The Groom-to-be’s Guide to Wedding Planning: The early stages
Happy Wedding Wednesday! This Wednesday we are in for a treat! I would like to introduce you to my wonderful fiancé and general team player Landon who will be sharing a little bit of his perspective of the wedding planning process and our recent planning trip to Colorado!
Friends, followers of this blog, and random internet strangers — welcome. It’s good to have you here, as I’ve been so generously given this space to provide a groom’s perspective on the wedding planning process.
While my lovely fiancée Kate, who many of you know affectionately as The Everyday Hostess, and I are only in the beginning stages of mapping out our matrimony, I’m here to show you that planning the big day is so much more than smiling and nodding.
Chevare? Chivari? Shevarry?
When you’re meeting with a florist, I give the go-ahead to briefly tune out — it’s likely going to happen with or without my blessing. I’ll paint a picture with an anecdote from my florist meeting:
While the Powers That Be were using their creative juices to determine which candle holder will best open up the space, my imagination was geared toward one question: “What would I be watching on the powered-off TV on the wall, if it was on?” Since I was confined to carte blanche in the form of écran noir (that means “black screen” and I want to put my eight years of French to good use here), I had to create my own SportsCenter broadcast in my mind. With an imaginary sportscast airing inside my cranium, thoughts of the Denver Broncos’ nightmarish quarterback situation (yay, geolocated sports thoughts!) and my fantasy football draft were aplenty. Trevor Siemian? Really?
I’ll warn you, though — when you do tune back into wedding talk, and I advise that you do, they’ll be discussing gold chiavari* chairs and “mountain elegant” centerpieces. And the confusion will hit you like a ton of bricks.
Safety first
With weddings, you have to be ready for anything. This is especially true day-of, but it’s also the case during the planning process. It’s a constant work in progress — you’re building the most magical celebration with the woman of your dreams, after all. But sometimes it’s literally a construction project, for which you have to put on a hard hat and a safety vest.
One location we were checking out for wedding festivities (I’ll leave the spoiler alerts in this space to my wonderful fiancée) was under total renovation, and the aforementioned construction garb was required for entry, even for a bride-and-groom-to-be.
I couldn’t picture what the place looked like, but, thanks to group texting, my friends could picture me in said hard hat. Here’s what that looks like:
A photo says a thousand words… and costs like a thousand bucks
I know, there’s a lot going on this early in our process and it’s a lot to take in. And you’re over there thinking, “whew, thank goodness there are at least a few things that can wait until closer to the wedding, like choosing a photographer.” And you, sir or madame, are wrong.
My inaugural wedding planning trip consisted of several meetings with people hoping to photograph the Jolliffe-Haaf nuptials. It certainly gets your heart pounding thinking about who will capture some of the most cherished and important moments of your life. But your mind will also start racing when you look at pricing sheets, doing some quick mental math and wondering how someone can make that much money snapping photos, and questioning your chosen career path all in a matter of moments. Or maybe that’s just me.
Props to you, wedding photographers everywhere, for living your dream and taking it straight to the bank.
Food for days
Future grooms who also have active tastebuds, it’s time to get amped up. Catering meetings are when a guy can really flourish. You get to show off that refined palate and really make a strong contribution to the wedding reception — what the guests are going to eat. For me, it was one of the few times when my daydreams about what different foods can be paired with goat cheese were socially acceptable.
Let the big dog eat!
Sappy farewell
I’ll end this little diddy on a high note. All of this, and the idea of nine more months of it before the big day, is 100 percent worth it in order to officially wed #MyBetterHaaf.
For me, nothing sounds better than taking on this challenge and a lifetime of future challenges with Kate. When you feel that way, you know you’ve got the one. And that makes wedding planning awfully exciting, no matter how many words you have to look up to understand, or how many hard hats you have to put on in order to safely and lawfully consider a certain establishment for your wedding weekend.
Onward and upward, future grooms!
*Yes, I did have to ask my good friend Google for the proper spelling of “chiavari”
1 Comment
Clever and sweet, Landon!