A Mother and her Plan will soon be parted: Who Wants To Stick To A Plan?

In just the last 24 hours I have learned a few more things about planning a wedding:

I have mostly been working on getting organized and starting to get some balls in motion so I can feel progress. Progress makes me calm and happy. It's odd though because I have done a ton of work - but spent no money!! Hmm................ (that was me dreaming about a world where if you just work at organizing and getting balls rolling, the wedding would continue to be free - minus my book and CUTE binder w/ accessories). Alas, it is just a dream because the financial bleeding will start next week: we go dress shopping on Monday.

Well, I took inventory of the list I made yesterday (check bottom of last blog). I printed it out and it is hanging on my mirror now to help me keep perspective (as I'm learning there is SO much out there to cloud proper perspective). I needed to take inventory because we had the first blow to our plan. Yes we had a plan - but Who Wants To Stick To A Plan? Okay, that was a dumb question because I really DID want to stick to the plan! To have it shifted so early in the process was..... looking for the best word.... I guess I would say... funny. That's not the word I thought I was going to pick - but it's what came to mind. Here is the story:

Reception site: BOOKED (and pictured below)!! Love it. Outside by a creek. Lots of grass. Pretty flowers. Commune with nature and all that stuff. Speaking of nature, it sometimes has a way of taking a dump on you. I mean that literally! My wedding reception was outside and nature dumped on us in the form of RAIN! The backup plan (which we invented when we started getting rained on) was to crowd into my too-small living room. It all worked and I'm still married, but it was not ideal.

Flash forward 20 years: Both my daughters have always wanted an outdoor reception. I have NEVER wanted my daughters to have an outdoor reception because I think the rain possibility would stress me out. The FANTASTIC part of the location (now pictured above) is that right next to it is another great INDOOR reception area run by the same people who would let us use it in case of bad weather!! It was so perfect. Did you notice I just used the word "was"?......

They called me last night and told me that, even though she had looked at the schedule 3 times when we booked it - she realized that she was only looking for availability during the DAY. In the evening there is a wedding booked to take place in the outdoor venue on Amber's wedding day. Translation: plan just got flushed.

Luckily we still have time to look for another outdoor venue, or we can just use the indoor venue which I still like a lot. When I talk to Amber again later I will see what she's thinkin'. Now we need a new plan. Depending what that new plan is will determine how much time it will take to put it into action.

Now, you may ask why I choose the word "funny" to describe this situation? I think it's so funny that I would be naive enough to think I would not have some wrinkle in my plan. To think: once something is written on my calendar in INK, it can not be altered in any way! Yes, Nicole, you are charmingly naive! (is it okay that I just called myself charming?)

One last thought: The wise man may have built his house upon the rock, but the Father of the Bride built his house in a town were very few relatives live. Not counting Kyle, our kids, or me, we have a total 59 people in our direct families. Of those, only 6 live in St. George - you do the math! We got some work cut out for us to get some housing figured out!

Note to future self: When planning next wedding, make sure they look at the correct time of day on the schedule when booking anything.