Amateur Wedding Planner: The Devil is in the Details.

I always thought that planning a wedding would be easy. I mean, who really cares about chair covers, wedding cake, favors, centerpieces, place cards, seating arrangements, etc? Well, despite all my previous vows that I would never care about these seemingly insignificant things, turns out … I care. I’m ashamed to even admit it. But, now that we are full planning/panic mode for the wedding, I find that there is no other option … Between Jon and I, we have to have an opinion down to the most itsy-bitsy of details.

Sometimes, pure honesty here, it is overwhelming. Currently, we are about five months out from when we want to get married and we are currently venue-less. Yes, we have seen some ideas, but nothing yet has been screaming the proverbial “GET MARRIED HERE” vibe that we both need to feel before committing. Such things as weather back-ups, price, availability, and locale convenience have been the main fun-ruin-ers in choosing a venue thus far. However, lack of venues is definitely not the issue. There are hundreds upon hundreds of venues here in Denver, but narrowing them down to our specific needs has been slightly challenging. And on top of that … Web sites can be deceiving. We can look at a venue on the Web and think “Perfect!”, but then once we actually visit, we realize the location is extremely shady and not only would we have to provide our guests with a meal, but also bullet-proof vests.

So, needless to say, it has been an adventure thus far! Doing the research on the “perfect place” takes time and considering the fact that I work full-time, go to school virtually full-time, am moving apartments, and have to work on various weekends leaves me with about say … a 30.3 minute time frame to get wedding planning done! Needless to say, I called a wedding planner today. I surrender to the wedding industry. I may need reinforcements.

But the funny thing about this whole planning business, it is actually insanely fun! So much hype and excitement surrounds this one day, and being involved in the minute details of it all is somewhat empowering. I honestly never thought I would be such an astute student of details, but today in my procrastination of homework, I was researching wedding traditions all over the world and I began to realize the gravity of the actual wedding day and celebration. A wedding tangibly symbolizes the magnitude of marriage and there really is nothing wrong with paying the closest consideration to SOME of the details and formalities involved. Now, this does not mean that we go overboard and fly in on an F-15 jet to the reception, but in all seriousness, I am starting to finally get why people put so much time and effort into a wedding. The trick is finding a balance between putting on a great party and becoming Wedding Nazi Party Planner 2009. Sadly, I have seen many brides succumb to the latter.

But, what has really struck me with the realization of the time, effort, money, blood, and tears that comes with wedding planning, is the seemingly total lack of effort by many couples toward the actual marriage. I was reading today that marriages are one of the strongest bonds in the history of the world … It unites families, tribes, and sometimes even countries. So, my question no longer is “why all the hoopla about the wedding,” I get that now. But my question now becomes “why not the same concern for the actual marriage?” Brides (and grooms) can get so caught up in the details of the wedding that they forgo actually taking care of the most pertinent of details: Each other. To be honest, as I am finding, it is so easy to do! But I just have to keep reminding myself that Jon is what really matters through this whole thing and getting in a fight over what shade of ivory we use for the chair covers is so useless. (That never happened, but I thought it would be funny to say. Jon caring about the color of chair covers! Wow. Will never happen.)

Anyhow, all this to say … The devil really is in the details if you allow the details to own you. Talk to me in four months and see if I’ve gone to the dark side. In the meantime, one small detail looms: The date and the venue! Shoot me now.

A girl, A boy, A Bridge, & A Diamond: The Story

Yikes! It has been several months since I have added anything to this site. In-between work, school, and falling insanely love; my writing has been unfortunately tossed by the wayward. But, I return to the blogging world today to convey momentous life news in the most mass-friendly way possible! I know for many of you, this news is long overdue and I suppose I could have e-mailed and/or returned phone calls … so please accept my deepest apologies!

To continue, a couple of weeks ago … my boyfriend Jon (now turned fiancé) and I got engaged! It still feels like a dream! In fact, as I sit here writing this, I feel like this is one of the first times I have been able to process the reality of it all! I still feel in shock!

(I realize that last paragraph has three sentences all ending in exclamation points. But, like I said I’m still in shock wildly excited! Therefore, all proper grammar rules are null and void for this entry.)

