I go to sleep dreaming of wedding plans!!

How sad is that?  That I go to sleep dreaming of wedding plans.  So last night, while dear sweet Robert was curled up around me and snoring peacefully, I laid there going through our wedding plans.  Mainly the ceremony.  

As of right now we are considering getting married at the Sand Hills in Monahans, Tx.  For those of you who have no clue where that is..well WEST....way west.. more west! LOL  We live in West Tx and Monahans is about an hour from us.  I love the Sand Hills though.  It is a state park with tons of sand dunes.  Because it is a state park, the day use fee for their building is $30 a day.  HELLO??  $30 a day!  The one place we looked here in town was a bit too big for our wedding and was $2800 a day.  Since we are paying for this wedding ourselves and doing most of the work ourselves every penny saved makes us very happy!  So if we go with the Sand Hills, that alone saves me $2770 that I can apply to something else, such as wedding rings!!  

Because of the type of ceremony we are planning to have, there will not exactly be an officiant.  Well there will be, but in a typical sense.  The Quaker wedding ceremonies I have read about, offer a time for those there to share, offer advice etc...  We want to keep that open ceremony feel but incorporate a few other things.  I have considered having my youngest son be the officiant.  He is not afraid to speak in front of others and he would be able to "MC" the event.  The ceremony will need direction but not the typical "do you take? To have and to hold" stuff.

If the space is large enough I plan on having a circular seating plan.  I saw a picture it was an amazing seating arrangement.  There were no sides and all can see and feel about more included in ceremony.  We have joked about having our dog come in first wearing a sign saying "here comes The Bride"  I am not sure Boone would cooperate.   It would be cute though.  The children would come in next and sit at the four closest seats to where we would be standing.  There would be no need for an actual best man or maid of honor.  The other option would be to have J go in first, then Robert and Alex and then Lynsie go in and Drake walk me around the aisle.  

One of the things I want to incorporate is a ring warming.  Because our wedding will be so small it will be easy to do this.  Basically the rings are tied together and then passed around for each person to say a prayer or blessing over the rings.  So by the time the rings are placed on our hands, they will have been blessed by all our close friends and family.  

Jacob would open the service with an thank you for all for coming.  And of course explaining the process each step of the way.  Then there would be the Quaker part of the ceremony.  Where those who want can share etc....    Then we would do the hand-fasting and say our vows to each other.  Our sweet, from the heart, on our own, vows.  Which makes me giggle because if you know Robert and I, sweet and from the heart are not the words you normally use in a sentence with us! LOL  Then we will do the rings and ta-da.  

So that is as far as I got before I drifted off where I began to have strange dreams about storage buildings and people I don't even talk to and I think some dead bodies.  I don't remember exactly.  

The Wedding

Well it has been some time since I have blogged, so it will take me some time to get back into the swing of things. I am working on planning our wedding.  And let me say WOW!!  We have talked about getting married for years....two of them now.  We have had a date set two years ago, but changed our minds.  Not that we changed our minds about getting married, but changed our minds about having a wedding then.  So here we are, well here I am, planning a wedding.  I say I am because Robert is really too busy to plan with me.  Robert works crazy hours and doesn't have the luxury to chase after wedding venues or plan the food.  Thankfully, Robert trust my decisions and is willing to let me plan.  I have my maid of honor helping along.  Well the maid of honor also happens to be my 15yr old daughter, who enjoys oohing and ahhing over flowers, great looking food and checking out wedding venues. 

The first thing I have tackled is the ceremony.  Both of us are not mainstream religious so that is a bit difficult   We do not agree to any certain religion but have our own personal beliefs.  We had an idea of what we wanted, but wasn't sure how to implement them.  Thankfully, I found a "ceremony" that is close enough to what we want and to be able to add implement a few extra ideas.  We will be having a Quaker wedding ceremony.  Crazy I know. The interesting thing is my family, on my father's side, are Quaker.  I never grew up worshiping as a  Quaker.  Actually, I grew up Southern Baptist and did a change over to Pentecostal.  Of course now I have my own beliefs.  Robert grew up Catholic but doesn't practice this either.  Actually now we are more pagan in our beliefs so we will be including hand-fasting in the celebration. The Quaker ceremony gives us a better opportunity to include friends and family and a few other few tricks up my sleeve. 

We are these really outgoing people, but when it comes to things personal to us, simple is the way we go.  My plan is for our wedding to be simple, but classy, personal but with a hint of flash. 

If you want to know more about the ceremony, hop over to beliefnet and check it out.
http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/2001/03/Whats-An-Unprogrammed-Quaker-Wedding.aspx