All of a sudden, we’re just 48 days away from the big day.
Things have been quiet on this blog lately, and if wedding-related rambles aren’t your thing, I’ll understand if you sit this one out.
Talk about a whirlwind! We’re just getting to the point where we’re setting the final details in stone, and after we cross off the last few things on our to-do list, all we’ll have to do is show up. Well, it may not be quite that simple, but it’s starting to feel more real.
Before Brien and I got engaged, we had no idea how much time and effort (and yes, money) goes into what we’d mostly been thinking of as “a really big party.” When I was little, I never fantasized about my fairy tale wedding, my perfect dress. Honestly, the only part I really fixated on was not hurting people’s feelings and making sure everyone felt welcome and included. As we get closer and closer to the date, I think we’re all letting ourselves relax a little bit. It is going to be a really big party, but we also can’t, after a certain point, control every last detail. And we don’t want to! The whole point of this fancy day is to celebrate our love and commitment to each other and to the blending of our families- both biological and kinship. Mostly, I keep feeling waves of gratitude that I’ve found someone to build a future with. A summer of leisure has granted me quite a bit of time to think about all of this!
This weekend, we had fun celebrating two events in this crazy journey. The first was cake tasting! We’d settled on our original baker a few months ago, when I was still following a gluten-free diet. That bakery was one of the only ones available on our date that was able to make gluten-free cakes. I actually found out I was able to eat gluten before we went to the tasting, but we figured since we’d already taken the time to contact so many vendors, we might as well stick with them. Unfortunately, we were wholly unimpressed by their service. I’ll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say that we felt neither excited about nor confident in their product to justify the expense. Brien surprised me this past week by booking a tasting with a bakery we were excited about; we’ve both loved their cakes for awhile, and it has sentimental value because we stopped there for hot chocolate after we got engaged.
This vendor blew us away. They went out of their way to make us feel special, and set up a beautiful table to show off their cakes. As soon as we sat down, we started laughing because the experience was a complete 180˚ from our previous bakery.
It may sound like I’m being a bit of a “diva” about this cake thing, but I’m only planning to get married once! Brien and I are also both obsessed with dessert, and the cake in particular was an aspect of the day that we wanted to be really special. And, of course, wedding cakes are really expensive, so we’d rather that money go towards a company that takes us seriously than one that is apathetic.
We were sent home with a huge goody bag full of treats, which are now… mostly gone.
The second fun wedding-related thing we did this weekend was have a bachelor(ette) party! Brien and I decided to go the untraditional route and celebrate together. Neither of us felt quite like having a rowdy party complete with $1 bills and various… paraphernalia… although we’ve both participated in those kinds of parties before and they are a lot of fun. It just wasn’t quite “us,” and we wanted to do something together rather than separately. About 15 of our friends met us at Evelyn for drinks, and it was a low-key, relaxed night.
After we left the bar, Brien and I picked up decadent slices of pizza from Artichoke, took the subway home, crawled into bed and turned off the alarm. We woke feeling refreshed and hungry for big, New York bagels, and brought them home to eat while watching Netflix. Just one of many cozy, relaxed weekends with my B.
Yes, sometimes this whole planning thing gets stressful. But 48 days from now, when the cake’s been eaten and the guests have gone home, it’ll be the two of us. Well, the two of us and everyone who helped us get there.
