And Then We Got Engaged

I went through most of my teenage years sure of what my wedding would be. A hot summer day, my groom and me up on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan and then all of our guests heading to the beach for a party. It was going to be perfect.

And then we got engaged.

The funny thing about dreaming about your wedding and planning your wedding is that very rarely do the dream and actuality line up.

Jus proposed on December 4th. That night, as we drank champagne with our parents I kept repeating that we wouldn't do any planning until after Christmas, I wanted to enjoy being engaged without the stress of planning a wedding.

So that's what we did...

For about 24 hours.

In the first 24 hours of being engaged we were asked the same question dozens of times. "When?" I'd respond saying we weren't planning until after Christmas but the question came up so much that Jus & I started talking about it.

I had always thought I'd have at least a year engagement so that automatically put us at 2011. We'd have almost a 2 year engagement and then get married in Northern Michigan in August of 2011. Easy peasy.

And then Jus had to open his mouth, turns out 2011 was too far away. Since he was the one to buy the ring he'd had more time to get used to the idea of getting married than I had and he was ready to do it. So we started talking about getting married in 2010.

This was when stress started slinking its way into my mind. Plan a wedding 6 hours away in 8 months? This was going to be tough.

But was it really realistic to plan a wedding for Northern Michigan in August? This is prime vacation area. People from all over the midwest head to this resort area to spend their summer.

So in an effort to keep costs down we started talking about getting married after Labor Day.

Getting married after Labor Day provided some pluses: less money, less people, more planning time, and unfortunately one gigantic minus: the weather.

Northern Michigan's weather is a little crazy. In the summer it usually rains until noon when you get about a 75% chance the sun will start to shine. After August don't expect much.

So thats where it stood. 8 months to plan an August wedding that will hopefully have good weather or 9 months to plan a wedding that will cost 75% less and most likely be held indoors (which sort of kills the "married on a bluff" thing).