Welcome!

I've always wanted to start a blog (and consistently maintain it!), so here I am.  I figured of all the things to focus a blog around I am going to talk about my wedding.  Hopefully, this will keep it so that I am not boring my jealous non-married friends to death with wedding planning details that I personally get really excited about.  I've never been the type of person to center things around myself, so this is not only my first attempt at blogging, but also at being self-centered.  To all my non-existent followers out there:  I hope that you enjoy the journey with me and I look forward to spending the next 18 months with you as I dive into this massive project.

To start off, my fiancé and I have been dating for over 8 years.  We starting dating during our junior year of high school.  While we always joked about running away and getting married, we both really knew that we wanted to wait awhile.  For both of us, we come from divorced families and it was really important to us that we waited until we knew that we could make it through anything.  We've also been waiting for both of us to finish college.  While we both graduated high school the same year, the college process went a lot quicker for me than I can say it has gone for the Mr.  I am in my 4th year of teaching Spanish and most certainly looking forward to a summer wedding, while Adam has a year (plus an internship with a hopeful job line-up) left of school.

Everyone has asked:  when is the big date?  I'm not the type of person to just sit idly by and plan a non-existent wedding date in the clouds.  I need some hard facts.  Well, I don't quite have them yet.  Adam wants to wait another six months to a year to get married (a 2 - 2.5 year engagement!).  While I am in no rush to get married, this ring that now sits on my finger gets me in the wedding planning mood and I just want to start everything.  I really don't think I can handle a wedding during the school year.  I know its most certainly possible, but I let my job control my life.  Even over winter break, I can't just stop thinking about lesson plans and copies and grading.  It's not enough time to let go, and I really don't want my wedding plagued with additional to-dos for work.  I would love a fall wedding too.

So Adam and I came to a compromise: his main issue with getting married in 18 months (right after he graduates) is that we won't have the money to pay for everything.  Adam and I long ago decided that we wanted our guests to have a great time at our wedding (free drinks, good food, fun, free drinks) and Adam felt that the ambiance would be sacrificed as a result of us trying to fund the wedding off of my teaching salary and his minimum-wage campus job.  I agree.  So we're off to talk to the parents.   I THINK THINK THINK we can make it work on our savings alone, but I would really like to feel like I have some back-up in the event that things go massively wrong.  Upon doing that, we're going to set a date.

As for now, I shall continue scouring the internet for ideas and money-saving tips.  I am looking forward to doing my own invitations, programs, menus and decorations.  I may be pushing it, but I just might wander into bouquet and cake land as well...

...to be continued many more times...