I am a Planner: Deal with It, Please

Seven months from today Danny and I will be getting married.  What I am really thinking as I type that is, gracious I have been at this wedding planning nonsense for five months!  FIVE MONTHS!  In some ways the time has gone by really fast, but at other moments it feels like an eternity.  And some days I feel like my buddy Marvin the Martian up there...  I have developed pet peeves that I did not even know were possible leading up to planning a wedding that I hope will become a distant memory after I am Danny's wife (still not ready to call myself the future Mrs. Pechie). 

Here is the run-down:

1. Wedding Favors.  Please do not even bring this one up to me anymore.  No offense to anyone, please; but I have never understood their purpose.   I will be grateful for every one's presence at the wedding, but I will say it with words not a little trinket that people may/may not want.
2. Centerpieces.  This has been a source of serious anxiety for me, especially when I completely lose perspective about what is really important in life.  The root of the issue - I am allergic to flowers.  While this has thrilled many a man in my life since he did not have to spend money on flowers for me; it can be problematic when designing a centerpiece since 99.999% of centerpiece design ideas incorporate flowers.  I finally found something that Danny and I are both really excited about that does not include flowers!  It does include something kind of silly, but hey we're silly.
3. Poor Customer Service.  Okay, truth be told this is a long-standing one; but it has been exacerbated as I deal with wedding vendors.  Do they understand I am trying to pay them money?!  The latest example has to do with my veil and tiara.  I have always wanted a tiara, and I was so grateful when my parents did not question this decision.  I digress.  The veil and tiara were supposed to arrive in the store two weeks after being ordered.  We are now on week 7.5.  Did the store inform me that these two items were on back-order?  No, they just let me sweat it out.  My veil came in last night, but my tiara is going to be another 2-4 weeks.  What if I had waited until the last minute?  This leads me to my biggest pet peeve of all...
4. Oh You have PLENTY of Time.  My absolute favorite is when they throw in a dear afterward, as if the pet name is supposed to make me feel better about this person making me feeling like an idiot for planning ahead.  When people say this they are failing to recognize a couple key points: (a) You (the vendor) are one aspect of this wedding.  I have about 100 other aspects that I am dealing with; would you care to help with those too?  and (b) I do have a job and a life outside of this wedding.  The summer months are always crazy from a work perspective, and so I am trying to be prepared so that I have a job to go back to after my wedding. 

I think I am done now.  I am so lucky that Danny understands me.  God love him, he took me to Barnes and Noble the day after we got engaged  to get a book and a magazine with a timeline in it so that I could start the planning process.  I sure hope that I have not crossed into the "Bridezilla" Zone just yet, nor do I want to.  I have plenty of people around me to tell me if and when I do.  The greatest comfort I take in planning ahead is that it has allowed us to change our mind on certain things, or find something we liked better.  Most recently those centerpieces! 

Phew.  I feel better, thank you for reading.  The next post will have to do with sports, I am sure.  I mean hello, did you see the shot heard around Tobacco Road and beyond?  GO DUKE!