Chemical Reactions

Before we get too far along, perhaps now is a good time to give a little info on why I chose the title "Me, Myself & Bride".

There was some crazy chemical reaction or something when I said a simple "Yes" to a simple question of "Will you". This chemical reaction turned me from a normal person...suddenly into a bride! I didn't know what this meant, but all of a sudden my life was consumed by wedding this and wedding that! and oh my gosh, so many things to do! The Knot told me that I was already late on 90 items of my 370 item to-do list! WTF!?

Whether I wanted it or not, I was slapped with the label of bride and all that goes with it. Advice and suggestions started pouring in. My schedule filled up with things to do. And I suddenly had a binder. A crazy (but awesome) wedding binder that came with me everywhere!

I can't say this was all involuntary. Parts of it were fun (like the binder...I LOVE organization! weeee!) and there are lots of aspects of the wedding that I was/am honestly excited for and anxious to start on.

So. One day I was me, myself and I.....the next, I had changed to be Me, Myself & Bride with a significant portion of my identity now wrapped up in getting married/having a wedding.

The other reason for the title is simply that I can be horribly indecisive - especially about things that are supposed to be "perfect!" for your "BIG day!" AAAHHH!!! So much pressure! And now its like having split personalities with a new "bride" persona in the mix. Me and myself aren't sure how to handle this new one. Hopefully they all learn to get along soon. We've got a ways to go.

Photo from Sara Björk

And we're off!

Where to start...where to start...

Lets start on a good note. Because, while weddings are often crazy and make me want to consume lots of alcohol, they are generally beautiful things and should indeed be celebrated!

Before getting engaged, I was not too interested in a wedding. I wanted to go to the courthouse, get hitched, and then have a big ol' party with friends and family there. Nothing too formal or complicated, just a fun party. And I wasn't expecting the actual wedding ceremony part to be important - I didn't even want a ceremony.

This changed soon after we got engaged. The morning after our engagement, the Mister and I sat eating waffles and just smiling at each other. It was a nice calm moment where we let it sink in that, "Wow! After five and a half years, we are finally gonna go for it!" Then we called our parents and told them, told a few friends and that weekend announced it to my dad's family at our holiday party. The outpouring of support and offers for help and just general excitement made me finally understand what all those blog posts I had been reading were talking about - its important, dramatic, and changes the dynamic of your relationship to publicly declare love and commitment.

That was the beginning of my new found appreciation (and excitement for) our wedding!

Me, Myself and Bride

Welcome to my first ever blogging shindig! Never did I think I would become a daily blog reader...let alone a reader of many wedding blogs...let alone then start my own wedding blog! So this is a surprising and exciting new thing for me.

Let me just start out with a simple introduction. Hi, my name is Jen. I'm engaged and being eaten alive by the Wedding Industrial Complex (WIC). After months of reading wonderful, down to earth, insightful and beautiful wedding blogs, I thought my own engagement and wedding planning process would be smooooth sailing. I thought I was ahead of the game, had my head screwed on straight, and could handle anything the WIC threw at me. Wrong.

I generally have my head screwed on straight, but apparently it wasn't screwed on tightly enough because I got rocked in the first month or two of being engaged. I listened to too many opinions, looked at too many pretty pictures that I then wanted to have for my own, and really didn't have any knowledge of just how much a wedding would cost.

Enter this blog.

I'm trying to take note, examine, enjoy and learn from this crazy mash up of events and emotions that is wedding planning so I can come out the other side of this a better, married person (and that me and my mister come out a better, married couple!). So this blog begins as a way to help myself, but as I organize my thoughts and reflect, maybe I can share something useful with cyber wedding land along the way.

Wish me luck! :)