MySpace-August 1, 2010-Wedding Planning Is Hard

Wedding planning is hard. Joe and I haven’t really even started planning our wedding but even now, I’m totally overwhelmed. I got my Wedding Planning for Dummies book, I got a book for Joe about being a groom, I’ve signed up for theknot.com and still have no clue where to start.

Joe and I have yet to set a date. We were to do that as well as setting a wedding budget and household budget this weekend. But Joe slept in too late and then he mowed the yard. I figure some rough dates for which inquires of churches and reception halls can be made is the first step. In my ideal world, I’d like to get married in early spring so that I can take advantage of forsythias blooming and using them as centerpieces. That sort of puts a time crunch on wedding planning. AND I’m pretty sure you can’t get married in the Catholic church (as I would like) during Lent. Easter isn’t until late April. BUT if I wanted to wait till 2012, I still could get married in early-mid April. Possibly then getting forsythias for my use. Other dates would be sometime in June or early September. 2011 would be okay for those. And seriously, if you want something done sort of fast, I’m the one you want doing it. I’m well organized. I just would like everyone else to be the same way.

Its also very hard, as I still have to figure out, to plan a long distance wedding. Google only has lent me so many leads for reception halls in the DeSoto area. Who’s going to go to these places and see them? Can I trust pictures that are sent to me? What about food? Can I get a caterer or does the place do it? What if the food is crap? What about the bar and alcohol? Do I need to take a weekend off and fly to Missouri for some planning?

I’m making lists. Lists of things to do, things I want, ideas, guests-for sure and maybe guests.

I ran some ideas past Joe and he’s been super (and surprisingly) supportive of these. One is renting (or purchasing) a 1989 Crown Victoria. Joe loved that car so very much and we both enjoyed drives through St. Joe in the middle of the night in search of milkshakes listening to ‘Tales Designed for Suspense’ in it. I can just see us driving away from the church in it, Joe in an old man hat, me snuggled next to him in the front seat. We’ve found one for sale about an hour and half away from here. We could afford it if we got a loan AND it would probably get along better in the snow than the Turdcel (not that I don’t really like that car for Joe too). But the questions remain, will it last for as long as it takes for us to get married? The other idea I had is about favors for the wedding. Since I would like to use royal/blue ribbon blue as one of my colors (the other being white and with accents of yellow), I thought that maybe giving out blue ribbons would be cool. Sort of a nod to my horse showing days; they would have our names and the date on them. Sort of up in the air about using rosettes or bookmark ribbons. Bookmarks would be cheaper and more practical-people may actually use them, but rosettes are so much fancier. I really think that favors should reflect us-so I’m also thinking of some little food items since we love to cook.

There are so many things to think about. Budget being a big one. I asked Joe what he thought weddings cost and he told me $10000 to $15000. Is that what we should aim our budget towards? That’s a lot higher than I would have thought for our budget, but then again, if we could do it, it would be fantastic. I could get so much of the fancy that I would like. We haven’t approached my parents about helping but us planning for the most of it, will just mean that there’s more budget for other stuff!

Joe’s been so supportive of my early on craziness about wedding planning. Probably one of the first things we’ll do (hopefully not before setting a date and maybe not even before setting a venue), is purchase some wedding rings. Mostly because I need to get my engagement ring checked because I’m afraid that one of the stones is loose. And that its sort of dirty. And really, the wedding rings will be fairly cheap. Comparatively. 

So basic list of things to think about…
Church, reception hall, wedding rings, wedding dress, tuxes, invitations, guest list, decorations, flowers, DJ, bar, caterer, cake, and on and on and on…

Its all going to come together! I know it!

[EDIT-Originally published to Blogger on 8/2/11.]