Well, after much crying and nashing of teeth. . we finally are having the ceremony AND reception where WE want it. . . not where every christian in America thinks we should have it. Originally, we wanted to  get married in Blue Hills Reservation right on an overlook to Boston. . but because of the elderly and disabled guests that were invited that wouldnt have worked. So then next thing we knew we were being sucked into the scary and unpleasant world of the "White Wedding" . . . . the big church,tons of guests, rules,rules and more rules. What we could wear, what we couldnt wear, what music we could play,what was allowed and what wasnt. . . . the list went on and on and the next thing we knew it was no longer OUR wedding; it was the "church's" wedding. Thankfully, my wonderful bridesmaid Michelle came to the rescue, her uncle Pat has a ballroom studio in the loft above his garage. . .I went to look at it and it was PERFECT! At first we were just going to have the ceremony at the church and then ship everyone on over to Uncle Pat's . . . but then we woke up. . . why not just have the ceremony AND the reception at Uncle Pat's?? So just this past Thursday i went to check out his house and its PERFECT.

We will be having the ceremony in his backyard  and the reception will be in his ballroom studio in his garage. The backyard is BEAUTIFUL and it will even prettier by the time October rolls around. It is going to be beautiful and perfectly us. Pictures to follow

The hype around weddings is CRAZY! If you were to walk into your local store that is having a sale on wedding items you would see people go from civilized women to raving lunatics in the span of 5 seconds. Why? Because of a little something i call "wedding fever" I blame wedding fever on the wedding industry and the old farts way-back-when that made up some of these utterly silly traditons. Wedding fever is the ever-pressing need to have everything PERFECT for your wedding. In this quest for perfection, brides end up spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on things that they wouldnt normally even look twice at and eventually become crazed and labeled with the unfortunate term"Bridezilla".  Food all of a sudden becomes worth 40 bucks a plate, Tulle becomes worthy enough to carry a $400 price tage and paying $200 dollars for a cake is considered a "good deal" I, personally refuse to succomb to wedding fever and i will not pay the inflated prices; thus the reason i am making most of the things myself. Also,as I am going through with all the wedding planning and organizing i am noticing two main things;

1) No matter who its you tell, young or old, as soon as you say "I'm planning a Wedding" EVERYONE wants to be your newest, bestest friend

2)If you put the word "wedding" in front of ANY kind of product the price goes up anywhere from $2-$200 dollars more than it would be if you were buying the exact same thing for say your grandma's 90th b-day.

I also noticed that even if you are not normally a "girly girl" or not usually interested in colors and dresses. . . . as soon as you find out someone is getting married you automatically ask what her colors are, where she's getting married, what style of dress is she wearing etc. I find it absolutely amazing that my normally tomboyish friend(also my Maid Of Honor) immediately turns into a 20 Questions; Wedding Editon- host and all of a sudden Jordan Almonds vs. Donations has the UTMOST priority. Normally i am an even mix of girly and tomboy, not caring very much about designers or fashion. So to me, the world of weddings seems a little silly and slightly overrated. I just don't understand the importance of handwriting the escort cards, nor do i quite grasp the neccessity of chucking my bouquet at random girls. I routinely get horrified looks when i say that i am NOT using flowers as centerpieces and i quite frequently get gasps of horror when i say we are not hiring caterers nor are we having a sit down dinner. And most of all what really makes my mouth drop is how much things cost. . . . just because they are for a wedding. For example: say you go to Michaels and see these cute little plain-colored chinese take-out boxes for .50 each and then you go around the cornor to the wedding section and you see the same chinese boxes, only in white for $1.50 each!! It is absolute madness!