parks might be too large, the food might be too rich...it just seemed like I was stacking the odds against them being able to participate happily in our wedding day. In fact, we almost changed locations because I was so worried about it.
Now, when people ask if I wish that we'd saved the money and had a smaller wedding (especially since I was laid off six months after we were married), I think about my grandparents and, in particular, my grandpa. He spent most of the vacation in a wheelchair and definitely couldn't do everything that the rest of us were doing, but he had such a wonderful time. He loved seeing all of the parks for the first time and enjoyed the parades, stage shows, fireworks, and characters. He had his face painted. He got his picture with Tigger. He bought matching 2009 sweatshirts for himself and my grandma. And, right before we left the parks for the last time, he rode Soarin' and was able to fly over the state he spent most of his life living in. He simply couldn't stop talking about it.
Our wedding was lovely. It was fun and pretty and just what we'd planned. It's the rest of the week, though, that I'll carry with me for the rest of my life when I think about my grandpa. That's why a Disney wedding is sometimes so much bigger than just a wedding. In our case, it was an excuse for the cross-country vacation with my entire family that proved to be the last big trip my grandpa was going to take. I'm so, so grateful that we had the opportunity and if we could do it all again, I wouldn't have saved a penny of the money we spent on the wedding. Nothing has ever been so worth it.
I love you, grandpa.
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