An introduction

It's been a two months past the engagement and I'm knee deep in wedding blah. It all started as an over whelming flood of lists. How many people? What kind of venue? Favors, decor, flowers oh my!? I wanted to plan everything in one day and have the ceremony the next. Luckily the excitement has began to settle down and I have made some realistic goals.

Task one: What is a wedding anyway? I have only been to a hand full of casual celebrations so I had no idea where to start. But, like any other project, I hit the books... and magazines... and internet. After a few weeks of research boot camp, I think my fiance (Matt) and I have a pretty good idea of what we want for our special day.

Task two: How big is...big? Matt and I grabbed some milk and cookies, chose the most comfortable spot on the sofa and started our guest list. You never know how many people you know until you put it down on paper; at least for us it was an Excel spreadsheet. Not long after, we had a list quickly reaching 200 and that didn't even include coworkers and family friends. Yikes!

Task three: How are we going to pull this off? Traditionally, and in the past, the bride's parents (or a combination of both families) host the wedding. These days it's not the case for most couples. We will be hosting our own...not entirely by choice but, we just think "why be a burden?" We're adults and made the decision to get married so it's our responsibility to follow through. Not everyone feels that way but that's fine too. It's whatever you and those around you are comfortable with. So, we started with figuring out how much we could increase our saving deposits and the total of that amount we will have in one year. Sadly, it wasn't much but I'm optimistic. Then, just for buffer, we added other income sources such as freelance and garage/craft sales. Once we had a solid number we input the amount into the budgeting form on weddingwire.com and theknot.com to figure out were our money will most-likely go. The numbers seemed to make sense... so on to task four.

Task four: Be realistic and make a list of what is most important and what is not. I can see how a wedding can have a huge price tag or none at all. It's all in what you want and how you get it. Our budget allows for a decent wedding with one and a half bells and whistles so we are focusing on the top of our priority list and ignoring the bottom until we can figure out how to stretch our budget that far.

Task five: Search for the perfect vendor(s). This is where I am now. Ugh...