After becoming engaged and using the internet to "look for inspiration" (read: steal and modify the ideas of others) I was suddenly aware of what is going on in blogland.
Did you know most wedding blogs are "styled shoots?" AKA: NOT weddings?
I'm not sure what tipped me off. the lack of guests, the number of bird feathers, the ridiculous number of Wes Anderson themed weddings..etc
At first I was mesmerized: The dessert tables with their macarons in perfect rows, the huge centerpieces with each exotic flower in it's place, the hollowed out antique book invitations, barn wedding after barn wedding without a trace of hay, the solitary picnic table set under a solitary tree in a large field in the middle of BFE lit only by candles, And the brides... the damn flawless brides... How were they not sweating? How was their hair so perfect? How were they affording a wedding full of perfect solitary tables under solitary trees in the middle of BFE lit only by candles??
Then the lightbulb went off and I realized that all these picture perfect weddings were far from weddings... they were freaking Posed Pictures! Those flawless brides? Airbrushed models hired by design crews or photographers who used these fake wedding shoots to lure in brides and then stun them with the $5k+ pricetags for their respective services.
And that's when I stopped visiting wedding blogs.
Sure, most showcase plenty of "real" weddings but even those are done by kept women with an over-ambitious DIY gene or they are purchased at a cost that could sustain a third world country for a month or two.
Heaven help me, my wedding will not be flawless, but it will be perfect, and it will be perfect because of the PEOPLE that are there. You remember people? The one thing most wedding blogs forget to show in their cookie-cutter unique-er than thou, posts? I want pictures of my guests. I want gut shaking laughter, face morphing tears and awkward eating shots. I want pictures of my butchered cake (if there is any left of it, cause yes, it will be THAT good). I want shots of my grandparents dancing. And Lord knows I don't have to ask for pictures of a sweaty bride, because anyone who knows me knows that I am nothing if not a sweat-er (not to be confused with sweater)
Don't get me wrong, I whipped my DIY gene into shape and pulled off a few details that I am actually proud of. And yes, I dropped more money than I intended to. But this won't be any Wes Anderson inspired soiree as witnessed by my $10,000 photographer. It will be us.
It won't be flawless, but it will be perfect.
Cheers to November 10th!