In planning this wedding, something that has been very important to me from the beginning was that Ryan be involved in the planning process. He has been a great sport so far and this is truly turning out to be "our" wedding (not just Maddie's wedding that Ryan shows up to when he's told). I know a lot of other brides who do it that way, and I'm sure it works for them, but we are taking this opportunity as a blessing to learn more about each other and learn to communicate with each other.
For example: Last Saturday, I was SOOOO excited about the centerpieces. Like jumping around the house excited. I had Ryan come out from his homework cave to look at them, expecting him to be super excited also, he wasn't. Ok, maybe that's not fair. He did like the centerpieces (and loved how much I like them), but he just doesn't get excited about things like I do. I got kinda mad at him for not caring and we ended up having to sit down and talk about how we each show excitement differently (and how different things excite us).
Since this situation kinda showed me that he was going to be no help in the "decorating things" planning of the wedding, he & I agreed that we should write out certain tasks that would be his for the wedding. I agreed to give him complete control over them (within the budget), and what a relief that was! Now, I had several more things off my plate AND Ryan really felt like he was a part of wedding planning again!!!
So, what tasks did I manage to relinquish control of? Several actually:
1. DJ: I figure that a DJ is a DJ is a DJ & Ryan can find us a good one in our budget. Plus, DJs are normally creepy guys, so I'm glad Ryan will be talking to them, not me.
2. Church Requirements: Because we are getting married in the Catholic Church, we have a whole list of marriage prep activities we have to partake in before we get married. Ryan will now be in charge of making sure we are doing all of them & contacting our priest to set up meetings (something he had really already been doing).
3. Hotel Blocks: This is kinda small, but when you are having a wedding where a lot of people are traveling to the place, its courteous to block off some rooms in hotels for your guests! I think our reception hall gets our guests a discounted rate at a certain hotel, but I will let Ryan figure that out.
4. Honeymoon: It's kinda traditional for the groom to plan the honeymoon, and I'm really excited to see what Ryan comes up with here!
Oh and presents for the groomsmen, that's his job too.
Have any of you tried to include a groom in wedding planning? How'd it go?
Hey there sister! :)
ReplyDeleteI think it is great that Ryan is so involved and really wants to help! I completely know what you are saying about getting excited about different things and handing things over to be done. :) Way to go future Mr. and Mrs. Brown! ;)
Ps, The hotel blocks may seem like a small task, but in reality, it is so important! They are where your guests will be staying and it will mean so much to them to have a great place at a good price!
This is for Ryan (since it is not for you to worry about ;): I went to http://www.visitaggieland.com/ and called them asking about someone to help me book a few hotels for my wedding and they ended up sending me a list of a bunch of different hotels all at discounted prices. :) I just picked the 3 that I wanted and they helped me set all that up. It was a huge time saver instead of going around to individual places. :)
And also, to answer your question, George was very involved in our wedding too. :) However, it was times where he suggested (in a serious tone) that the groomsmen wear different colored bow ties, that I had to kindly say no. lol But I was so happy to see that he was really trying to help and get involved with everything since it was OUR wedding. :)
Love you girl! Keep up the great attitude! :)