Wedding Planning Panic

I talked to Brody briefly on Monday night--basically just long enough to say goodnight.  I wasn't quite ready to go back to work on Tuesday, but who ever is after a vacation?  I was not disappointed to learn that Josh was out the entire week on vacation.

I logged into our time tracking system to see how much PTO I had at the moment.  Now that we were getting married in October, I intended to use it very wisely (so as little as possible) between now and then, so I could take the maximum amount of time off before and after.  I was relieved to see I had 6 days right now.  I'd accrue a few more prior to the wedding, which would give me some cushion in case I got sick or something, because I planned to take the entire week off before the wedding, then use my two week block of paid leave following the wedding.   I quickly completed the electronic form to request the days off and get approval to use my leave, then logged into my email to catch up.

My workday went by quickly and was enjoyable.  Aside from Josh, and the overall lack of camaraderie here, I really did like my job.  I enjoyed my clients and the work that I did, and my days tended to be far less stressful than those I spent at my first job here in Denver.

I was, however, disappointed to see that I missed a call from Brody during my last client.  Getting in touch with him when he was out of town working was always tough, and missing a call sometimes meant missing my chance.  Once I was in my car in the parking lot, I called him back, and I was excited when he answered.

"Hey Liv," he greeted me warmly.  "How was your day?"

"It was good, actually.  Josh is on vacation all week, so work was blissfully uneventful.  How was yours?  Do you know when you'll be home?"

"Well actually, that's why I'm calling," he replied.  "I have good news and not so good news."

"Okay?" I said, confused.

"I got a phone call today from my dad's attorney.  The lawsuit is settled, and for much less than we were thinking it would.  I just need to go sign paperwork."

"Brody, that's great!" I exclaimed.  "So I assume the not as good news is that you're heading to Miami when you're done in Chicago?"

"Yes. But there's more good news too.  He also said that there is a board-approved buyer interested.  He's willing to keep all the employees and board members on, not change the organizational structure, and basically just let them keep running things the way they are with just a few changes--namely doing some major PR campaigning to actively improve the reputation of the company, which is something that they really need."

"That would be awesome," I agreed.  "Are you ready to sell?"

"I am," he replied.  "I'm ready to close the door on that chapter of my life and move on.  So I'm flying down there tomorrow afternoon.  I hope I'll be back Friday, but it might be Saturday."

"Okay," I said, a little disappointed.  I don't like having the bed to myself that much.

"We can spend Sunday doing a little wedding planning, if you want," Brody suggested.  "Otherwise we're going to very quickly run out of time."  I agreed.  We chatted for a few more minutes, then I let him get back to work.  I decided to head to the gym instead of straight home (always keep a fully stocked gym bag in your car to take advantage of impulses!) and after my workout I was starving, so I stopped and picked up a sandwich instead of going home to cook for myself.

Once I made it home, I laid on the couch to watch some of my DVRed shows that Brody teased me for watching (I don't know why, Real Housewives is quality entertainment).  I grabbed my laptop and started making a list of things that needed to happen in order for us to have a wedding in less than 3 months.  I put the obvious ones down first, like: find DJ (band?), find photographer, flowers?, invitations (soon!!!), someone to do ceremony, bridesmaids dresses?, rings, tuxes (suits?).  Then I put the smaller tasks: plan menu, ceremony music?, first dance?, centerpieces/decorations, vows, timeline (evening?), shoes, jewelry,

I stopped abruptly, completely overwhelmed.  For wanting to do a small wedding, there was still so much to do, and planning events was not something I was good at.  I reached for my phone and called Lauren.  "Help me!" I whined into the phone when she answered.

"Help you do what?" she responded, confused.

"I just made a list of all the things I think I need to do for this wedding and I'm overwhelmed and I probably forgot things and I don't know how to do any of it and this wedding is going to be a disaster and--"

"Olivia!  Shut up for a second," Lauren commanded, interrupting my panicked ramblings.  "I will help you, but you need to knock that panicky shit off or you'll drive me up the wall."  Appropriately rebuked, I was silent.  "Thank you.  Okay, why don't you come over after happy hour on Thursday and we'll make a plan and get things organized.  Also, while I have you on the phone, my mom told me over the weekend that she'll do your invitations if you want her to.  We just have to let her know if you want her to, and get her all the info."

"That would be amazing!" I said excitedly.  "I miss your mom.  I'm bummed I didn't get to chat with her a little more last weekend."

"Well, you're in luck!  Since we changed our tickets to come out for your party, my mom is going to come here for her birthday."

"Really? That's exciting!" I replied.  After we hung up, I saved and closed my lists.  All they were doing was stressing me out.  Instead, I browsed the internet, looking at wedding pictures to try to get inspired.  I actually found a few things I liked, mostly photograph inspiration and some ideas for flowers--because despite my insistence on a small, not very traditional wedding, I did still want a lot of the typical wedding elements.

I browsed photos online and half paid attention to the TV until I got sleepy, then headed up to bed.  I was just getting settled into the middle of the bed when my phone vibrated.  I grabbed it, and saw it was Brody, so I answered.  "Hello?" I was a little worried that something was wrong, because it was fairly late in Chicago.

"Hey, I didn't wake you up, did I?" he asked.  I told him he hadn't, and that I was just going to bed.  "Good, then I have good timing.  I just called to say goodnight.  I miss you."

"You're ridiculous," I teased him, even though I missed him too.  Now that we lived together, it was weird spending multiple nights apart.  "But I'm glad you called."  We chatted for a few minutes and then said goodnight.


