When people say that wedding planning and research can be all consuming, they aren’t joking. I never thought I’d be that obsessed about it (though my friends would say otherwise given my anal, attention-to-detail tendencies), but this has become something that I’ve either had to work on or think about at all times of the day. I’ve thought about the pressure I’ve gotten from both my side and Chris’s side of the family regarding setting a date and a location, I’ve been insulted by ignorant colleagues regarding having a “cheap” wedding in Australia (due to the exchange rate) and “forcing” people to travel so far “just” to see me get married, and I’ve also encountered people who have just said, “well, you could always just go to City Hall and get married, then have a small dinner after if all this becomes too stressful. That’s what I did!” I’ve gotten a lot of productive and non-productive feedback regarding wedding planning. And of course, I’ve also gotten many pro-Melbourne and pro-Southern California comments. The pro-Melbourne comments tend to come from friends who want an excuse to visit Australia, or from those who are in Melbourne who probably don’t want to go anywhere else. The pro-Southern California comments tend to come from my lazy family who doesn’t want to travel anywhere, or my broke friends who can’t imagine paying for a plane ticket halfway across the world. It’s all understandable.

Then there’s the aspect of the “wedding” I haven’t put that much thought into, and that’s the bridal shower/bachelorette party, really the part that my bridal party is supposed to be in charge of. The pressure came for that out of a dream I had last night. Apparently, I told my friend that I wanted an “exercise retreat” for my bachelorette party. As a result of this, she and I went to scout out dance and workout studios to rent out for a full day. To “test” the floors to see how sturdy they were, we jumped up and down all over every floor and practiced air kicks to see if the floors would fall apart.

The dream seems pretty ludicrous, but I guess it adds some humor into what tends to be a somewhat stressful planning experience. I want all of this to be fun and enjoyable, even when it is stressful.