Feel the fear...

I have to admit, I had a great time writing my last post. It was interesting (for me anyway!), to reflect back on the different high, and low, points of wedding planning so far.

But there were a couple of omissions in the list – one by mistake and one on purpose. The stage I missed out by mistake I'll write about here. (The one missed out on purpose is actually a topic I've wanted to blog about for a while, so I'll save that until next time.)

So which stage did I forget to include? I can't quite believe I did forget it, because it was the stage that was the most terrifying of all, and actually spurred me to start writing this blog in the first place. We'll call this...

The fear

'The fear' kicks in pretty soon after 'The thrill' (telling all and sundry that you got engaged) and rapidly develops as you try and fathom out what the devil you're supposed to be doing to plan this wedding.

You swiftly realise that you have no idea whatsoever. So you desperately replay in your mind everything that you can remember from the weddings you've been to and come up with precisely this:

1. You have no idea what goes on during the ceremony bit. 
2. You can't recall much about the receptions, except one of them had a really nice dessert.
3. All the DJs sounded the same.
4. You have no recollection about anything else.

Okay, so relying on memory is a no-go. So, next stop: the internet. You start poring over wedding websites and blogs, each promising "amazing inspiration" and "helpful planning tools". Great!

But it's overwhelming. Every last wedding detail is apparently utterly essential – and there seem to be millions of them. There are even words and phrases you've never heard of before: boutonnière, bonbonniere, cathedral train, finger-tip veil... The list goes on and on and on, and pretty soon insomnia sets in as you try and make your brain absorb it all and somehow figure out where to start.

At the time it seems impossible. However, as my blog omission proves, you will forget how crazy that initial period was, and wedding planning will actually become quite enjoyable at times. You may even start to feel like a bit of a wedding planning master!

Though you sincerely hope you never have to repeat the experience...