new motto:

not really a wedding-related post per say, but i think the mentality applies nonetheless.

Source: Roland Tiangco

The concept behind this poster is genius and you should check it out here (found via Creature Comforts).

Practical Wedding Love

Before I start in on my “first post” I thought I would share a little bit about myself:

This isn’t my first blog about wedding planning. Almost a year ago, I started a blog because I got tired of emailing inspirational images and ideas to myself. I was using my email to help me store and brainstorm and it just wasn’t working (I mean gmail is great .. but its not that great). A part of me also thought it would be a great way for my closest friends to see what I was planning to do for the big day. Well – I was right about the first – a blog was most definitely a better way to store all those things that made me smile, made me think of Kevin (my man), or made my heart skip a beat (and jaw drop).  The hoped dialogue that would emerge between my closest friends and myself on the subject however, did not actually develop (of no fault of their own … we are in our early 20s and understandably everyone is in a crazy state of transition. Of course it didn’t help that I moved away from them all: Friends = Northern California … Me = Seattle).

Needless to say, my old blog started to feel less like me, and more like me trying to be someone else, someone looking for approval (from society, from my family, from other bloggers, from my friends). So when I thought about starting over (in blog terms), I thought of a practical wedding. And more specifically, I thought of a particular post Meg had a while back. this speaks to me. very strongly and loudly and so I’m not only reposting it (from my original blog) but also naming my “do-over” after it:

“You all know that I don’t love favors. Well! In the wedding I featured yesterday, [the bride] gave out favors of the honey that was her mother’s favorite honey before she died. On top of the honey she wrote: ‘Life is Sweet’ with their wedding date. … It wasn’t about fussy ribbon tied around the honey jars, it was about giving her guests something that was deeply part of who she was. … I want to be more bravely honest with my wedding. … For us, we’re not working to create details, but to create meaningful rituals. … Strive to give of yourself, it is all the gift that your guests will want.”

Amen! (for the rest of that post, see here).

I think the thing that I have (so far) most enjoyed about the wedding planning period is not the settling on ideas or themes or vendors, but the actual decision-making process. the conversations kevin and i have about what we envision the ceremony and reception to look like and what aspects of that vision we are willing to compromise on. what is important to us, and what after some consideration is something that we don’t really need to have.  i think another reason why i really love these conversations, is because they always segway into the lives that we plan to have together. we talk about what we want our marriage to be, how we want to raise our kids, where we want to go in our careers. we don’t just focus on “the wedding”. we focus on our marriage. and i like that.

so far, we’ve made some decisions (that could change as time goes by – nothing is set in stone):

1. leaning towards a dessert reception (with a little dancing) – no stuffy dinner, no cocktail hour, just the best part (dessert!), champagne (or beer/wine), and a little music to end the night with.

2. having the ceremony/reception in one place that is relatively convenient for our families to get to- since both will be relatively short, we don’t want to make people run all over Los Angeles trying to get from the ceremony venue to the reception venue, and making people come up to Washington seems equally ridiculous.

3. having an officiant (who may or may not be Roman Catholic). let’s face it – right now – kevin and i arent very religious. so having our ceremony in a Catholic church isn’t really super important to us. but that doesn’t mean we dont still value our faith or how we were raised. so when the time comes that we want to renew our faith, we can also renew our vows in front of a priest in a small ceremony.

I’m hoping this blog (the re-worked and revised edition) will help my partner and I create our own small acts of celebration to honor our relationship, the love and support of those who choose to be present in our lives and the future we are committed to see grow.