Wedding Planning

Wow, this whole Getting Married Thing is complicated. Of course, I suppose a lot of the stress probably stems from the fact that I’m spending the year prior to my marriage several thousand miles away from my fiancé and the location of the wedding. Good plan Kate. So, my time in Pittsburgh has been a whirlwind of wedding adventures, also known as “how many meetings can I fit into a 10 day period?” We talked to the florist, the cake people, the reception people (caterer and wedding coordinator), and still need to chat with two different pastors and check out hotel options for our guests, not to mention tweaking the budget and picking envelopes for the invitations. Anyone else tired?

Our florist is fun. My mom picked him out on a visit to Pittsburgh in September so despite the fact that he’s been busily plotting flower arrangements and determining how best to disguise several 25 foot tent poles (the plan involves wrapping them in tall grasses), I’d never met him. He’s a hoot! Middle-aged guy, loves his job, and is very funny and expressive. I would make suggestions about flowers and he would cringe and pull faces, clearly being caused pain by my complete lack of expertise on the subject. Apparently sunflowers on their own are too “country” to be carried by bridesmaids wearing Indian salwar kameez. BUT if you pair those sunflowers with freesia, they suddenly become “funky” rather than “country.” Who knew?

And I’m pleased to report that I actually found a wedding cake that I like. Allow me to say upfront that I hate most wedding cakes. They’re frilly and/or super girly and/or gaudy. For the most part. I must have looked at about a zillion pictures of cakes online, seeking inspiration, and found that the shocking majority of them were just monstrous. I saw one that was about 7 layers high, with a riot of flowers bursting from between each layer, little dots and lacy things on the cake itself and then—the crowning achievement—a huge long veil attached to the back of the cake, cascading down the sides. Yikes. But we selected a nice simple one and we’ll just throw a few fresh flower blossoms on it. No veils. No ribbon. No little people smooching on top of the cake. I wanted carrot cake but apparently it won’t survive sitting out for several hours. Alas.

We only got to nibble on one flavor of cake b/c we hadn’t put down a deposit yet. But now that we have, we’re allowed to try other “sample cakes” so I’m planning a night with my honey and the wedding party where dinner will consist entirely of wedding cake. It may cause all of us to collapse into sugar-induced comas, but I think it’ll be worth it.

We also have our first session of pre-marital counseling tomorrow. I’m a little nervous, because you just never know what someone will consider a good exercise for a soon-to-be married couple. For example, one of my friends, at her counseling session, was forced to build identical structures out of tinker toys with her betrothed, while not looking at each other—communication by verbal means alone. Now, I’m all for communication, but tinker toys? Is this necessary?