Expectations

I know that as a bride-to-be I'm supposed to be overly enthusiastic and positive about all the wedding stuff.  It's the happiest time of my life, right?    Well, I'd like to think that I am generally positive about it all (and I do get giddy talking about getting married to B)...but recently wedding planning has me down and I need to vent, so bear with me.  

While I love what we've planned so far for the wedding, and some of it has been fun, I've discovered that I absolutely hate wedding planning!  Since I love all things wedding, I really thought I would be in heaven planning my own, but the opposite has been true.  I think the planning part is the pits.

If I stop and think about it, I know a big part of it is that I feel a lot of pressure to meet many people's expectations:

- My parents want me to have a nice wedding but expect me to keep costs down
- Some friends expect a super fun event with lots of "really different & cool stuff"
- Other friends expect me to just LOVE the wedding planning and have gotten SO much done by now 
- B expects the food to be good, the booze to be top notch, the band to be fantastic

I also know I put a lot of the pressure on myself, but it is hard feeling like the only person truly accountable for pulling off a spectacular, memorable, fun event.  Thank god for our amazing planner - if she wasn't working with us I really would have lost my mind!  But still, every time B & I have to sit down with my parents and go over wedding details, I immediately get into a funk.

Recently we've gotten to the point where we have to make a lot of decisions and get some things checked off our list:

- We need to meet with caterers and then pick one
- We need to meet with florists and select one
- We need to finalize our save the dates and send them
- We need to find out how much transportation costs and what we really need to provide/when
- We need to tweak the budget and find out what we really have to spend on the fun stuff (eek)

Not only can it be overwhelming, but everyone seems to have a different opinion about "what's right".  If only all of these choices were as easy as the dress - meaning each one was amazing and we just had to say yes to the best one.  I know we'll get there eventually but it just feels like so much is riding on each choice.  We've literally allotted every penny in the budget, so any misstep with one of these choices could totally affect something else.  I feel ridiculous even typing this, but if feels like so much is riding on each decision.

Am I the only one that ever felt this way?  Absolutely not.

And will I totally get over it?  Of course! 

I just wish I could stop feeling so stressed out by all the decisions we're having to make and just enjoy it a little more!

Thanks for letting me vent.  Feel free to send me a xanax ;)

The Ingredients: Bridesmaids

Even before B & I actually got engaged we had talked about who we wanted in our wedding party.  I don't know why but it was always fun to talk about who would be sharing one of the biggest days of our lives by standing at the alter with us.

But when I actually got engaged, I really struggled with how to ask my bridesmaids.  So many of my girlfriends have already gotten married and done some really cute things to ask their friends to be bridesmaids.  I felt a lot of pressure to do something different (this has been a common theme actually, I'm really getting sort of tired of people saying "Oh I know you're wedding will be so crazy cool and full of different stuff"). 

A few examples of what friends did in the past, off the top of my head:

• Mini champagne bottle w/ cute tag
• DVD w/ nice letter
• Homemade cookies shipped out to all the girls
• Bridesmaids Survival Kit
• Nice letter
• Framed picture + note

I also saw some really cute ideas online but all seemed either super time consuming or really expensive.  Sorry girls, you're totally worth it, but things were really busy at work and I was in major saving $$ mode.  

I decided I wanted to do something slightly humorous, yet still let each girl know that it really would be an honor to have them be part of my wedding party.  So after lots of thought (and procrastination), I went with a funny card from Naughty Betty, purchased through Jack Cards, and pictured right (Naughty Betty cards are honestly the funniest around, I am so glad I discovered them, thanks Holly for the reco!).

I think most of the girls got the humor and thought it was funny.  Thankfully all of them said yes to being a bridesmaid, so now the next challenge is to find ways to torture them with ridiculous dress options.  Only kidding.  I'm SUPER excited and can't wait to get all 10 girls together for the big day!

How did you ask your bridesmaids?  Any creative ideas?