(Un)Traditional

I've realized something recently-- until Mimi I don't think I've ever really thought about getting married.  I mean, as a kid I did, but not seriously.  And then in college when all of the other girls had "wedding fever" (side effect of a Christian university, I think) I just wasn't that into it. When I started dating women I started visualizing what a wedding would be like, but this is toooootally different.  With an engagement promised for the future, there comes a wedding too...  And that presents its own host of excitements and issues...

It's complicated, when you get right down to it.  So far as I know, there are no set-in-stone "traditions" for our particular "untraditional" union.  Not to mention, we legally can't get married where we live, which means we have no choice but to go elsewhere.  On top of that, we (audaciously) would like a marriage, not a civil union, or a partnership or any of the rest of that b.s., which narrows our options even further. Though I may not have been planning a wedding as a kid, I did know I wanted to be married one day and that hasn't changed.  Now, lucky for me, a great deal of my family is from that much more tolerant country to the north, which gives us an easy way to go there-- but what about our friends? My immediate family? *stress*.

Even more pressing-- do we see each other's dresses before the wedding? How are we supposed to pick out dresses that don't conflict without seeing them first?! (Ok, I understand that leaving the country to get married probably sounds more urgent, but come on-- the one thing every girl does consider is the dress... I always thought I would surprise my spouse, but... is that even possible?) Do we have friends attend both fittings and hope they give good advice? Do we just give it all up and buy the dresses together? Do we see the other's dress, but not on her? I'm telling you-- stress. But happy stress :).  I'm off to my first preliminary shopping adventures today, as a matter of fact.  I'm waaaay ahead of the game (especially given we're not actually engaged... oops!) but these brides-to-be are going to have to budget-the-goodness out of this shindig so it's pre-shopping, budgeting, and planning for me. Eek... I'm so nervous! But really... excited, to be honest :).

I'm going to get married one day... for real. Go figure. :-)