Ever since Future SIL mentioned the wedding shower thing, I have been somewhat consumed with real thoughts about the wedding. I mean, real honest-to-goddess thoughts about how to make this thing happen. As opposed to all last year when I just gazed at my ring and thought fluffy, floaty little daydreams about getting married.

And it is slowly dawning on me that there is a bazillion things to plan and decide, even for our intimate little affair. You’d think, having done it once before, that none of this would be a revelation for me. But you’d be wrong. It’s been almost 3 decades since I last walked the aisle in a white dress and it might as well have happened to another person…that is how much I have changed since then. And how little I remember of the planning process.

I do remember that my mom and dad were quite involved – natch, since they were paying. And that I was pretty easy going about everything. That we made a lot of the stuff ourselves – the cake, my dress, bridesmaid dresses. That I wouldn’t buy a pair of shoes that I loved because, at $65, they were going to cost more than my dress, and I thought that was a ridiculous price to pay for shoes period, let alone ones I would wear only once. I also remember that the cost of the meal and the open bar at our reception came to $1800, and I was aghast at the $ my parents had to shell out. (I think we had 50 to dinner and 80 in total at the dance.)

Something tells me things may be a wee bit different this time around…

What’s staying the same is this. I still want the wedding to be very personal and with a lot of homemade touches. I won’t be making my own dress this time around nor will I blink at shoe prices. I also still love things to be real. So real flowers it is, and a real wedding cake. Though, I don’t see myself baking it this time. Last time it was an old-fashioned fruit cake (which I actually love to eat…I know. Weird.) and it turned out beautifully because my Maid of Honour’s mother had taken a cake decorating course and she iced it perfectly, so capturing my design of cascading icing flowers in my colours of pink and blue.

Colours! Flowers! The Dress! The hair! Will I have a MOH this time?! If so, who will it be? Who will walk me down the aisle since my dad has passed away? Or will I walk down it alone? Will we have a dance? Sit down or buffet dinner? Have I missed anyone on the intimate little guest list we have drafted so far? Invitations! Favours! Honeymoon! Photographer!

We had originally thought of going away to a resort/spa type place for our wedding, about an hour away – one of those one-stop-shops – marry in the garden, take pictures there, private room for reception, stay the night – quite an elegant country inn with fabulous scenery and food – but the wedding coordinator there was cold, and that put us off and then we started thinking about our elderly guests and their comfort, and we decided to keep it much simpler and closer to home for everybody.

It won’t be a church wedding this time. We are going to get married in the historic building we own downtown, with a hired gun…er…I mean preacher. Who we have to find yet. We want to have pics taken across the river downtown, the site of a lot of our courtin’ (and first kiss!). I’ll probably have my hair and makeup done at the downtown salon. And have the reception at the local hotel. The flowers and decorating – I will ask our tenant – a florist who specializes in not just flowers, but complete wedding decor including linens, chair covers, lights etc. – how appropriate is that? So the nascent theme of this shindig seems to be turning into A Wedding in the Village: Keepin’ it real, keepin’ it local. Which just seems right, given my place as a Board Member, for the Village Business Improvement Association.

So, some things are fleshed out and the researching for all the other things to decide upon is beginning.