Advice

Once Upon a Time, at the Dining Room Table…

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Photo of a dining room table piled with objects
Don't let clutter kill your fairy tale romance!

We dined, once, at our dining room table.  Then we got engaged. Suddenly piles of bridal magazines, boxes of invitations, and a flower girl basket took up residence.  Don’t let it happen to you.

“Why?” you may ask. “All that lovely flat space for storage.  Certainly a few months of dinner elsewhere won’t kill us.”  And you’re right – but it does, eventually, kill the romance in a relationship.  Normally romance doesn’t come easy, or cheap, but there is nothing so simple and special as to sit across from each other, light a few candles, and have a meal.  It doesn’t matter if you are eating frozen waffles on paper plates.  There’s something in the quality of the light that makes you both remember why you got engaged, married, pinned, whatever.

So watch one of those HGTV clutter busting shows, and keep that dining room table clear for some romance.  Sunday nights are perfect for a lovely dinner, but at the table – not in front of ABC’s promising new show…Once Upon a Time.

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Ready, Set, G…wait a minute. Who said anything about ready?

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“Are you ready?” Brides and event planners alike field this question as the wedding day approaches. What does that mean, ready? For the bridal magazines ready means every last detail settled. Bows tied, programs printed, Every I dotted, each t crossed.

One night, working a movie premiere party everything went wrong during set up, but we were finally back above water. Good thing too, as guest arrival was within the half hour.
I looked at my co worker, a more seasoned planner than I, by about 20 years, both of us still in our sweaty work clothes. “Are we ready? I asked. “ready?” he smiled, “we don’t open the doors because we’re ready. We open the doors because it’s the time they printed on the invitation.”

What do they call you if your ceremony's not perfect? Blissfully, happily, married.

There is no perfect.  There is no ready.  Let go of the oversized expectations, and pick up a champagne flute.  Always be ready for champagne.

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The Zen of Registries: Two Toasters and a Backstreet Boy

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Vocal group, Backstreet Boys became one of the...
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Oh no! Aunt Ida and your BFF both brought a toaster to your shower. Panic! Registry Drama!

Wait- don’t get all worked up.  Breathe deeply and contemplate The Zen of Registries.  Personal testimony – the Backstreet Boys completely changed my perspective on the headaches of wedding registries.  Read on.

In the year 2000, at a monastery high on a mountaintop in the Himalayas…ok,ok, a bit much.

In the year 2000, on the 7th floor of a downtown Los Angeles office building,  WeddingChannel.com received a call from a giggling teenage girl asking to go to the Backstreet Boys’ wedding.  We had no idea that Brian (and his fellow Backstreeter Kevin Richardson) were both registered,  and we were unprepared for the deluge of lovesick calls that followed.  Our Macy’s counterparts were  swamped with fake orders.  After a million phone calls to managers and agents, and one conversation with Brian himself, we got it straightened out.

Are you still in the lotus position, and concentrating on your breathing? Imagine trying to untangle that mess.  Think back to your toasters.  Do they merit high anxiety? And the most important question to contemplate: Can you believe I got to talk to an actual Backstreet Boy on the phone?  OMG, you guys!!!!

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