As it's a Wednesday I am handing these striped pages over to Rachel, who this week talks about the her year of being engagedIt’s been over a year since the big question, and now just over six months until the big day. I believe it’s tradition to start thinking about what you’ve achieved over the past year around Christmas, and so I will be no different. What I have learned since being thrown head first into the world of weddings?
To start with I was absolutely brimming with excitement. It sounds like a cliché but I really was one of those little girls who dreamed of their wedding, even though I was adamant I would never get married. Quite how I thought that was going to work I don’t know. I already had heaps of ideas about venues, decorations and how the day was going to work. I knew who I wanted there and what I was going to wear. The thing is when I actually started planning properly – rather than it being just the stuff of daydreams – everything got turned on its head a little bit.
Now one year later, our wedding looks a whole lot different to what I had in my head last December. And really, that’s not a bad thing. With all the big things ticked off the ‘to-do’ list and a whole lot more to do besides, our big day is really starting to take shape. I admit that we have compromised a little bit on some things to keep people happy but overwhelmingly it’s our day just the way we want it.
It probably helped that I’m quite a traditional girl at heart and I never entertained the idea of having anything but a church ceremony, speeches and all the trimmings. The church we have chosen was always meant to be as I was christened there and my parents were married there too. In fact, when I approached the church to ask if we could be married there I was told, “of course! It wouldn’t be right for you to be married anywhere else!” And quite honestly, it wouldn’t.
At the start of 2011, I was up to my eyes in wedding blogs and magazines. I couldn’t see the marriage through the veil (insert any other wedding cliché here) and that’s ok. But now as we head into 2012; the year of our wedding, the year I become a Mrs – I am just excited that I finally get to marry my boy. And I’d even do it in the presence of chair covers and scatter crystals... ok, maybe that’s taking things too far.
Hopefully not that far...I think we all set out with this "idea" in mind, but often can't put that idea in to words, let alone a genre, color theme or style. The thing is, on the day, it will be exactly how you intended from the beginning, whether its vintage, modern, shabby or bohemian, it is your wedding day, and it will be the most wonderful day ever.
