Thanks for sharing!

Now everybody go look at Anusha’s wonderful pictures!

Rachel, I would absolutely love to see a wedding planning show like the one you describe. Alas! Train wrecks tend to get higher ratings than thoughtful programming with serious advice to offer.

Johanna, I feel certain The Manolo would absolutely approve your priorities! Great shoes are, indeed, a worthy priority.

I love seeing how everyone decides what’s most important to them.

For me, now that I have found the most important part of my wedding, the groom, I have been sorting out my priorities too. Funny thing is, it seems I’m satisfied with the handsome guy next to me and great shoes. I’ve got one or two options selected already. If there will be a party, I do want some kind of a scrap book -thing that the guests can write in.

The third favorite thing about the wedding is the dress, but that’ll be inexpensive as long as I don’t go trying on any frocks at the bridal saloons. I just love designing various models before I decide what to sew, almost as much as reading Manolo for the Brides in anticipation of the event.

Of course I’d like to invite everyone I know to celebrate, but that will be impossible. Luckily my fiancé thinks plenty of food and drink for the ones who are there is the priority, as do I. I couldn’t care less about the location or the decorations. So we’ll spend all that’s left from my shoe-shopping on edibles, and hopefully our semi-professional photographer friends and FIL’s rock band do a good job.

At this point, my priority will probably be photography. To be honest, everything else is pretty important, too, but your photos are the one thing that will be around, and passed around, even after you’ve passed on (unless your dress manages to stay in style).

Anusha, I went to Sri Lanka after the tsunami to do disaster relief, and even with the devastation it was the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen (and I’m from Hawaii!) Your pictures must be gorgeous.

And yes, I found that concentrating my main efforts on a couple specific areas and refusing to stress about the others made my day much easier to enjoy. It’s surprising how much simpler planning is when you prioritize and then let the little things fall into place by themselves.

Anyway, the hotel we chose had gorgeous grounds (more than any other hotel in that area), and our photographer was a little-known professional who ran his business out of his home, but took phenomenal photos that really showcased the natural beauty of the island. I was thrilled to be able to book both. As for the flowers, I was finally able to get them through a wonderful florist who did all the bouquets (which turned out quite gorgeous).

Everything else, I was like, whatever! But it all turned out sooooooo nice, I just couldn’t believe it! Things just fell into place quite by accident, and I felt as if my grandfather was looking down on us and directing the whole day! I still can’t quite believe how much we lucked out with everything, and the one thing I know for sure is that it all turned out A LOT nicer than it would have if I tried to control and micromanage everything!

As for the photographer, the husband of a woman I was working with at the time had just gone into business for himself as a photographer. I knew and liked him already, and he was a calm presence with a real talent for slipping into the background and getting great candid shots when nobody realized a camera was pointing in their direction. Since he was just starting out, he was offering great deals to drum up sales.

I was seriously spoiled.