Get Ready For A Reception!

So I'm set on a reception site. I spoke with the gallery owner today and I will definitely be holding the reception there. How exciting! The gallery will provide tables and linens - all I'll need is serving and dining plates, utensils, etc. I mean, I don't even need to decorate - there will be real live art!

I don't think I can adequately express how excited I am. I've been having these nightmares about how the wedding turns into this circa 1987 extravaganza complete with a baby's breath and purple polyester explosion all over the reception. I mean, my mother even spoke of a "head table." I don't even want tables! I want standing and viewing and chatting and munching. And then afterwards I want us to revel long into the night - but no head tables! and no baby's breath or polyester!

To explain - it's not that I'm trying to be difficult, but I hate how things become about other people. This is my first (ha!) wedding and I really want it to be about me -- my likes, my tastes, my vision. I have no interest in what other people expect from the generic wedding. I know that what I want is not what every other person wants -- but why does it have to be? Why should I be held hostage by other people's parameters or expectations?

Here's a hint: If you're coming to my wedding because a) you think you have to or b) you didn't grocery shop this week and you're hungry? Don't come. My theme is "The Sweet Life" and that's what you'll get from our wedding. Sweets and treats and just a touch of something other. And that's OK. Ya know?

My entire life people have expected and demanded that I do things like everyone else is doing, or what people think everyone else is doing -- and I've never fallen into that mold. In jr high and high school it was about clothes and music, in college it was about degrees and careers, as a parent it's been about the "shoulds" and "should nots." But guess what?! I've gone my own way at each turn and I've lived a fabulous life. I love where I've been - I've been happy and I've been sad, but I lived my life on my terms. That's all I'm doing with this wedding - regardless of external pressures.

Ahhhh. Now that I've gotten that out. As the old proverb goes: If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies. Or dragonflies in this case :).

My newest obsession is a lavendar or mint (or both) table runner thing that hangs in front instead of to the sides of the food tables. And I need to think about decorations on the cake table. And and and!

--xoxo, Kelly