Apparently I’m still in a reminiscent mood.

I was like most girls, with elaborate wedding plans hatched with my girlfriends starting sometime in middle school. I was far from the first in my group of girlfriends to get married, so I had attended and been in many weddings, always noting things that I did or did not want to do at my own wedding.

And yet somehow, the idea of actually creating my own wedding was daunting. So many decisions! My Mom came home in July and even though I didn’t have a ring on my finger, she and I went full-speed ahead with wedding plans. She had six weeks at home, and our goal was to get as much of the heavy-duty planning done before she left. And we had a blast. After the tumultuous teenage years, and then all the conflict when they moved overseas, this was the beginning of what became a very close friendship with my Mom.

One of the things that I had always said, especially growing up in the Midwest where a blizzard could derail even the best laid plans…I swore that I would never ever EVER have a winter wedding in the Midwest. EVER. But as it turned out, my family was going to be in the States from late December to early January. With tickets over $1000 per person, and not wanting to wait an entire year to get married, our wedding date was set for January 4th.

My plan had been to have a seamstress I knew who specialized in weddings make my dress- until a trip to the bridal shop with my Mom and sister Jen (just to look) found me in the dress of my dreams. Mom called Marmot from the dressing room to make sure he wanted to go through with this wedding thing, before she put the dress on her credit card (he teasingly said sure, I suppose) My older sister Janel was my matron of honor. Being my only attendant, she got to pick the color of her dress (chocolate brown) and the dress was made especially for her by the seamstress. Marmot’s Dad was his best man. Our groomsmen were my best friend C., my Uncle J., my cousin D., and Marmot’s brother-in-law J., all so handsome in tuxes.

We chose the church because it had the shortest pre-marital counseling requirements- our first few choices required six months of classes, and we had already missed the first month of classes! The church was gorgeous- it was the first church built in the city, and had beautiful wooden pews and stained glass windows. When it came down to the venue, my Mom and I looked at several, eventually deciding on the country club. It was gorgeous in the summer, but stunning in the winter with snow on the trees. We had so much fun with the decor! They had greenery up for the holiday season, with lots of white lights and everything sparkled. The flower arrangements had cream roses and calla lilies with coned cedar and pine boughs, in keeping with the winter theme. Tea lights, beautiful embroidered cream linens and floor-length tablecloths, and chocolate truffles on each table. The cake table had pine boughs around the cake stand, along with pictures of our parents cutting the cake at their weddings. And of course the tiramisu groom’s cake for Marmot. There was also my grandparents wedding picture, and a memory candle in their honor.

The dinner was Italian, paying homage to my Dad’s family and my grandmother who had passed away. We had Italian sausage with peppers, three types of pasta with three different sauces, garlic bread, pasta salad, minestrone soup, vegetable lasagna, green salad with amazing buttermilk ranch dressing, and bread pudding with vanilla bean sauce. Our cake was golden chiffon cake with raspberry filling. Red wine, white wine, and champagne being served by banquet staff. I’m drooling just typing this, it was quite a spread.

And before you think wow, she didn’t worry much about cost did she! Let me just say that anything wedding-related that could be bought on eBay or the internet at-large, that’s where I got it. The invitations, save the date cards, the direction cards, my veil and pearl hairpiece, shoes, Spanx, the card basket, frames for all the pictures, everything! I know for sure that I saved at least $500 on my invitations, and who knows how much on everything else. Gotta love the internet!

Looking back, there are a few things that I might do differently- but not much. It was truly an amazing day.