Dream a Little Dream

"Planning a wedding is exciting, exasperating, exhilarating and exhausting. UN peace negotiations can seem like child's play in comparison... Some days, you just want to pull the covers over your head then run away and elope." *

Minutes after Kenneth proposed, I told him I thought wedding planning would be the biggest test of our diplomatic skills we've ever faced. As it has turned out, there have been times where that's been true.  It's not that I don't enjoy picking out flowers and debating the merits of different scripture readings, but balancing what we want for the day with the desires of our families, our budget, and our time constraints has sometimes made wedding planning a stressful process.

I won't deny that the idea of eloping is like a pleasant dream some days.

We would stroll some lazy Saturday with our parents and siblings to the county court house:

I would wear a simple dress like this:

Kenneth would wear a suit or maybe just a button-down shirt and slacks because he looks so good that way:

And after, instead of a reception, we would go to a restaurant like this:

Just when I'm ready to start going through with my little dream, I'm reminded that the stress is worth it if it means we will be married in a church, in the presence of God, not just the State of Washington.

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And years from now, photos like this will remind me of how great it was to have our family and friends with us to witness our vows

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And celebrate our wedding day with us.

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Maybe on our 30th anniversary, we'll look at those pictures and laugh at ourselves for how we danced...

Source and source (video)

Source, but you can believe if we had more coordination, we would go with something more like this YouTube video.

Or maybe we'll exchange stories about how we ate too much food that looked like this.

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And how we had not too few, but not too many of these:

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So, I'll remove the bookmark on that simple courthouse wedding dress, and keep my eyes on the prize. Once we make it to April 17th, we'll experience all that in the pictures and the months of planning, negotiating, crafting, and working will all be worth it.

*Someone far more articulate than I crafted that quote that conveys entirely what my life has been taken over by lately: wedding-planning and (M)UN. Source.