Bridal Bliss and Bridal Shows

Tomorrow I am going to a bridal show with Brett’s cousin, Shelby, and I am very excited.  However, I am also slightly nervous.  I know that I am going to feel so overwhelmed and stressed out just looking at all of the exhibits and having people want to talk to me about the wedding services they provide.

Whatever happened to simpler times when weddings meant going to a church and then having a reception in the basement, serving cake, punch and mixed nuts?  I’m sure that there truly were blushing brides that felt light on their feet and could, to a degree, slightly relax for the time leading up to their ‘big’ day.  Instead, nowadays brides spend months planning the picture perfect Pinterest wedding that they have been dreaming of ever since they first created their Pinterest account.  The guest lists are huge in number because nobody wants to step on people’s toes by not inviting great Aunt Margery whom no one in the bride’s family has talked to in five years.  If there’seen the slightest bit of a memory built with someone, whether it’s with someone from your family, a friend, or just someone who lived on your college dorm floor and you only talked to them once during freshman move in day, then you had best invite them so that their feelings aren’t hurt.  It’s just to a degree ridiculous.  Weddings used to be so intimate and small but they just get bigger and bigger.

Whenever I start thinking about the wedding and the reception that Brett and I are currently trying to plan and get together I start feeling overwhelmed, slightly panicky and I start daydreaming about eloping and just running away from all of it.  We have completely moved away from wanting to do something small and are now planning something bigger.  Sure, I am having fun with some of it and am excited for the big day and the “party” but it’s just all so scary.  Tomorrow will be a lot of fun with Shelby, looking at the pretty displays and talking all day about what we want for our weddings, as she is a bride to be as well.  But I’m not going to try to pretend as if by the end of the event we won’t be ready to go home, put on a pair of sweatpants and possibly cry.  I’m pretty sure that we will end up being two blushing brides that will be looking through Pinterest late at night, stressed out and with a bottle of Moscato on the bed stand next to us.

Band, DJ or Computer and Playlist?

I’m really having trouble deciding what to do for music at me and Brett’s wedding reception.  Brett really wants either a band or a DJ because he thinks that they will do a better job at keeping the party going and the energy up.  While I agree with that, I just don’t know how badly I want us to put the money towards that.  I would like to just make a playlist of four hours of music, set up my laptop and a speaker and just have a friend push play and pause.  Pretty easy, right?  I would get them a gift card to go out to eat somewhere nice, put together a nice gift bag for them.  I would be sure to thank them and let them know that I appreciate them and what they’r doing!  And of course I would need a microphone so that they could announce our entrance, the first dance and other things like that.  I just like the idea of doing that as opposed to a DJ or band because it would be so much cheaper.  The only really hard part will be making the playlist itself and knowing what the perfect order will be to play each song.  I’ve got a couple of songs that I know I want to use for certain but definitely not four hours worth of songs.  Not yet at least.  I’m in the process of finding some songs right now.  I know that Brett really would prefer a band or DJ but I’ll try to talk him into doing the playlist idea.  I just think it would be better to spend the money we would on a DJ or band on the honeymoon or something else.  So, please, leave your comments and please tell me what type of music you had at your wedding reception and also please leave me some songs to either add to the list or check out.  I don’t care if those songs are love songs or simply songs that make you want to get up and dance.  Lay them on me!

My Pinterest Wedding Has Me Panicked

Ever since I created my Pinterest account I have been slowly, one pin at a time, started daydreaming about the wedding I want.  Yes, I am one of those girls.  Now that I am engaged I can actually start planning it and also use the ideas I have found that interest me.  However, while I am incredibly excited about getting married and I am sure that I will have fun planning, decorating and organizing it, I am also quickly coming to realize how truly stressful it all is and how overwhelmed I am probably going to feel until it’s all over.

Brett and I are having our wedding with reception to follow on May 2, 2015 at 4;30 pm.  That’s only four months and a handful of days away.  That amount of time is going to fly by before I know it and that scares me so badly.  What if I don’t get everything done in time, like sending out invites?  We started out wanting to have a small number of guests and make it just really intimate and sweet, but that’s out the door now that before I even knew what was happening Brett and his sisters and mother started listing off their relatives that would need to be invited and slowly the guest list got bigger and bigger. We’re at 94 people right now and the building we are going to rent for the day only holds 120 people.  That many people all greeting me and talking to me, all there for US, is so daunting.  The idea of having that many eyes on me makes me unbelievably nervous.

Maybe I should just stay off of Pinterest until after the wedding.  I just keep finding so many great ideas for decorations and everything in between and I can’t decide what i want to use and what ideas I want to steal.  I keep seeing timelines that are supposed to work as a checklist for everything you should do and get done each step of the way, month to month leading up to the big day.  After reading each one of those checklists which is the same as the one before and the one before that, I am learning that I am very behind and am running out of time.  I’m sure I’ll get everything done, I have a lot of help and support but that still doesn’t make it any less stressful.

I ‘m getting nervous because I don’t want to be that bride that runs around like a chicken with it’s head chopped off.  So, please, send me your prayers and any advice you may have for me.  Give me advice about how to relax and stay focused and organized.  In the mean time, when I’m ready to attempt winding down at the end of the night I’ll continue crawling into bed, turning on “One Tree Hill” on Netflix, grabbing my notebook and laptop, and continue sitting on Pinterest for hours until my eyes are crossing and I want to cry.