Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Just because we've found a site doesn't mean that my obsessive wedding research is coming to an end. I figure that if we can stay ahead of the game, it will make things easier down the line. Besides, I'm having fun.

I take after my paternal grandmother, who was a librarian; I simply love doing research. When I was in college, I savored the afternoons I would spend in the stacks of Pattee Library at Penn State, researching papers or projects. I love finding out information, learning things in the process.

And yes, I must confess, I also love lists (especially crossing things off them), and I love filling in worksheets and organizing things into folders. I'm doing a lot of that now, as I fill in the worksheets in the wedding planner book, go through bridal magazines and file ideas and tips into the plastic according folder we bought just for that purpose.

I spoke to my sister on the phone last night and told her I thought we might have a site. She said that it sounds like we're far along in the planning process. I explained to her that The Gryphon and I started talking about what we might want to do with our wedding when we were helping her plan hers last year.

That helped, because we got a good idea of what we wanted. When it came down to actually planning it, we talked about our guest list, decided on our priorities, determined the feel of the wedding and then looked for a place suited to those needs.

So I wouldn't say we're that much more organized than anybody else. It's just that we have a better idea of what we want at this stage than a lot of people might.

I can remember a couple years ago when my sister and I visited a friend of hers who had just gotten married. Perhaps sensing that my sister would soon be getting engaged and planning her own wedding, she pulled out her wedding planning books. She'd been collecting all her wedding ideas in scrapbooks, where she pasted photos from magazines and written about them.

At the time I thought she was crazy, but more recently I thought about doing something similar, if it didn't involve so much mucilage. Instead, I got a plastic accordion folder, with sections for different aspects of the wedding, such as sites, attire, cakes, decorations, and invitations.

In this folder, I can file notes, brochures, printed out pictures, and articles from wedding magazines. Those magazines, by the way, are helpful. That's where I found a rough schedule of when to get things done. There's a more complete schedule in our wedding planning book, The Knot Ultimate Wedding Planner. I found a great online budget tool at WeddingChannel.com.

I've been very excited about the wedding planning for the last month, since we got engaged. During the week, I seek out information and share it with The Gryphon as I go. On the weekends we do more intensive planning.

This weekend, after meeting with some old friends for brunch, The Gryphon and I drove to IKEA to get some ideas for decorations at our reception. We found a number of funky vases, as well as some lights which might or might not be something we can use.

Speaking of decorations, yesterday in the gym, I ran into my former bellydancing instructor and told her the good news. She was really excited about our retrofuturistic theme and suggested some movies to watch for inspiration. She said she has some design books that she can lend me for more ideas. We exchanged contact info.

I have to admit, if left to my own devices, I would spend even more time doing wedding planning than I currently am. So I've started making lists of things to do, so that I make sure to accomplish other things, as well. I can't do any wedding stuff until I cross those things off, unless it's an important wedding related task, like contacting the reception site to get the ball rolling.

I've found that when you're faced with a big task, the best way to deal with it is to break it into smaller tasks. That's how I conquered my weight, one pound at a time. The end result is I'm down five to six dress sizes. So I figure that's the best way to handle the wedding planning, one step at a time. As long as it doesn't involve mucilage.

More on Alyce's wedding planning:

Musings on Alyce's Wedding

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

Musings Index

What do you think? Share your thoughts
at Alyce's message board (left button):