when I grow up

I know our { my} generation eschews the childhood fairytale wedding. Um, sort of. Prince white horse castle the end. Hmph. While we are so fiercly independent, do we really give up on the storybook, or do we adapt the tale? I hope everyone planning their wedding is having a blast because that's what it's supposed to be - fun. And that love thing? It's not in the perfect venue, a $20,000 gown, it's the package deal - the one that you created to celebrate your crazy silly fiercely selfless love. You'll find a one night stand in the perfect pair of shoes, in your venue, and hopefully in all the little things that inevitably don't go as planned, but I wish more people would take out their crayons and draw the sky on the ground and the grass in the sky and plan with their heart. Draw a sun with a smile and a girl with 14 fingers and a tiara sitting on a cornflower blue and canary yellow cow donning a top hat...dancing.

Even the planning will never go as planned. I've fallen in love with a photographer who's out of our budget, a "that's it!" venue that is booked through Oct 09, another that only allows city residents to make a reservation - the list goes on. And then I found another crop of great photographers, more venues that are less expensive than I imagined, and the most perfect wedding ring that is just a little more special because it didn't break the bank. The best part is sharing it all with David (are you gagging? I am) because few things make him laugh harder than seeing me go nuts over yet another photographer's grasp of sun flare, a venue because they have green painted walls and working fireplaces, or me wrinkle my nose at overuse of fish eye lenses (the world is already round, promise!)

Planning your wedding is not like organizing any other event (I kind of know with this five year job thing I've got going on) because you can pull out all of those drawings and just be a kid again. The incredible artists and people who truly love love will know how to interpret a wishing well in a loft space; your fiancee will give into the pink.

I've been looking at photography blogs tonight but this drawing is by far the most inspiring picture I've seen in a while. The incredible florist who was entrusted to replicate this drawing made the dream come true. You know when you ask a child why the man in the picture is wearing a business suit with a scuba mask and flip flops and they say "because that's what he wanted to wear"? Exactly.