Friday Wedding Update: Week 28

I'm sorry I have been so low on posts this week.  It's just that after working my third holiday weekend in two months I was in danger of writing posts about bad customer behavior or how I almost got run over by a car and a Christmas tree in the same hour.  My happy just was not at the forefront of my creative mojo, so I retreated into work and my knitting and lots and lots of Charmed episodes.

But it's time for this week's progress report on operation Rutabaga 2012, and I have actually done some work (most of it today).  It is hard to work on the planning when I feel like I am operating in a vacuum.  Chris is still in school and so has not really been available for strategic planning sessions and plus, as the bride, it really is up to me to do most of the heavy lifting.  Overall I have felt very supported in this process by everyone involved, but at the end of the day the real decision making is up to me, and that's a little scary.

It's no secret that we are trying to do this as cheap as possible.  The area that is making this difficult currently is the reception.  What do you serve for food?  Is there anyone who could help out?  How many people are we having to feed and what are the expectations?  Since the wedding is on a Friday night the timing has worked out that we really do need to serve some sort of dinner.  I am not really into big elaborate meals, and I have no intention of hiring a caterer.  I just don't have that kind of funding.  So today I sat down with a notebook and did some free association and word mapping exercises that I used to do when I got stuck working on research.

I started with the main concept.  No, not "cheap", but rather the feel of the wedding.  It's a small country church and based on my dress and current flower ideas (more on that later), I'm aiming for "storybook".  So, what food seems like it would be at a small country wedding in a fairy tale.  For some reason the first word that popped into my head was "chutney", which really makes no sense.  But from there I moved to cheese and once I got on the idea of cheese plates it all sort of spiraled from there.  When I was a kid my parents would do family movie nights that involved picnicking on the living room floor munching on nice cheese, crackers, grapes, and apple slices.  Those have always been some of my favorite meals, and in my mind they are tied to stories like Pirates of Penzance (my original pirate loves -- go watch the video, I'll be here when you come back) or The Jungle Book.  It just makes sense to take that memory and build a menu around it, because in the end that's really what this is going to be -- a reflection of the past 23 years of my life, honoring that, and celebrating the beginning of a new chapter.

And, as has become my mantra when I'm stuck making decisions, it's my wedding.  Even if I don't get to eat the food myself I still have to pay for it.  If people don't like it they can do something different when they get married (that sounds really mean, but sometimes you just have to stop considering everyone else or nothing will get done).

Friday Wedding Update: Week 29

This post is not about the release of Whimsical Little Knits 3 that went live last night.  It is not about the fact that I flailed about frantically and immediately cast on with yarn that was already half a pair of socks, meaning I'll have to buy more.  It is most certainly not about the fact I stayed up till almost midnight knitting on said item, though I was mostly ripping out.  No, this post is about a little even I like to call Rutabaga 2012.

In exactly 29 weeks (yes, I counted) I will be getting married.  It's a scary thought that has often sparked a whirwind of panic when I think about the fact that I have done nothing about the food, the order of ceremony, purchasing rings, etc.  I have this really long check list that really doesn't fully apply to me because, frankly, I'm not spending a lot of money on this.  Both Chris and I are extremely broke and though my parents are helping with much of the financial expense, I am too budget conscious to let them spend much.

What most people probably find amusing about this is that I have been engaged for almost 13 months, but until a few weeks ago I had absolutely no interest in working on my wedding.  I was too focused on school and trying to find a job that would cover my rent to really care about the finer points of florists, photographers, and my adamant stand against djs.  But then it hit.  About 12 hours after graduation I suddenly cared.  A lot. Which is good because I now have less than six months to plan and execute this sucker.

But fear not.  I have thrown myself into wedding planning with more than a little gusto.  My mom and sister came up for two days before new years and within about 30 hours we had tried on and purchased my dress as well as both bridesmaid dresses.  Having the bridesmaid dresses gave me a color scheme.  Having the wedding dress has given me theme influencing ideas.  I have no pictures to offer because Chris often reads the blog and the one thing I have been very particular about is that he know nothing about my dress.  I took no pictures of my own and my mom took it home so that he won't stumble upon it when for some unknown reason I send him to my closet to find a pair of shoes because I'm stranded somewhere and have a gala to get to (hey, a girl can dream).

In the past week I have also confirmed a photographer (so far the most expensive part of the wedding, but I know it'll be worth it), figured out what to do about flowers (more on that later... I hope), and gone with Chris to create a registry at Target (fun, but not nearly as fun as everyone leads you to believe).  Next on the list is to create a wedding website and figure out a headcount for the guest list.  Are you not just dying to know more?  Yeah, me neither.  Who knew there was absolutely so much to do.  I'm sure you'll hear more about the stuff I've decided to cut out in the days to come as the crazy truly starts to sink in.