Forming a plan: an organic process.

As soon as I had the ring on my finger back in August 2008, three basic questions were asked of me as a bride-to-be. And my answers to these early questions have helped guide the rest of the planning process:

1. When will we get married:

This is a 2 or 3-parter. We first looked at the timeline of our immediate future and where we saw ourselves in the next couple years. We were definitely in a time of transition- so we thought it best to take our time. Marc would finish school and get a job first, so we looked toward 2010.

Then it was on to what time of year: I value delicious, seasonal food over fluffy, beautiful seasonal flowers. So Autumn won, with a brief debate over late summer so we could savor ripe peaches and tomatoes- my fave. The argument about the extreme heat of August convinced me otherwise.

{Whaaaaaat? Tomatoes in heart baskets? C'mon what are you doing to me?}

Finally, a specific date. I checked the weather history for a couple dates in October for the last several years, and learned that in Southeastern PA, it's pretty much always a 40% chance of rain regardless of the time of year if you're looking at averages from the last 10 years. So, I chose October 23rd, because it sounded pretty and the leaves would probably be changing.

I booked the venue, and then I learned that you can't book a Rabbi on a Saturday- even 2 years out. So the venue allowed us to switch to a Sunday, and we chose the Sunday of Columbus Day weekend so some folks might have off from work the next day... and this day was October 10th, or 10.10.10. A Happy accident.

2. What will our wedding colors be:

Ok, for real? Yes, this may have been the first question I was asked. Since I knew I couldn't be tied down by one or two colors, and I would never be able to decide and stick with it, I chose a version of my parents' colors and autumnized and modernized them. Green and Yellow, or rather 1975 Mint Green and Yellow turned Sage/Clover Green and Mustard.

The choice to use my mother's colors encouraged me to add as many nostalgic elements and hand-me-downs as possible. And this has inspired a "kinda green" motto to my planning. Kinda green like eco friendly, reduce reuse recycle wherever we can. Not that we are always great about this in everyday life, but it has been an amazing mantra for making wedding-related choices.

3. Which leads me to where will it be:

This one was a fair question. Definitely back home in the Philly area for starters. Not in New York- everyone would have to travel and NYC is a pricey place to travel to. The iffy bit was that Marc wanted a city soiree, while an outdoor, country Bucks County affair was calling my name. We followed our hearts and kept it "kinda green." Venue tbr (to be revealed).