I use the internet quite extensively (yes, at work!) to aid in planning our wedding. There are a lot of sites out there, most of which cater to your typical bride, and I was probably anything but. We wrote our own vows, and while we certainly tried not to thoughtlessly shit all over time-honored traditions, we certainly put our own stamp on them. This was, alas, the days before everyone was blogging, so we didn't have benefit of so much personal experience for our Wedding Planning. Hitweddings.com boasts a blog, a ton of articles on planning, and lots of helpful links both to other bloggers' sites as well as planning resources. They even have a section on planning a "green" wedding, something that, though trendy, I cannot frown upon. I treated the internet much as I treated wedding magazines-- ideas, eye candy, but not The Bible of wedding planning. We were really happy with the results of our wedding. Everyone had a blast, the food was great, everything looked good, and it was ours. We still joke around about the fact that our Catholic families somehow lived through a secular wedding, performed in a Presbyterian Church, by a gay Baptist-ordained friend. It seemed exactly the right thing. We also had very fancy food, but not a sit-down dinner, and there was a sundae bar (for which my generous Dad halted an entire production line at the ice cream plant one day to make vegan sorbet for the handful of vegans at our wedding). Some of the more adventurous guests even made it into the basement of the old social club building we had the reception at, and found the old bowling alley. I've seen the photos, though somehow I never made it down there myself.

So my advice to anyone out there planning a wedding is to have fun, stop and enjoy it, focus on what is important to you and your intended, and let the rest go (pick your battles in other words). We talked about eloping, but then decided that there was something important about pledging our lives to each other in front of all of our accumulated friends and family at that point in our lives. Besides, the last time the entire clan on my side of the family had gotten together was a funeral, and that was just no fun. You only go this way once, and as Auntie Mame (for whom my inimitable Great-Grandmother was nicknamed) said, "Life's a banquet, and most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death."

Happy belated anniversary! We had a great time at your wedding and I still very fondly remember those endive appetizers with some kind of cream cheese or salmon mousse... I never knew exactly what they were other than incredibly yummy.

Happy Anniversary!

The universe kneels before love in awe.
Here's to beyound more.. Many more.. many more..