OMG!  I cannot believe how expensive anything labeled ‘wedding’ is!  Doesn’t matter if is ordinary or not.  If it is attached to a wedding or labeled ’wedding’, the cost goes up.  Period.

We are helping plan a wedding.  Or should I say we are planning a wedding and making it look like we aren’t making all the decisions.  My spouse (remember  S?) is good at this type of thing, organization, and has basically taken over being the wedding planner.  I am good at colors and such.  And the fact the wedding will be at our house….that’s a different piece of the story….but also part of the reason we are so involved.

We don’t have any daughters, but figured at some point in our lives we would be paying for a rehearsal dinner.  And in a more traditional society, that might still be the case.  But tradition is out of the window, and that’s okay. S and I got married at a JP, no big or small wedding for us, and we’ve gotten along all these years just fine.  And it appears the days of a small reception in the church rec room with nuts, mints and punch are gone as well.  Nowadays, if everyone isn’t completely stressed out and broke by the time the wedding day arrives, then something has gone wrong it seems.  Our plan is to remain liquid, as unstressed as possible and still have a nice small, pretty wedding that provides the essentials of wedding held to today’s standards without the cost.  Is that possible?  It better be.

Like we do with almost everything else, we say we will ‘hire it out’ and then price it to do just that and decide we can handle it better and less expensively ourselves.  And then we dive in and get’r done.  S starts making lists. He’s a good list maker.  At least this time, he is checking things off the lists he’s made.

The house is designed to open(double doors) from the living and dining room onto the back porch, but even then it is not big enough to hold all the planned quests inside, so the ceremony and reception will be in the backyard and overflow into the house.    The yard is shaded and fenced, but after the recent drought needs some replanting and such, which we are now planning.  (Too cold right now) We want to have as much blooming as possible.  The rest of the blooming plants can be possible by potted plants on the fences and just sitting around.  The tables and chairs have been reserved.  We decided to include a few higher pub style tables for standing at for those that like to mill around.  The tablecloths have been arrived.  I thought it would be a nice touch to hang some coordinating curtains on the porch, and have ordered some.  I am looking for some ribbon to match the colors now for tie backs and other things one would use ribbon for.

S has handled cakes for weddings before and plans on baking for this one as well.  He is taking decorating classes now to up his game.  The cake part will taste good and he wants the decorations to look as good.  The food to be served is still under discussion, although we already have all the items needed to serve it.

Looking at invitations. Tons of options online.  This should be….  ummm ….    fun.