It was amazing how much more pleasant my work days were when I didn't have to try to avoid Josh.  I had a great day on Wednesday and went to the gym again after work.  I called Kinsley to check in and see if she wanted to join me, but she didn't answer.  When I got home, I made a quick dinner and cleaned the bathrooms.  I had so much more energy after work when I good days.  It also helped to not have Brody home to make me not want to do productive things.

By the time I got to happy hour on Thursday, I was in a great mood, even though I did miss Brody.  I chatted happily with Alex as we waited for everyone else to get there.  "So, I feel like I'm probably supposed to ask you how wedding plans are coming," Alex joked.  "That's all you'll hear for the next 3 months, right?"

"Right, and then after that, it will probably be 'When are you having all the babies?!'" I replied.  "Please, if you don't ever ask me how wedding planning is going, these next 3 months will be much easier on all of us."

"That's fine," he teased.  "I'll just ask Brody instead.  I'm sure he'll say, 'It's going great, I think we're almost done.'  Meanwhile, you'll be panicking and killing yourself to try to get everything done in time.  That's pretty much how it worked with Christian and Kendra."

"I actually think he's more organized than I am," I admitted.  "So you might be wrong.  We'll see, I guess!"  Lauren arrived and thankfully did not want to talk wedding, since we were going to be doing that tonight.  Kinsley came shortly after, but after saying hi to us and asking me to explain her current relationship issues to Lauren, she disappeared.

"I think I'm going to go check on Kinsley," Lauren said, about 15 minutes after Kinsley had gone up to the bar to get a drink.  We nodded and continued our conversation as she walked over towards the other side of the room where the bar was.

When she came back, she was Kinsley-less and frowning.  "Is everything okay?" I asked.

"She's talking to some guy," Lauren said, shrugging.  "I...don't think we're going to see much of her tonight."

"Should we be worried?" I asked.

"She's going to do whatever she's going to do, regardless of what we do, so it's probably in everyone's best interest if we mind our own business."  I wasn't a huge fan of that plan, but Lauren knew Kinsley better than I did.  I figured I'd check on her when I went up to the bar to get a glass of water a little while later, but I didn't see her anywhere.

Kendra, who had arrived with Christian while Lauren was checking on Kinsley, volunteered to join us for our wedding planning meeting.  We gladly accepted, thankful for someone with actual wedding experience to help.  Lauren was a master planner, but knew very little about weddings, aside from invitations.

We left happy hour by 6:30, picked up some takeout, and headed to Lauren's house.  I showed them a picture of my dress, which even Lauren got excited about.  "It's perfect," she said excitedly.  "I love it."

"I think that's exactly what I said," I replied with a laugh.  Then I pulled out my laptop and brought up the restaurant's website and found some photos in a Google image search.

"Wow," Kendra said, clicking through the photos.  "This room is amazing.  You could do so many things with decorations if you wanted to."

"But you don't even need to," Lauren pointed out.  "The room is awesome on its own."

"What are you thinking for colors?" Kendra asked.

"Ummm..." I paused.  I had no idea.  I hadn't even thought about it.  "I don't know.  Do I have to have colors?"

"You should at least have a loose color scheme to help guide things like dresses, linens, invitations, all that stuff," Kendra explained patiently.  "Otherwise it will end up a jumbled mess."

"Oh."  I was glad she was here.  "I don't know.  I don't want the usual fall colors--I do know that."  Kendra googled "fall wedding colors" and asked me to scroll through the images and see if I liked anything.  I scrolled through, wrinkling my nose at all the burgundy and orange and gold.  It was all beautiful, but not my style.  "Ooh," I said suddenly, stopping and pointing at the screen.  "I like that!  Except without the bright orange flowers."  Kendra spun the laptop towards her and Lauren and they inspected someone's wedding photo with the bridesmaids wearing a deep purple.

"Here, may I?" Kendra asked.  I handed her the laptop.  She typed a few things, scrolled, typed again, and scrolled.  She had the laptop in her hands for what seemed like forever, then she turned it back towards me.  "What do you think?"

She had put together a collage of photos and colors.  There was the photo with the plum colored bridesmaid dresses, another with a bouquet of peach and pink flowers and green succulents, blocks of lavender, plum, peach, and gray, men in gray suits, ivory tables with plum runners, and dark purple shoes.  "I love it," I said in surprise.  "Except the gray.  I don't like the gray.  What about tan?"

Kendra took the laptop back and in a couple minutes handed it back.  The gray block was replaced with a light taupe, and the men in gray were gone, replaced with men in tan suits.  "Yes!" I exclaimed.  "That's perfect."  Kendra smiled proudly.

"Anything in mind for bridesmaid dresses?" Lauren asked.  She was on her own laptop, clicking away.

"I don't care," I replied.  "Whatever you and Lynn want is fine."  She showed me a few options and I nodded along.  "Seriously, just find something you both like and I'm good with it," I said finally.  I liked all the dresses she showed me just fine, and I trusted their judgment.

We spent the next hour going over the lists I'd made and adding things to them.  Lauren and Kendra collaborated to prioritize the tasks on them and make me a rough timeline of when I needed to get things done.  For most of them, the timeframe was "as soon as fucking possible, because you're getting married in less than three months."  Kendra gave me the information for her photographer, because I loved her wedding photos, and she said that her cousin had used a band that was in Colorado Springs, and they'd been really good.  She promised to get me the information, and any other recommendations her cousin had, as Colorado Springs was much closer than Denver to our venue.

By the time I got home that evening, I was feeling much calmer about planning.  Having a set plan helped.  I'd just needed someone to help me get organized.  I was definitely thankful for Lauren and Kendra's help.