Since we are quickly approaching the date of my wedding, there isn’t much left to do. As I write this, I still have one last dress fitting in about a week, and we have to pick up my fiancé’s tux about a week before the wedding. Other than that, we are waiting.

So far, the hardest part of planning has been worrying about other people-who we should invite as a witness, if we would hurt someone’s feelings, how to please everyone. That’s why we decided to make it very small. We are getting married in front of and having a small dinner with 7 people. Now, to please everyone else who wanted to come, we have decided that we are going to have a delayed reception. As in, probably a month or two after the wedding. It will be casual, pay for your own, and attendance is optional. We haven’t started to plan that yet as we’ve got enough on our plates as it is, but the idea has pleased most and it’s a way for us to have the wedding that we want without stepping on too many toes. The reception will not have favours, and we don’t want any speeches, it will be more like a gathering to have a bite and catch up.
Another unpleasant aspect of wedding planning has been the realization that you still have to handle everything else, as usual, when you’re planning a wedding. In our case, we planned a wedding while our house was torn apart due to a leak. We still don’t have flooring and just got cupboards last week. Of course I didn’t plan on having that happen, but it hasn’t helped stress levels. Weddings of any size are stressful and all come with their own problems. It hasn’t been a walk in the park. I don’t know what I was expecting when I decided to get married this year, but it wasn’t this. My mother and grandmother will be here from across the country on December 17th, and I still have 3 animals that I am responsible for on top of an extremely long to-do list.

If I could go back and change one thing about wedding planning, it would be to have a better plan. I thought I had a good one to start out with, but I forgot about all of the intricate details. I thought it would be easy to find a location, rings, a dress, and all of the other things needed. It wasn’t, and I didn’t plan for hiccups, so when they happened I was taken off guard. Sticking to the budget was also difficult since I had no idea what things were going to cost. I did stay within my very modest budget, but having to do so made things more complicated. My best advice would be to give yourself a lot of time and to research things before setting a budget and starting to book things. Look at all of your options, get price estimates, check out locations, make calls, and do up a sort of preliminary plan. Then when the time comes to actually get things in order, you will have back-ups and a number of choices. And remember to breathe. As with everything else, wedding planning can become consuming and it can take up a lot of your time. If it starts to become too much, take a break from it. Get help from your friends and family, spread out the responsibility if you can, and try to enjoy the anticipation.