Many people talk about how fun it is to plan a wedding – the joy of creating the look and feel, the thrill of finding the perfect dress or venue, the adventure of bringing ideas to life for what will be one of the happiest days that you will fondly remember. There is a lot of excitement surrounding the preparations for such a day. Unfortunately, there are portions of planning a wedding that are not fun, and can actually be quite difficult, both logically and emotionally. These trying facets are why elopement is never fully off the table (no, we haven’t been driven there yet). One such difficult task, one we are currently wrestling with, is creating the list of invitees.

There are a lot of people who we would want to be part of this event. It’s an important formal event, something of a milestone for many of us, and we want to share that with people close to both of us. Sometimes we are surprised by who all wants to be involved. Sadly, both Mike and I really don’t want a large wedding, with lots of people in a huge space. It’s not who we are. We don’t tend to do things big and loud. We enjoy being surrounded by friends and family, but not quite in a literal sense. For this reason, as well as the size of the venue that we have our hearts set on, there will be people who want to attend that will not be invited to the wedding. There will also be those who want to attend, but will find it difficult due to the date. I know this will disappoint some, but I get the impression that this would be inevitable, despite best intentions.

To counter this, and knowing the social nature of many of our friends, there will be additional gatherings once we return from our honeymoon. Something of a “Meet the Couple” event. This will be more of the relaxed atmosphere of good food, good games (for there WILL be gaming!), and good conversation that Mike and I have always loved. Invitations will be sent out for this closer to the time of the wedding. Please don’t hesitate to let Mike or I know that you want to be involved, and we will do our best to accommodate everyone for this “Meet the Couple” event (or events, depending on the who and where of those interested).

When we started this, I don’t think either Mike or I had any solid idea of what we were in for. Imagine how crazy this would have been if we’d stuck with our original wedding date for August 2013! I’m thankful for all of the advice and support that we are receiving, and ask that you continue to be patient with us as we make our way towards what many of you (for a very long time) have considered to be the inevitable.

Emily and I ordered a small batch of Save the Date cards yesterday. We are using moo.com to have our Save the Dates printed. I’ve used them before to get business cards and such printed, and I like their quality, but we wanted to get a physical “proof” copy before ordering the full batch. Our proof order of 20 cards should be here on 23 May. If everything looks good, then we’ll order the full run and get them out mid-June.

Whee!

It’s been about a month since our last update. I know we’ve made progress on things. We talk about and make decisions on something every few days, and yet we have very little to materially show for it. Strange.

The closest we have to an actual, “Look! We decided on this!” is our Save The Date cards. We don’t have them yet, but we hashed out a design we both like. I won’t give away exactly what the design is, but it combines some of Emily and my favorite fandoms. It’s also fairly simple, which is nice.

While we have a design, we haven’t decided on printer. We are considering a few options, both locally and online. They each have their perks and drawbacks. Once we make the decision, we’ll send them out.

We should probably start collecting physical addresses of our friends and family. Oops. That’s getting added on the to-do list.