I’m working furiously on getting our save-the-dates finished. After four or five trashed ideas, I’ve finally settled on something that I like and can move forward. Sometimes perfectionist tendencies are annoying.

As I’ve been working on these, I’ve been wondering how far in advance y’all sent/are sending your save-the-dates (if you’re sending them at all). We all know how far in advance they’re SUPPOSED to be mailed, but I’m curious as to when other brides have really popped those little goodies in the mail. Ten months in advance? Six? Four?

By the time ours make into the mail we’ll be about four-and-a-half months from the wedding. The invitations will be going out in just over two months. Really, we don’t need the save-the-dates at all. But for us, this is a step of faith. We still don’t have a wedding location, so we’ve been inching forward with the details. It’s tough to plan without a venue. I think these save-the-date cards are a much needed faith-booster, at least for me, that the wedding IS going to happen.

And posting this here means I HAVE to get these done and mailed! No coming back in a week or two and saying I procrastinated or perfectionist-ed too long and didn’t get them out.

So, our save-the-dates will go out about four-and-a-half months in advance. What about yours?

. . . only 247 left to go!

After posting incessantly on Freecycle and Craigslist, I finally got an e-mail from another bartering bride. She got married this May and had 2.5 dozen pint-sized canning jars leftover, along with a bunch of other stuff. The jars were used as candle holders and she glued ribbon around them, but they weren’t heavily glued, so it’ll be easy to take off.

Michael and I spent an hour with her and her husband on Sunday, teaching them the basics of the waltz in exchange for two boxes of her leftover wedding items – ribbons, vases, votives, floral picks, etc. A lot of the items are things that I’ll be giving away (or bartering away!), but it was definitely a worthwhile barter.

Only 247 canning jars left to find! The hunt continues . . .

Last night I dreamed that it was two days before the wedding and nothing was done. We didn’t have bouquets, the bridesmaids didn’t have dresses, the invitations weren’t even mailed! And, for some odd reason, a couple friends and family members decided to decorate by stringing together flattened, dark pink and purple paper flowers. It was a really awful dream but when I woke up and thought about it, I realized that none of those things couldn’t be conquered.

Certainly it wouldn’t make for the ideal wedding, but since the important part of a wedding is the actual marriage, none of those things were really as important as we might think. If I didn’t have bouquets or bridesmaid’s dresses yet, I would have been the only one to notice that the color scheme changed, since there wouldn’t be anything for the new decorations to clash with. The invitations wouldn’t arrive on time, of course, but most of them would still arrive the day of the wedding, so they could still be mailed, and all the guests called (I would guess that, even in my dream, most of the guests would have known about the wedding and that they were invited, even without the formal invitation).

As for the dresses and the bouquets – we could have gone on a last-minute shopping trip to Target or Penney’s and picked up similar or matching dresses for the bridesmaids. A few quick calls to friends with gardens or a stop at Wal-Mart for bunches of carnations would have taken care of the flowers. (Hey, if the color scheme changed, I might as well utilize one of the perks of the new colors!)

So, all-in-all, the wedding would have turned out just fine. But it’s not a dream I’d love to have over and over again.

I recently attended a wedding where the families took a few minutes during the ceremony to gather around the bride and groom and pray over them (without mics, to keep the family intimacy). Some couples choose to have short praise & worship services prior to the vows. Some have their wedding party read Scripture passages.

What are you doing to bring Christ into your wedding ceremony?

“Would you please do me the honor of being my bridesmaid?”

An honor, yes. But a great responsibility with a hefty price tag as well. A good friend will more than likely be thrilled at the request to be in your bridal, and be more than happy to help however she can, but do remember that she does still have a life outside wedding planning and a few bills to pay other than the one she’s going to have for a new dress and shoes.

Before you start handing out jobs and poring over designer dresses, think about the ladies in your bridal party and where they are in life. A single friend with a six-figure job isn’t going to find it hard to shell out for the the latest Vera Wang concoction, but she probably won’t have much time to set aside for helping you hand-tie ribbons onto 300 votive holders, either. On the other hand, your stay-at-home-mom and best-friend-who-just-graduated-from-college bridesmaids may love to help you assemble invitations, but not be able to afford more than a JCPenney clearance dress.

As you’re drooling over dresses and planning assembly parties, just remember to keep your ladies in mind. They want to help you have the best wedding you can. By thinking of their time and their finances as you make your decisions, you can help them help you.