Anyhow, we got engaged on February 18 on a beautiful night in Denver. We had just returned from New York City where we were visiting some of my best friends from college and Jon’s sister Kelly. So, we decided to go to one of our favorite restaurants in town called Zengo and have dinner just the two of us after a whirlwind of activity in NYC. Then, the plan was to go back to Jon’s place and finish up a book we had been reading together and then I was going to go to the gym! So, one can imagine it seemed like a very low-key, relaxing night.

So, Jon picked me up around 6 p.m. that day after work and he was surprisingly tardy which is very unlike him. In fact, I think I joked that I was starting to rub off on him! (We joke that “Tracy time” is always 15-22 minutes behind schedule. I’m working on it …) Then, as we get closer to the restaurant I realize he is not going the normal direction to Zengo. So, I ask him what he is doing and he informs me that he wants to walk a little ways to the restaurant across this bridge. This little tid bit in itself – you would think – would have tipped me off. Jon NEVER wants to walk anywhere and this particular restaurant has free valet, so this was extremely out of the ordinary. However, despite this tell-tale sign, I remain oblivious. So, we get into the restaurant order our food and are having good, normal conversation. In hindsight, I look back and another sign should have been that Jon was barely eating anything. Once again, this never happens! When I asked him why he wasn’t eating … He informed me he had eaten a little something before and wasn’t really hungry. So, being starving, I am just eating, chatting, and slowly sipping my wine while Jon – again in hindsight – was gently trying to get me out of the restaurant. At one point, with half a glass of wine left, he gave the indication that it was time to go. Defiantly, I say “what’s the rush! I’m not done with my wine.” So we continue to chat and I still slowly sip on my glass … Finally, clearly being ready to go, Jon reaches across the table takes my wine and downs the last bit of it. I laugh and we stand up to leave.

So, we begin sauntering over the bridge that we had walked over to get to the restaurant. Now, the bridge is this beautiful structure just on the outskirts of Downtown Denver and on this particular night, the weather was perfect. The stars were out and the city lights danced in a picturesque inviting kind of way as we walked along the bridge. At one point, we stopped along the railing to take the stunning scenery in and before I knew it he was saying some things – which I can’t really recall – and I looked down and he is on one knee pulling something out of his coat pocket. Immediately, I go into FULL panic mode and I squeal “Jon, what are you doing! Stand up! Jon, what are you doing! Stop joking … Jon! JON!” But in-between the code red panic and quasi-hyperventilating, I finally stopped and heard those five magic words:

“Tracy …Will you marry me?”

I still get shivers just looking at that question. But, needless to say, I said yes! So, he put an amazingly perfect ring on my finger and after tears, hugs, and fresh kisses (as he would say) we traveled down to Jon’s uncle and aunt’s house where yet ANOTHER surprise awaited me … A house full of family that had flown in to celebrate our engagement! Jon had truly thought of everything. Looking back, it’s one of those surreal happenings in life that felt like an out-of-body experience, but it was a moment in our time that we will hopefully never forget.

So, here I am 25 years old and Jon 29, and we are about to embark on one of the craziest, most rewarding, and difficult journeys man has ever set out to conquer. We both feel inconceivably blessed by the Lord to have been given each other to do life with and we honestly just cant wait to start that life together. Speaking of that, I keep on getting the question “so, you finally met the man of your dreams?!” And my response is always “actually no, I didn’t.” Because the fact of the matter is, never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined a man more perfect for me than Jon. He is, by far, beyond any dream I could have ever conjured up.

I know that perhaps that last statement may make some of you want to vomit. I'm sorry. Being in love has made me a total sap-head. I'm sappy. I'm sorry.

All that to say, we are hopefully going to have the wedding sometime this year in August! (Yes, as in five months away August.) It’s going to be the party of the year and we couldn’t be more excited. So, thank you for all of your congratulations and your sweet notes of encouragements. Jon and I truly appreciate it more than you know!

And really, stay tuned, I will now be blogging on the zany full-time job that is Wedding Planning. Let’s just say … I have some opinions.