Hanging on for a Wild Ride

I'd love to sit on this bench and contemplate about the grander things in life. However, after looking at my calendar and realizing that we have a major life event happening in our family in less than 5 months, I've had a couple of panicked days.

Weddings are no small things to pull off and I guess I've been in my own little world as time has sped by until we are at this point. And not only is there so much to do, but the expense of things is crazy. I have a number of items in my online shopping cart, but am waiting to see if they go on sale or if I can find them cheaper elsewhere. My frugal nature plus the reality of our finances is kicking in so I'm excited to see how this can be done in a way that is beautiful, elegant and yet, doesn't break our bank nor the bride and groom's bank!

Event planning is my thing so I'm excited for this, but there definitely are so many details to look after.  I told a friend that a wedding is event planning on steroids. Add the normal events that happen at this time of the year both in the church and in my district ministry, and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed.

However, I'm taking it one day at a time, making lots of lists so I don't forget anything and checking them off as I go. The bride and groom are fairly easy to work with as they aren't fussy  or uptight about many of the details. There are some specific things they want, but then are really very casual about other details. 

Some of the challenge is the wedding is out of town and the venue provides a few things but we need to bring the rest. So transporting everything 5 hours away is going to be a bit of a pain. However, I always like a challenge so am working it through in my head.

The bride and groom decided they wanted to forgo a wedding cake and instead are having a cookie bar. Neither of them really like cake and in this day and age, the couple can be really creative and basically, do what they want. I volunteered to bake the cookies for the wedding. All that training from catering and doing the farmer's markets has paid off as I'll be making about 1,000 cookies! 🤣

I've been holding off on purchasing my dress as I continue to lose weight. I've lost 66 lbs. and the weekly loss has slowed way down as I've approached a normal weight. My body mass index has dropped about 12 points into a normal range which is fantastic. At this point, I could probably get the dress as a few more pounds really isn't going to make a difference in sizing.

These are exciting, stressful, but fun times. I had lunch with my daughter and my future son-in-law on Saturday and it was fun to talk about wedding planning and button down a few things with them both. Dan is officiating at the wedding and hopefully will get through it without crying. 

Four and a half months to go! I'm hanging on for a wild ride!