The Wedding Blues

Exactly a year before our target wedding date and what do we have so far?

Wedding date -- none
Church -- none
Reception venue -- none

Have we done a good job of planning? I always thought one year of planning and preparing for the wedding will be enough time for us. The date we chose (May 14, 2006) is sure to be a hot day; temperatures might reach 40 degrees Celsius or even higher. So we want a church with good air conditioning. Apparently, other couples had the same idea, because the air conditioned churches (our requirement) with long aisles (my mom's requirement) are booked on May 14 (MIL2B's requirement).

So now I know why event planning is such a lucrative business. It's hard enough planning for a wedding alone, it's even harder planning for it with our parents. I tell you, getting three couples to agree on one tiny detail is a task that should be done only by a very, very, very patient person, who, in this case, is not me. The way I see it with the three couples planning the wedding -- one couple gets their way, another couple feels ignored / hurt, and the other couple (usually us) feels guilty for not pleasing both sides.

If I can have it my way, I would choose a date without consulting a feng shui expert. I would book the date sometime in January to early February, because that is the weather I love the most. I would limit guests to close relatives and friends only, and would hold it in the function room of a hotel, with really good food and good entertainment. It would be an intimate event, made even more special by the fact that all the guests are people we actually know.

But back to reality. This is a Chinese wedding. And it is unheard of for Chinese weddings to be (gasp) intimate.