♫ ♪ Anything Goes ♪ ♫

I began to start this blog by describing how stressed I have become recently, but, instead, I think I will begin with the thoughts that make me feel more at ease. In fact, how about I dwell only on those thoughts.

Wedding planning. Life planning. Originally, Kenny and I found a beautiful historical home and garden we would have LOVED to have had the ceremony and reception. The picture on the top-left shows where the reception would have taken place. The large grassy area is now a flagstone patio with a brick walkway leading to a grassy

area where the photo was taken from. In this grassy area, we would have held the actual ceremony.

Does this not sound absolutely beautiful?

Unfortunately, the money spent on this could-be-beautiful day would be better spent helping us start our

new life together. And therefore, I say to Mansell, "Sayoooooonara." It's just not worth the stress the cost of it could induce on the beginning of our married lives, even if it's the cheapest location I could find for a wedding. In conclusion, this leads to one solution.

Creativity. We need to get creative, inventive, and cheap. What do we have to have and what can we do without? What if we did completely without? We toyed with idea of going to the courthouse, but we both are not entirely enthused with the idea. Which brought us back to square one.

So after doing some googling, I found a couple ideas that fit my original d.i.y. style ceremony. What if we got married on a nature path in a

park? We could treat the trail as the aisle. In fact, we could create a trail like the one on the left with sticks and hay. I love this idea, because it reminds me of the moment he proposed (on a nature trail).

By looking at his picture, can you tell what we can do without? Chairs! This cuts a lot of costs in itself. Three dollars a pop! With this idea, I could save a lot by just getting enough chairs for the elderly and wedding party. All who are healthy can stand for the short ceremony. I promise it won't be long at all. Simple and Sweet. That's all it takes.

As far as the reception goes, I want it to be simple and fun. Kenny and I are goofs and not entirely traditional. So what if we had a large picnic? I'm still playing with the concept and brainstorming about how to make it slightly traditional, fun and comfortable. If I were to do this, then I would want to include pillows and furniture.

(I can make pillows out of old sheets and clothes from around the house.)

To the right is an example of how I would like to use furniture in the wedding.

This dresser was used as a breakfast bar for another wedding, however, I would like to use it as a table for our pictures or non-traditional guest book activity. Rather than renting tables to set up a gift table, etc., why not use furniture from the house? How adorable would this all look? We could hang a mirror above the dresser using a stand Dad could make. This would create a cute set-up for a wedding picture.

However, because the picnic idea must take place during daylight and may cost more in the end after the cost of buying all the materials needed for blankets, pillows, etc., we may be able to toy with this idea, my favorite. I absolutely love the globe lights! In order to cut the cost of chairs and tables, we could rent a couple larger tables to seat more, a couple bar tables to lessen the number of chairs needed, and create a lounge area with our patio furniture.

We may even be able to create a lounge area with rectangular haystacks and blankets incorporating the picnic concept.

So many ideas! Like I said, we are trying to get wed on a budget. So what is our budget? A thousand dollars. I know this is challenging. Incredibly challenging. But I'm determined. Hopefully, in the next couple blogs I will be able to attach prices to these ideas.

(On a side note, I would just like to say Starbucks has had the best soundtrack during this blogging moment. Cole Porter's Anything Goes. What a perfect song for this blog.)

(Pictures found on GoogleImages unless otherwise specified.)