Planning from a Computer

As some of you know, Douglas and I became a one car family while we were living in Maryland. My dear Rav4 never fully recovered from saving our lives in a crash with a drunk driver back in 2006 and it finally got to a point where it was better to take her up to PA and leave her with Mom and Dad should they need a backup vehicle. Between my taking the metro while in the DMV and working from home in NC, being a one car family hasn't been too difficult - until now.

For the first few weeks of Doug's internship in VA, I didn't really have anywhere to be, so being stuck at home until the evening wasn't too big of a deal. Then, the wedding stress set in. I needed to start working out ideas for decor on the tables, figure out shoes, and play with flowers. Alas, being carless, I could not quell my curiosity with a quick run to Michael's or A.C.Moore or Sears. Instead, I threw myself into the classifieds of wedding websites, Craigslist to find local yard sales, and the full array of sites between Pier 1 and Pottery Barn. It didn't take long until I was in a downward spiral of obsessing over details because I couldn't find what I liked or what I thought I was looking for. Before I knew it, I had wasted many evenings up to my digital elbows in websites with nothing to show for it. How could I not find inspiration or even a lead on the internet?!

I went through every extreme - "Holy crap, that's too simple, I need to put a lot more on the tables!" to "Screw centerpieces. Everyone forgets they're there anyway." I was pissed, frustrated, irritable, simply not happy with the fact that I was obsessing over these details that really shouldn't require this much effort and stress. I also felt really stupid for letting it get to this point.

I finally decided to express my angst through Twitter and low and behold, a college friend who follows me throws out a suggestion, a website she used to get stuff for her wedding. Always on the look out for another wedding resource, I checked it out. The very first thing I saw made me giddy - they let you shop by color! Score! This means not scrolling through tons of pages, liking a design and then learning it doesn't come in the color you want. So I opened a tab to shop by red, one to shop by purple, and one to shop by plumb. It only took a minute or two to find a few things worth bookmarking - which had not yet happened in all of my searching! I was bouncing in my chair. After taking a few minutes to come down off of the I-finally-found-something-interesting high, I decided to send the finds out to my girls and mothers to see if they really were as good as I thought they were, or if I was being deceived by my look-what-I-found haze. Verdict: total find!

After a fun phone conversation with Mom and a suggestion by one of the brideswomen, I decided to order one of each of the goodies to see in person to check out the colors and sizes. This would also give me something to play with instead of simply visualizing. What accent color will work best? How should they be put together? Will the idea for a little embellishment work as well as we think it will?

Now my frustrations have turned to excitement. Right before writing this post, I got the email saying that the goodies have shipped! I will finally have something material that I can play with and experiment with and actually feel like I'm doing something for this wedding other than paying deposits and drawing sketches.

It's good to get a reminder every few months that it's all coming together...cause we're running out of time!