Month: January 2014

Milestones in planning and other grown up things..

Posted on by Grown Up Bride

Today I reached two milestones. Admittedly, only one of these was wedding related.

You see, historically, I have always been a serial first post blogger. Normally I get a crazy wonderful idea on the commute to work. I am then overcome by the conviction that creating yet another new blog is the only way to share this epiphany with the world.  I write this first post fairly quickly. I go on to proclaim that us lemmings of the commuting sphere must throw down our Metros, rise up, like a flashmob during a public transport proposal, and take back the four hours of our lives lost each day to the monotonous abyss that is National Rail. Then I spend another two days designing my blog before finally running out of creative steam and interest. You might recognise me from other starring roles such as ‘The girl with the cool pencil case and no homework’.

However, today this cycle was broken.  Broken I tell ya, like the last digestive in the pack -smashed! Boom! (Sorry, I’m a bit pumped). On this day Friday 24th January in the year of our Lord 2014, I, Grown-Up Bride wrote a second blog post. I actually followed through with an action.

No one is more encouraged by this milestone than Grown-Up Groom, who makes the very valid point that the ability to keep to your word is a desirable quality in a spouse. Fair point.

My grownupness (that’s a high scorer in Scrabble that one) has been further reinforced by milestone #2. Having confirmed my venue and caterers I have turned my attention to my guest list. Our guestlist.

I am Irish.  Grown-Up Groom is South African. We met in Australia where we lived for many years and we have just moved to Kent following a three year stint in London.  Confused yet? Not as much as my accent or our international guestlist.  As it turns out, six months is not a lot of notice to give guests that are coming from another hemisphere.

Ok, I knew that.  Secretly I did know that. But, I had thought, hoped, that I could blag it. That we could blag it. Whats mine is yours, including the disorganisation. So now I am a little bit worried that my wedding will be like my tenth birthday, where I will be forced to invite all twelve of my Twitter followers in order to meet the minimum requirements of the venue.  Ok, so that was my 30th birthday…

In Ireland, a small wedding is 200 people.  Mine in comparison is now going to look like a Neighborhood Watch meeting where twenty of us, in a larger than necessary room, huddle together for heat. Maybe I should rethink that nine-piece swing band?

In the months preceding the ‘unexpected’ engagement when I was doing my ‘non-planning’, I had envisaged having to put crowd control barriers around the imaginary venue. 

Seems not. Now it looks like it will just be me, he and the Immediates. And if it is just us, then it will still be perfect. Just the grown ups.                               .

Bridal Wave

Posted on by Grown Up Bride

Kind of like a natural disaster, ‘getting married’ was always something that happened to other people. Now here I am with thirty weeks and three days to go. I should be planning, organising, inviting, booking and budgeting.  Instead all I can do is sit here and wonder: “How did I get here? Are you sure? Is there a mistake?”

Still perplexed by the notion that someone loves me enough to want to marry me, I can’t quite get my act together.  You know when you wake up hung-to-the-over after a massive night (I promise I am a grown up) and you just faff, unable to produce any effective action.  You’re late for work, you need to shower, you need to dress, you need to let work know you are running late…again. Yet you are rooted to the ground unable to prioritise thoughts or actions. So you stay trapped in the Faff-Vortex:

Stay still
No! Move!
Tidy room
No, don’t be ridiculous! Get dressed!
Can’t get dressed

So, essentially, that is where my wedding planning currently stands. Not in the newly engaged, fairytale, vintage bliss of bridal magazines. But, rather, it is rooted firmly in the Faff-Vortex:

Book venue
No, buy invites
Read magazines
No! Book venue
Oooh! Look! Sparkles….

So, I have come up with an ingenious solution to my lack of focus. This.

I will write a blog. And in this blog I will hold myself accountable like a good grown-up bride. I will set myself tasks and share my successes on here. I will reach out to fellow brides and form a support network to reinforce my newly found focus.  And I will not, under any circumstances, use this blog as a distraction from my planning activities.

I will not use this blog as a distraction,
I will not use this blog as a distraction,
I will not use this blog as a distraction,
I will not use this blog as a distraction,
I will not use this blog as a distraction.…