Wedding Wednesdays - Episode 1!

Wedding Wednesdays is a new weekly post that I'm going to be doing as Matt and I plan the wedding of our dreams! I totally stole this idea from Life of a Busy Wife, where Kaitlin posts photos and memories of her wedding on Wednesdays, but I'll be posting planning progress updates and things I find out as I go! Enjoy!

It's been 11 days since I got engaged (but really, who's counting?) and I already feel like I'm slacking off on this whole planning thing. No date, no location, nothing. One thing I do have, though, is a crap ton of magazines! I went to the locally-owned bookstore thinking I'd just pick up the new issues of the wedding magazines to peruse, and came back with no less than 6 - and that was only half of them!

Cakes and To-Do lists... so many pages, so little time!

The nice thing about all of these magazines is that each one seems to have a different focus. The Real Simple magazine up there, for example, focuses on checklists and etiquette, while the one next to it has lots of eye candy (dresses and cakes primarily). The Knot, down there on the left, has hundreds of pages of the most beautiful dresses I've ever seen, and Brides has a huge section about destination weddings and honeymoon locations.

So many magazines with so many dresses!

It's so strange to me that there are so many magazines devoted to one day of your life - I mean yes, it is one of the most important days of your life, and is probably the biggest choice you ever make in your life - but it's so... institutionalized. These magazines make me realize how much work this is all going to be if I do everything that everyone expects me to do, from the teeth whitening to the centerpieces to the bridal slip. And they've also made me realize how much I want to do this my (and Matt's) way, without paying so much attention to the rules and all that. Which is totally going to make me the girl at prom with the duct-tape dress, but whatever.

I will say, however, that Emily Post is going to get me through this thing, and that this is the best wedding-related purchase I've made so far: Emily Post's Wedding Planner. It's got time-lines, general etiquette rules, lists of questions to ask potential vendors, and pockets!

Emily Post still knows what's up!

This is going to be such an adventure, and I can't wait to really get my hands dirty in the planning process to make this day truly symbolic of the love Matt and I share: being with our friends and family, and basically having a super fun party - while I look fabulous, of course. And let's face it, that's basically the story of our relationship. :D