Perspective, by M

I am so thankful for this very moment - to sit on the couch during a lazy Saturday, spend time with the best twin sister a girl could ask for, do some preliminary bridesmaid dress shopping (or, rather, looking), and have a few minutes to update this blog.

I have to say, this whole engagement "season" (as they say) has thrown me for a BIG loop. Or maybe it was the move I made a month ago? Or maybe it was starting that new job? Or maybe it's that my whole life was turned upside-down in the best of all possible ways in the course of 20 days!? haha In any case, I have a lot going on right now and, honestly, it has been thrilling, but also extremely overwhelming. I am SO HAPPY to just sit here, return emails, do my laundry, and pay my bills. Seriously. Who ever thought that that'd be my idea of a great Saturday afternoon!? haha

Before I got engaged, I always wanted to punch girls in the face who acted like being engaged and planning a wedding was anything less than a wonderful, blissful experience. I wanted to be like, "seriously? It's so hard being in love and picking out flowers...? Tough life." Now I know better. It's like, you and your future spouse both have 100% full lives before the engagement - full-time jobs, families, friends, each other, hobbies, service activities, sleep, etc. And you struggle daily to find the balance (as we all do). Then, one particular day you get engaged and it's like SURPRISE! Here's another 20+ hours of work to do each and every week leading up to your wedding. It really becomes a question of "where the heck am I going to find this time?" I still don't know the answer to that.

So, I've been far more stressed in the last two weeks than I really care to admit. It's like, I don't want to be that girl (you know, the one that I always used to want to punch in the face). I don't want to operate my life for the next 6ish months like my wedding is the be-all, end-all of life or that planning the wedding is the highest of all my priorities. And honestly, maybe the stress isn't coming from that place at all, or maybe it is? Either way, I know that I want to enjoy this season and enjoy the process of wedding planning with my family and my fiance. How do we accomplish that?

A few days ago, during a nearly-to-tears moment shared over some of the best tacos in Atlanta, I grabbed a napkin and asked V if we could brainstorm some goals for our engagement and wedding planning. Specifically, I wanted to empower him to rein me in and focus me on some "big goals" in case I ever get bogged down in decision-making or become bride-zilla from all of the attention (doubtful, I hope!). Likewise, I wanted both of us to have a shared vision for what our wedding will be and accomplish, outside of just celebrating ourselves, you know? So we jotted down a few things and finished up our tacos feeling much, much better.

V offered to type it all up to help us keep these ideas front-of-mind (he's so helpful and so great!) and he sent me the finished product two nights ago. It's so beautiful! What an added bonus to marry someone who is skilled at graphic design and photoshop! haha Anyway, I thought I'd share it with you because it's really important to me that we keep a proper perspective on things. I don't want to be that girl and I think that means having to be proactive about it. So, here are our "perspective-keeping" questions and our big goals... Please hold me accountable to this, okay?