Lesson #10: Wedding Planning has absconded with my living room floor
It's equal parts amusing and annoying what wedding planning has wreaked on my living room. Every once in a while, I'll take my wedding planning objects and stack them up neatly and move them back onto the loveseat they've taken over in our library. That's where the wedding magazines and scrapbooking supplies are for the time being, and when I'm trying to make the living room look presentable again, the invitations and cardstock will make their way there also. We've made this journey two or three times now, and someone they keep ending up back in the living room. Right now there's a stack of invitations waiting to be painted, a stack of invitations already painted, a lapdesk with the paint stencil taped to it, a bag of $90 worth of envelopes (eek!), a paper cutter, and two shoe boxes of paint supplies, cardstock, sticky dots, and scissors. I think I've given up on moving them until they get mailed. At least their presence in the living room reminds me that they do need attention.
Lesson #11: Wedding Planning is like taking a class
When the initial joyful bliss of getting engaged subsided, the enormity of wedding planning loomed before me. I've never been married. I'm the oldest daughter, the oldest cousin, the oldest daughter of the oldest son and daughter. My best friend is married, but all my other friends are unmarried. I've been a bridesmaid only twice; once for my best friend and once for my dad's wedding. I was a bridesmaid for my da when I was 15, and, being 15, I was completely self-absorbed and unaware of any wedding planning being done around me. My best friend was married when I was 21, and surprisingly enough, I was still rather self-absorbed and didn't help as much as I feel I should have. (We'll consider this my virtual apology, and I'll spend the next 60 years with her doing a better job.) All in all, I didn't know how to plan a wedding, so I did what I knew I could- I studied. I may not can fix a leaky toilet, I may not can tell you how to buy a house, and I may not know how to program a computer, but what I *can* do is study. Oh, boy, can I study. Between high school and six years of college, I can find information and figure out a way to organize in my head so that it stays there. To study for wedding planning, I bought and read wedding magazines; I have perused almost every section of theknot.com; I listened to what other people had to say, including my best friend and ladies from church; I made a notebook and wrote lists of things I had learned and things I still had to learn. I have never utilized google quite to this extent; I might get flagged on the watch list if "songs to play at wedding reception" and "purple bridesmaid dresses" end up as terrorist language. I have learned a lot, and while I'll end up being rushed to do some things I still don't know, I am confident that my wedding won't be a total disaster.
When the initial joyful bliss of getting engaged subsided, the enormity of wedding planning loomed before me. I've never been married. I'm the oldest daughter, the oldest cousin, the oldest daughter of the oldest son and daughter. My best friend is married, but all my other friends are unmarried. I've been a bridesmaid only twice; once for my best friend and once for my dad's wedding. I was a bridesmaid for my da when I was 15, and, being 15, I was completely self-absorbed and unaware of any wedding planning being done around me. My best friend was married when I was 21, and surprisingly enough, I was still rather self-absorbed and didn't help as much as I feel I should have. (We'll consider this my virtual apology, and I'll spend the next 60 years with her doing a better job.) All in all, I didn't know how to plan a wedding, so I did what I knew I could- I studied. I may not can fix a leaky toilet, I may not can tell you how to buy a house, and I may not know how to program a computer, but what I *can* do is study. Oh, boy, can I study. Between high school and six years of college, I can find information and figure out a way to organize in my head so that it stays there. To study for wedding planning, I bought and read wedding magazines; I have perused almost every section of theknot.com; I listened to what other people had to say, including my best friend and ladies from church; I made a notebook and wrote lists of things I had learned and things I still had to learn. I have never utilized google quite to this extent; I might get flagged on the watch list if "songs to play at wedding reception" and "purple bridesmaid dresses" end up as terrorist language. I have learned a lot, and while I'll end up being rushed to do some things I still don't know, I am confident that my wedding won't be a total disaster.
