Wedding Planning— The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

This hot mess of a man is Dylan. He asked me to marry him last Christmas. Little did he know the mess that he would soon encounter.

Wedding Size
I always dreamed of a big wedding. Then I had a quincenera, which made me realize how much work went into big events. Soon after Dylan and I got engaged, I asked him what he thought about eloping. (I just wanted to gather my closest friends and family and have a small elopement ceremony in the Smokey Mountains) he immediately shut down the idea. (When people Elope in GA they go to the courthouse, he finds that a little too redneck.) I decided to make a guest list of who I would invite, close family that has always been there to laugh, to cry, to count on. It was way too big of a list.

He has met a decent amount of my fairly large family.  7aunts and uncles on both my parents side, 25 cousins on both sides, and an estimated 20  second cousins; Whom are mostly the ones I grew up with; they were much closer to my age.  (I'm chicana, give me a break.) He gets that it can get a little too loud and a little too crazy at times. He comes from a smaller family. Combined: His grandparents,  his parents, an uncle on his dad's side and a cousin on his dad's side. On his mothers side two aunts that I don't know very much about.
To say the least its going to be a big wedding.

Religious Background 
I grew up Catholic. I was a EDGE leader in my early 20s. I planned on marrying a Catholic man, but God had other intentions. Although I don't attend a congregation, I still consider myself very Catholic. And I still plan on getting married in the Church one day, and raising my children Catholic.

His religious upbringing  is Southern Baptist. Which I find totally different than Catholicism. Luckily he isn't very religious and claims himself a Christian. He is surely way more Christian than the yes who claim to be "baptists" and what not.

We had to find a middle ground because I wasn't going to get married in a baptist church, and there's no way he would become Catholic by October. So we are doing a bilingual ceremony with a reading and singing an our father and some vows probably And some Hispanic ceremony traditions. (Lasso, Arras, and unity candle/sand ) but this is subject to change.



Venue

I started looking at venues seven days after Christmas. Although we didn't know what day we wanted to have our wedding I knew it had to be in the fall. Preferably September or October. My parents wanted a summer wedding but summers in GA are not pleasent; Dylan thought the summer was too soon. I; however, love fall: the colors, the weather, MY SKIN.  So I searched for farms (all booked for September and October) then I looked at industrial type placed also mostly booked. Here and there I would find amazing venues with terrible time constraints, preferred vendor lists, and alcohol policies. None of these fit my budget or what I wanted to do for the day.

It took a little bit of thinking and a lot of research. By the last week of January I had booked our wedding day. The place was outdoors, which will be beautiful in the fall. I have no restraints except for a few minor ones because it is a nature center.