Tagged with Engagement

An Open Letter to George Clooney

Dear George,

I wanted to be among the first to send my congratulations on your recent engagement. Since everything written on the internet is true, I have to assume that the reports are accurate and you are indeed engaged. My fiance was actually the person who alerted me to this development. Again, since everything written on the internet is true, I think you getting engaged constitutes breaking news for men since there has been much reported about your alleged aversion to marriage- there’s a bit of a “last man standing” fist bump men reserve for you. However, I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know that I think your happiest days are ahead of you. This engagement thing is good stuff.

Before I got engaged, I was in a very happy, committed relationship. People who were engaged or married asked frequently when we were getting married and regardless of my reply, I was told that “It’s totally different when you’re engaged/married.”

I wanted to punch those people in the face.

I’m happy! Marriage isn’t necessary for happiness! Leave me alone!

But you see, George (I can call you George, right? Please- call me Nina), there is something to be said about taking that love you have for someone and declaring that this is the person you are choosing to spend your life with. I know, I thought that it was just words or a piece of jewelry too but in the 10 months since my fiance dropped to his knee in our kitchen at 9am on a Friday morning, I have felt a sense of…peace. Calm. Love magnified times more than I thought possible. Is it my really nice ring? No. Maybe. Kidding. It’s knowing that my partner and I are on the exact same page about growing old together (for the record- you look great, haven’t aged a day and I doubt wrinkles are going to be an issue for you) and we get to shout from the rooftops that we are choosing to spend our lives with our best friend.

We have to find rooftops- so nice that you have US Weekly to shout your news for you.

The moral of the story, George, is that being engaged has been some of the most fun months of my life and I wish you as much fun, excitement and paparazzi free days as humanly possible. And really- congratulations. Finding someone who lights you up to the point where you absolutely must spend your life with them is magical and no trivial endeavor.

Also, just to throw it out there, we are honeymooning in Italy and have a spare 3 days in the middle of our trip- if the Lake Como house is empty, I am totally willing to go check on it for you.

Love, light and wedding planning,

Nina

 

Wedding Planning

20130708-211550.jpg

In the excitement of getting engaged, Ryan and I started talking about what we might want to do for our wedding pretty much right away. Having never concretely discussed it before, we thought this was pretty blank slate. That is, until we realized that we were very clear about what we didn’t want. Very, very clear. Like, I don’t want to cry before walking down the aisle because I am afraid “the show” won’t go off perfectly (heard it). I don’t want bridesmaids performing choreographed dances to really obscure rap songs (seen it). We know a groom who didn’t talk to his mother for 2 months after his wedding because of things that transpired. Wedding planners who treat a wedding rehearsal’s importance as being on par with North Korea not having nuclear weapons. I don’t think we recognized it but our experiences really had an effect and the effect was us screaming “we don’t want that!”.

It was Negative Nancy wedding planning.

It was good though- we needed to clear what we didn’t want in order to get to what we did. Once we did that, details came together in incredibly quickly because, at the end of the day, our priorities list is a short one.

1) Start the day unmarried, end the day married
2) Have the people who have supported and love us present
3) Scotch & Champagne
4) Celebrate the city we live in and love
5) Spend within our budget

So with those 5 things as a filter, “wedding planning” is pretty well set. We love hosting dinner parties and we are really excited to host a big one in a space that we adore with food from one of our favorite restaurants. I’ll wear a pretty dress. I’ll kiss the guy I love. I’ll hug the heck out of my parents and cheers with my best friends. The other stuff? If it doesn’t contribute to our Top 5 list, I ain’t got time for that.

With one exception: We all know my Excel skills and we all know I didn’t make that formula intense spreadsheet that is our wedding budget. I do and always will have time for shoes and God bless the man I am marrying for knowing that and allocating a line in the budget exclusively for high heels.

Some (Sparkly) News

20130628-075111.jpg

Just wanted to share something rather big that happened in our lives exactly one week ago- Ryan and I are engaged! Details on the proposal later but it resulted in an impromptu trip to Michigan to break out the bubbly with my darling 96 year old grandmother and we couldn’t be happier.

A friend told me yesterday that now is the time to celebrate and never stop. So cheers to that, Friday and all of the champagne.