.the nearlywed report, volume 1.

Ladies And Gentlemen, allow me to introduce to my new labor of lobe: The Nearlywed Report. This is a quarterly column now appearing in Las Vegas Bride magazine. Summer 2009 was the debut piece and I am quite proud of it. Mark, the owner/publisher of LVB was kind enough to take a chance on my writing and give me some space in the column. I hope you all enjoy it, I hope that you Las Vegas Brides follow along and share your planning sagas along with me!

Cheers!
~The Nearlywed

Congratulations! You are engaged. You’ve gone from being a girlfriend to a fiancée in a matter of four words. In just a few quick months -or longer- you will transform from a fiancée into a wife, your new title from that day forward. There is a long path to take in the journey of “I will” to “I do”; the planning, the budgeting, the idea generating, the dress and how to make sense of it all without losing yourself. If you are like me or other nearlyweds who I’ve encountered, our burning question is not “when is the date?” but “where do I begin???”

You are now The Bride. It is time to dust off the bridal magazines that have been hibernating under your bed and rip out the dog-eared pages, the post-it flagged pages and the new pages that, all of the sudden catch your eye. Ideas run rampant through your head, you scribble on your hand while at work, you text yourself just so that you don’t forget. Color palettes? Yes, you’ve been to your local hardware store to pick up endless amounts of paint swatches. Call it crazy, beautiful bride, but you are not alone.

The mind of a bride endlessly overflows with images, ideas and visions of their special day. Where oh where should one house these contents of the complex bridal mind? Two words: The Binder. The organizational tool that is a must have for every bride. You know you want one, if you don’t already have one, your best friend had two and your matron of honor is willing to bequeath hers down to you. Whatever organizational tool you decide to use for wedding planning, keep it on your person at most times as you will find that inspiration for your wedding is going to come in many forms, at random places and times.

Wedding planning may take over your world, temporarily, but this one little tool will make it easier to take a breather and enjoy the ride! For more of The Nearylwed Report, visit www.thenearlywedsblog.com

The countdown clock slowly begins

Today, I received my first alert that we have “TWELVE MONTHS TO GO”, it was like a bullhorn shouting through my Crackberry. Seriously. This is what it looked like:

Jennifer, your wedding date is: 4/24/2010

While I’m still in procrastination mode, it is slowly becoming more real. The May/June timeframe is incredibly busy for Flo and I—we are becoming an Aunt and Uncle for the first time and I am also a Bridesmaid for the first time!! May 27 is target date for Aunt and Uncle-hood, June 6 is the date for Bridesmaid duties. Since both the mother-to-be and the June bride-to-be are in my wedding, I feel like it is unfair to them if I start bogging anyone down with my wedding details when we are over twelve months out! Right? They have bigger fish to fry right now. Once we get back from that East Coast trip, we are ten months out and are going to hit the ground running.

At that point, I pinky promise to post more photos of my inspirations, ideas, experiences of planning (dress shopping, cake tasting, even trying to get in shape- ugh!). As of now, this blog has been more about my thoughts than planning, but it is better than having each and every detail worked out before I ever even said, “YES!” Right?? I wasn’t a “just-add-groom” type of bride before getting engaged.

In reviewing my “things to write about” list, there are several items that have yet to be posted. Shame on me, but stay tuned… they are coming! Matter of fact, they will be written and posted this week.

--The Entourage, The Players. Who is in our wedding and why??
--Las Vegas Bride: if you haven’t picked up a copy you should or

visit them on line for invaluable wedding planning information
--The Nearlywed Report: What on earth is that, you ask?

Stay tuned folks and I will personally introduce you to this columnist

Being engaged is fun, if I can do it all the time, to the same man, I would be happy!