Planning, his way

Husband-to-be wants to be involved in the planning, but he doesn't want to start planning. I've reiterated that thinking of ideas and talking about it now will mean that we are more likely to get what we want, at a good price, and we won't regret any decisions made along the way since we won't have to rush rush rush at the last minute. He sees the wisdom in that, but I don't think he's really ready to accept that he's getting married again. It's been a nice thought that we're headed that way, but seeing invitation samples and talking about musicians has him a little freaked out. He sees dollars zooming out of his wallet even though not one dime has been spent and no contracts have been signed.

However, he has enjoyed sampling the cakes I've picked up from various bakeries.

Memo to ALL brides: the way to a man's heart really is through the stomach so start with cake sampling. Bring cakes to HIM and ask his opinion. Later you can move on to other topics.

To get him less freaked out about those imaginary dollars walking out of his wallet in the middle of the night without his knowledge, we sat down the other day and talked about the budget. He wanted to know how much everything would cost. I said it would depend on what we wanted to do about music, cake, photography, flowers, reception and the best thing for him is to give me a total figure that he's comfortable with and I would work within it. I do have experience at this, after all.

Since he already knows where he wants the reception to be and has already talked to the caterer (but I haven't), he knows ballpark costs for that. So we started there and then added in some more figures I think are reasonable for the cake, a smattering of flowers, invitations, music, photography, favors. The total comes to under $5000.

Did I mention we're figuring on 80 guests?

It's going to be nice, elegant, simple, fun.... I am a freakin' wedding genius and he loves me.