How's The Wedding Planning Going?

I'm pretty sure I get asked that question every single day. Except maybe on the days I don't leave my house. I really don't mind the question, but the answer is, "It's going okay."

Here's the deal. I have great aspirations every morning as I write out my to do list. Almost every day I put a little box to check off right beside the words, "wedding planning". And almost every day that little box goes unchecked. Again.

What is happening you ask? Well, my days are already so full of my normal routines which include Bible study, laundry, exercise, cooking multiple meals, cleaning the kitchen over and over again, more laundry, homeschooling, running errands, making phone calls, paying bills, doing online work, checking schoolwork, housework, after school activities, and on and on. Just the same things most of you are doing every day. So, at the end of the day I never had any time to open up the wedding binders and do some work. I have no margin in my days.

A few weeks ago I thought I could block out two hours each Thursday afternoon to do wedding work. I did that one Thursday! I accomplished a lot, but I have not had that block of time again. Last week I was out of town, and yesterday I cooked and delivered a meal to a friend who had broken her ankle. (Which was very enjoyable!) I plan to work on the weddings tomorrow. I do! (After I do our taxes.) (If I still have time or brain cells left after that fun task.)

In the spirit of being positive, let me share what I have done so far in the wedding planning department!

• Julie's dress is finished except for hemming and steaming (Thanks to my wonderful, hard-working mother.)
• Olivia's dress is bought. (It will be marked for hemming during her Spring Break).
• I have a dress for Olivia's wedding. (It needs altering.)
• I have shoes for Julie's wedding.
• Julie has wedding shoes.
• I have reserved the venues, florist, photographers, pianist, cake maker, and caterer for both weddings.
• I have the final menu planned and ordered for Julie's wedding.
• Julie's bridesmaids dresses for Olivia and Leah are ordered.
• Addresses for Julie's wedding and our family's invitees for Olivia's wedding have been typed into a spreadsheet. 
• Julie and Sam have obtained their marriage license. (He's not coming back to the States until four days before the wedding....both Jimmy and I have to be present for them to get the marriage license (because Julie is not 21), and Jimmy will not be off work any of those days between May 31 and June 2 in order to go the courthouse, so we all four went to the courthouse in January before Big Sam went back to Romania.) We took lots of pictures! Their marriage license is in our lock box. :)

That leaves a long, long list of things left to do! Here are my goals for this weekend:

• Order Julie's wedding invitations (I'm having the company address the inner and outer envelopes as well as the return address, so I have to have all my addresses ready to go before ordering. That has taken some time.)
• Order Olivia's bridesmaids dresses for Julie and Leah. (She has just made her final decision on what she wants.
• Look online for a dress for Julie's wedding and shoes for Olivia's wedding (for me).
• Upload all the pictures of our wedding ideas (flowers, decorations, etc.) on a memory stick and take them to Walmart to be printed. Then I will have photos to show the florist, cake maker, Leanna, and Lynn. This will assist us all in our planning and execution of the big days.

Then there are all the numerous tiny details. Things like the guest registry, seating signs, collect reception decorations, what to throw at the bride and groom as they leave, stamps for the invitations, order tablecloths, wedding programs, gifts, welcome baskets, hotel reservations, music lists, shoes, men's suits, and many more.

I am enjoying the wedding planning very much! I am going to get better at working on it on a more regular basis. Maybe I should carve out 15-20 minutes each day instead of waiting for that big block of time.