Today [the 13th] marks six month until the wedding. How in the world has the time gone by so fast?
When we got engaged [almost exactly] 11 months ago, I just kept thinking how far off October seemed. We purposely chose to have a long engagement. We didn’t want to be rushing around and getting everything together in five months—we wanted to enjoy our engagement and somewhat coast through it. And that’s exactly what we’ve been doing.
By Labor Day, we pretty much had all of the major items on our list figured out and crossed off. I think part of that was a lot of communication about what we wanted and what we were looking for. And that Tim trusts my judgement and decisions with the things he doesn’t care so much about—like flowers. I must admit that even before Tim and I were engaged, I knew what kind of photography style I wanted. And when I did happen to come across the perfect [at least in my eyes] photography studio, I bookmarked them on my computer to save for later. I wasn’t necessarily actively pursuing a photographer, but I’ve always enjoyed looking at wedding photography with the different shots and styles. Not to mention I attended seven weddings last year, and was invited to a few I wasn’t able to attend. Attending all of those weddings and looking at others’ pictures also helped us figure out what we did and did not want with our wedding.
Since we figured out so many things so early on, and have been able to coast through this engagement and actually enjoy it, I haven’t felt stressed all at. Okay, so I was a teeny bit when my dress hadn’t come in almost a month after it was due to, and was basically told by the bridal shop employee that it was MIA. But even then, I wasn’t too concerned because we’re still just over six months out. The dress did arrive a couple days later, by the way.
Though I haven’t really been stressed, there were some disappointments with planning. Like finding out my first choice ceremony/reception venue wasn’t as large as I thought, and that it was going to cost more than we were wanting to spend. The latest disappointment was having to remove steak from our menu. The price person was raised 25% from when we booked our reception because beef has sky-rocketed. But even that didn’t upset me too much [Tim, it did.] The way I look at it, is that steaks are more likely to be over/under–cooked with that many people, and hold up the dancing because they take longer to cook with more attention. We’re having some sort of beef meatball appetizers, so I’m okay with no steak.
So basically this post was meant as a reflection of how the last 11 months have gone, and that it’s now time to start the final leg of planning. The invites, the ceremony, the different music playlists, scouting photography locations, and a few other things. I have a feeling the next six months are going to go by fast and may be a bit hectic at times, but I’m ready to take on the challenges. And to relax on whatever surprise honeymoon Tim has up his sleeves.
—m.