My Breaking News Report

Much has happened since I last expressed my sentiments for the world to see. I haven't been to the beach since my momentous day off, but I have had other fun things happen.

One fun thing happened a couple of weeks ago. I was at home on my off day...minding my own business...looking at possible wedding music. All of a sudden I have a message and friend request from someone I've never seen before. The message started out "Hey Lindsey, this is (insert name here)", and I proceeded carefully knowing the consequences of clicking on spam messages from Facebook. However the message was safe, and somewhat comical. She started by introducing herself and stated she was from WDHN (a local news station). She said she got my name from someone I went to high school with, and she was doing a story on weddings/doing it yourself/ways to save and heard I'd be a great interview...HA. This is one of those situations that you sit and literally "lol" (laugh out loud), wishing someone was there to share in the humor of the situation. Alas, no one was with me.

Anyway, I thought about it for a few minutes, texted my mom to share in this comical scene (since the week before we'd both been stressed to the max by all the do it yourself/do it ourselves projects we've accumulated...which is a different story for a different post on a different day...), and then I responded to the anchor with my phone number. I didn't expect to get a call quickly, but much to my surprise, by phone rang within a couple hours. I wasn't sure if she'd want to meet somewhere or do the interview over the phone. However, we talked over the possibilities and decided that she and the cameraman would come to my house two days later. Needless to say, I cleaned like a mad woman the next day...;)

Wednesday morning came, and at 9:56 a news reporter and cameraman came to my house. I showed them the wedding paraphernalia upstairs, and explained all of the different projects we'd completed, as well as those that we're planning to complete...eventually. She asked me questions about the food, how to save, where I looked for deals, when to start, how many people we were having, etc. I showed them my dress, my invitations, my flowers, my centerpieces, and of course my shoes. They stayed for about 45 minutes, and then went on their merry way.

Throughout the wedding planning process, I have tried to keep my focus on the purpose of a wedding. The purpose of a wedding is to...spend $500,000 and go into debt for 50 years, hire other people to do everything for you, and be mad because things didn't turn out your way on that day? Yes. Exactly. SIKE (Yes, I just pulled a phrase from the 90's.) The goal and purpose of a wedding is to get married. Whether I spend $500,000 or $5, the end result is the same...marriage. I'd rather spend less, save more, and plan/decorate myself/with mom (even if it does cause my grey hairs to quadruple). Now I am not judging those people that have very costly weddings, nor am I saying they're lazy for hiring people to do everything for them. I'm saying that  a Do-It-Yourself (Myself, Ourselves, Themselves...whatever) wedding with personal touches and sentimental details not only will be more meaningful for me on the day of our wedding, but will provide memories for years to come.

I'm not sure if you caught it, but I said earlier that the random facebook message from the news anchor came a few days after Mom and I were ready  to pull our hair out over wedding planning. I was ready to forfeit, she was ready to quit...it was not pretty. We both had massive wedding to do lists full of conditional tasks. For instance we couldn't get table runners until we got table cloths, but we couldn't get table cloths until we knew what size tables we'd need. BUT we couldn't figure out what size tables until we went to look at them and set them up....the conditions could go on and on. Needless to say, we were over the whole wedding planning thing. Once again though, I'm amazed by God's timing. The day after a wedding meltdown, I got the facebook message. I agreed to be interviewed, and thus had to organize all my completed projects and put them in one location. Mom and I realized through gathering the completed projects just how much we have accomplished.  It was like God was forcing us to look at what we'd already done, and "be anxious for nothing", as my dad so often reminds us throughout this journey called engagement.

I try to search for purpose in life's happenings. For instance, when I was called about the interview, I thought "Why do I have this opportunity? Is God wanting to use me in some way and use this story to do something other than just entertain the local news watcher?" My conclusion: I'll probably never know. Even if the only purpose that He had was to give me a chance to look back and reflect on the process thus far, then 1) I'm thankful for the opportunity and 2) I'm very impressed by His creativity! :)

If you haven't seen the segment, here's the link from WDHN. Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Bride on a Budget :)