Change of Heart

The other day, I was giving some serious thought to actually maybe looking at planning my wedding. Or something. Actually, I was talking to a friend who is much more organized -and much less lazy- than me about her impending wedding. She was regaling me with all the horrors she's been through trying to get everything done in nine months -no, she isn't knocked up: I asked. After talking my ear off about her own wedding -which, to be fair, I asked her to do- she asked how my planning was going. Uh, planning?

"Well, I think we want it to be outside. Definitely outside, and here, in Oregon, so I guess that means summer." It rains the rest of the year.

"This summer or next summer?"

"Next year, I think, or maybe the one after. I dunno."

Yeah, that's been my basic attitude about it all so far. This blog is supposed to motivate me to actually do stuff, but then I'd have to be motivated to actually post. Huh. Funny how that works.

She had to run off and make dinner, which left me alone, thinking about my wedding. Did I want my mother to give me a guest list of sixty people that I had to invite and tell me I look fat in a wedding dress? Did I want to coordinate the bridesmaids' dresses and the groomsmen's bow-ties and the tablecloths to all be a precise shade of lavender? Did I want to remember my wedding only as an event that took all of my time in the months leading up to it, and not as the joyous celebration of my union with the man I love?

If you answered no to all of the above you get a gold star. Now, for the bonus point, did Jena:

A)Suck it up and start doing some serious planning
B)Hire a wedding planner
C)Call of the whole thing and swear never to get married
D)Decide to elope

A+ if you picked D! That's right, I had decided to elope.

Cole came home and I announced our elopement, and, wonderful man that he is, he agreed, saying that the only important thing about his wedding was me. My man is so sweet.

Not to waste ant time, the next day we went down to the local courthouse and applied for a marriage license, called our best friends, and picked a day. Conveniently, we had the next week off of work, having planned a trip up to Seattle that was looking like it wasn't going to happen. We had a whole week together, alone, with nothing to do. Perfect! Let's get married!

As the day got closer, we were steadfast. We're sure we want to do this, a regular wedding isn't for us. The only problem was that we also kind of wanted our families there.

There was a little miscommunication while I was at work one day, and I thought he had invited his mother, so I called mine to invite her. That would have been fine, except my sister who is still in high school had an AP test to study for and my dad had a trip planned to Las Vegas that he had already paid for. Everyone assured me that I should go through with my plans as long as they were what I wanted, and that it was my day, and that they would move heaven and earth to be there.

That's when we realized that this wasn't what we wanted. While we were still sure we wanted a no-fuss wedding, it was more important that our family be there to celebrate with us.

Like any good story, this one comes with a moral: with something as important as a wedding (or shopping for shoes), never rush into anything unless you're sure of what you want.