Image via Flickr.
The other night Liz and I went out to dinner with some of her family. Her cousin turned to us and asked excitedly, “If you had to name the top three things that are important to you for your wedding what would they be?”
The first answers that leapt to my mind were not what she was looking for: That we have a great time, that our guests have a great time, that we are able to share and honor our love for one another with everyone who matters to us. She is an aspiring wedding and event planner and she wanted to know what part of our planning mattered most. Would we be willing to ditch the fancy dress for a killer DJ? Would we want to skimp on flowers and go all out on the food?
Now if you’ve been following my planning process on this blog you know that these are not compromises that Liz and I will have to make. But the question served its purpose: it helped me to relax a bit. I don’t need to get *everything* perfect that day. There are three things that we are hoping are outstanding on that special day. The rest are also-rans. Oh, sure, we still need to plan for them. But maybe I can relax a bit and not try to control every last detail. It was a revelation for me.
So what are our three things? 1) The food. We express our love through good, healthy, tasty food and we want to share that with our guests. 2) The music. Liz was a dancer and I’m a music junkie. And nothing makes our hearts soar like an amazing jazz riff or a lyrical verse of alt pop. 3) The outfits. We don’t want to stick our attendants in dresses they won’t use again or ugly cummerbunds. She wants a unique, arty-yet-classic dress and I want… well, I’ll save that for another post. But what I want to wear is important to me too.
So, what are your three things?
I hadn’t really thought about material items as being the important things. I really want our guests to have fun, which I guess translates to carnival ride. I personally want beautiful pictures to remember the day with, which means Kelly. So I guess I can stop planning now!
We did this too! On one hand it can be really helpful to say ok that’s one of our three things, so let’s splurge and make it great. Or, that’s not in our top three things, and is it really necessary? Can we DIY or cut corners?
Ginger: music, food, open bar
Wasabi: music, food, photography
Ha, Ms. Sparrow! Don’t think you can stop planning, but maybe not stress as much over the rest?
So, Wasabi, how will you choose between the open bar and photography? Whose top three gets the top spot?
I thought about this, and I’m really having a hard time coming up with anything concrete. I know this is kind of general, but here goes — I want to have a fun reception, I want our ceremony to be as meaningful to our guests as it will be to us, and I’d like for no uncomfortableness or awkwardness to be around. That’s not too much to ask for, is it?
When we were discussing the possibility of the last item during the start of the wedding planning, I told Dana that there was a “no poopheads” rule at the wedding and reception, making the problem go away, but I have a feeling it may not be that easy.
@Raven Well for Photography, we won the contest for Clayton Austin, so well definitely covered having great pictures. And, for the bar, we picked a venue that allows you to DIY the bar. So, Ginger will get to have all the micro brews and such that she wants without busting the budget.