The wedding (non)planner

We're going through all the hassle of planning the wedding at the moment. Şencan bought her dress whilst she was in Turkey, and I am resisting the urge to have a peek - I want to to be a surprise on the big day. The next things to be done are sending out the invites (most people have already been informed by phone), booking the photographer (which frankly, we might be able to do without), and deciding on what entertainment we want.

Over the last couple of months we've spent a fair amount of time going through wedding magazines, brochures and books, looking for ideas. The problem is that neither of us are particularly struck by the contents. I was talking to a friend a few weeks ago, who said that planning her recent wedding was massive fun. It is not that way for us. Yes, it's interesting in an intellectual way, but neither of us have ever had grand dreams of walking down a church aisle. We have no fantasy around which we can drape our wedding.

As an example, we were just looking through a bridal magazine and studying the 'Real-life Weddings' section, where they dissect people's wedding ceremonies for ideas. We both looked at some of the details and thought: "Nice, but expensive". Yes, it woul dbe nice to wear Gucci shoes. But will it really make the day extra-special?

The fact is, we want to get married to each other. That is the first and biggest priority. We have an unusual venue, and we know that our immediate family are coming along with almost all of our best friends. The venue, caterers and registrar are booked. This is what matters. Anything else is just additional niceness ;-)

We're even planning to do something unusual for the stag and hen nights - we're probably going to have a joint day out somewhere, ending at the theatre or cinema. After all, we've been living together for a couple of years now, and the time for a 'last night of freedom' would have been just before Şencan moved in. We're also in our mid-thirties, and neither of us are particularly heavy drinkers. So we'll go and do something that we'll both enjoy.

I am so looking forward to the wedding, and particularly to seeing Şencan in her dress. I want to make her so happy, and I want the day to be perfect for her. That is the priority.