what's up with the wedding? vol. 1

Due to popular demand, I have decided to commence a semi-regular wedding planning blog series to keep everyone up to date on the whereabouts of the Future Fredericks and our eventual wedding.

(Note: there was no popular demand. Nobody asked. Moving on.)

It's been almost two months since Ryan and I got engaged. For the first couple of weeks, I tried to just enjoy being engaged. We popped a few bottles of bubbly, let our friends take us out to dinner, accepted cute gifts like personalized wine glasses and ring dishes. I reallt wanted to enjoy the 'cloud 9' phase that comes with being engaged before launching into wedding planning.

...but that time came and went when I emailed my top choice for a wedding venue and they were already booked for every Saturday in October 2019. YIKES.

Fact about me: when it comes to big decisions, I have an 'all or nothing' mentality. Translation: if I can't plan our entire wedding and calculate our exact budget in the next 15 minutes, it's not going to get done. When I get into this mindset, my mom tells me that my brain has hopped on its "hamster wheel." In other words, approximately 32984293 thoughts are running through my head at one time and I try to acknowledge, crack, and solve all of them in one fell swoop. Not an easy feat.

Thus, I am trying to tackle this whole wedding planning thing one day at a time while trying to keep it fun. After all, that's all we want our day to be: fun. We aren't an extravagant couple to begin with; we've even talked about having gourmet pizza at our wedding. But imagining a dream wedding and actually planning one are two completely different ballgames.

So far, we have...

• Toured five venues, with a few more to check out in the next couple of weeks.
• Decided that we are more than happy to have a Friday wedding. In fact, we prefer it.
• Attended two bridal shows (well, I have). They give you a lot of free cake at these shindigs, which is worth the price of admission if you ask me.
• Cried. Okay, I cried. Not sure why. I think "partake in unnecessary dramatics" is listed in a wedding to-do list somewhere.
• Bought a cute little bullet journal as a wedding planner.
• Not decided on our "colors." Pretty sure choosing colors falls into the "don't pet the sweaty stuff" category, but here I am, sweating the petty stuff.
• Looked up 100+ photographers, 300+ venues, 20+ rental companies, etc.
• Decided on a potential hashtag: #AreYouFreddyForIt? Ryan's last name is Fredericks (his nickname is Freddy), and it was obviously inspired by my favie Taylor Swift. In the running: #FreddySetGo and #FreddyOrNot. Can you think of any that include my last name (Rose)?! Let me know!

All in all, it is definitely a process. Wedding planning is not for the weak, and I am truly in awe of the individuals who pursue it as a career because good lawd, it can be stressful. But having said all that, it's also a lot of fun, and I'm trying to soak up every minute!