wedding planning..

When Patrick and I became engaged we realized our anniversary would fall on a Saturday the following year so we immediately set October 7, 2006 as our wedding date.

I always thought I wanted to get married barefoot on the beach. When I was younger and used to watch Father of the Bride, I fell in the love with the idea of a white tented reception but still had the beach on my mind. That all changed when Patrick and I started getting serious and talking marriage. His parent's backyard is large and includes a tennis court, which was perfect for a tented reception. Our wedding location was set. We planned our wedding over the next year. Having it at my in-law's house required a ton of work. Everyone thinks that having it at your home will 1. save you money 2. be easier. Wrong and wrong. You have to cover every little detail... from bathroom rentals to decorating places you wouldn't normally, like the front door for example.

Planning our wedding was a ton of fun and surprisingly not too stressful. Our colors were based on bridesmaid dresses I fell in love with when I spotted them in my first bridal magazine. I ripped the page out and never looked back. We didn't have a "theme", just a strict color scheme. Since we were getting married in the fall, a lot of people automatically steer towards the reds, oranges and yellows. I had my florist write in capital bold letters in my file: NO YELLOW or ORANGE. Not that I have anything against the colors but they just didn't go with my bridesmaid dresses... and after all, remember everything was planned around those.

Although our wedding was to be held in a backyard, I didn't want people to assume it was going to be informal but yet it wasn't a black tie event. I wanted something in between. I wanted to make sure my guests were well taken care of, well fed and would party all night with us.

Being engaged for one year was perfect. It was just the right amount of time to not feel rushed but not feel like our wedding was so far off in the next couple of years. I wouldn't have done it any other way.

{ps: I started this blog entry on Thursday, October 8th. That is when I started it and I'm just getting around to finishing it up and posting it! So behind!}