Wedding Planning: hut-hut-hike! …
Posted by Sarah - 19/08/02 at 11:08:09 pmPlanning a wedding is complicated, even for a very small (read six guests, no attendants) ceremony. There’s the location, the officiant, the clothes, the season of year. Not to mention taking care of the guests: transportation and lodging, getting them to and from the ceremony and reception sites, family politics, etc, ad nauseum. And tonight, we were tackling a different monster altogether: the text of the ceremony itself.
Working on the vows and blessings got us thinking of the first part of the ceremony. Before anyone says a peep, you ‘ve got to get yourself, your betrothed, the minister, and your guests to the right spot and into some sort of comfortable arrangement so that the ceremony can proceed in an orderly and dignified way. Suddenly, the order of who stands where and how the hell I’m supposed to even get from point A to point B seems like a monumental task. I think: “You mean I’m going to have to walk 10 steps all by myself and remember whether to go right or left!?!”
So to ease the stress that these simple decisions were causing me, he suggested we diagram the whole thing. By the time we had the processional all figured out, we had a piece of paper that looked like a page from Vince Lombardi’s playbook. X’s, O’s, lines, arrows, but damned if we didn’t have it all figured out when we were done. Oh sure, you think I’m exaggerating the complexity of this one aspect of the ceremony planning, but I dare you to sit down and write your own. You’d be amazed at how quickly the simple act of assembling a small group can become a complex maneuver of social engineering.
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followed a trail of links to your site, so i thought i’d say hi!. i can only imagine the amount of work involved in planing a wedding. good luck and have fun=)!
Comment by kris — August 20, 2002 #
Thank heavens for rehearsals, or else I would have been leaning over repeatedly to ask, “Are we married yet?” I’m sure you guys will do great.
Comment by derek — August 21, 2002 #
I sympathize about the wedding planning, although my fiance and I haven’t quite gotten to the Vince Lombardi diagrams yet. We’re having a secular wedding, so our celebrant won’t be a minister. Interestingly, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where our ceremony will be, does not require *any* officiant at all (legally speaking). (I’ve been told this was a nod to the Quakers, who apparently have weddings sans officiant.) Theoretically this opens up all sorts of options. Practically, we have too many decisions to make already!
Comment by katie — August 22, 2002 #
Sarah you guys are doing way better than we are. We’ve been engaged since January 2001 and we still haven’t gotten our act together. I must say though, your idea of no attendants and six guests sounds lovely.
Comment by sherry — August 23, 2002 #
Sherry - thanks. So far, the small wedding idea has taken a lot of stress out of the planning. And I’m jealous of you, Katie. Wish we could just run of and marry ourselves!
Comment by Sarah — August 28, 2002 #
Hah! I totaly had the picture in my mind of the Verizon Wireless guy. “Are we married now? Good…”
Comment by Pete — September 10, 2002 #
Impressive that you’ve managed to keep it so small. We ended up with three dinners - one in Malaysia for the family and friends who couldn’t travel here, with the Chinese tea ceremony, one here in SF where our “official” wedding was held, and one in Wisconsin, for those who couldn’t/didn’t make the trip out here or didn’t rate invitations to the SF bash. Thank god I was only in charge of planning one of these events. They were all fun, but I’m so happy it’s over.
Comment by blue — September 25, 2002 #