It's Tricky, Tricky, Tricky, Tricky - Part One - The Date Dilemma

I may be new to this wedding planning thing, but I'm not naive. I know that with this great excitement, comes great responsibility, and when dealing with a wedding people have questions that they expect answered faster than the poor mensch can say, "Will you marry me?"

My dear friend, Ashlee, who is getting married in a month, forewarned me that the question I would hear the most once I shouted my news from the rooftops would be, "So, when's the wedding?"

Truth is - as embarrassing as this is to admit - I've known for about 2 years. How could I know before my boyfriend even became my hubby-to-be, you ask? Because I'm a nut, a wedding nut to be exact, and I signed up for an account on The Knot while I was still in college. I wanted to be able to look at all the pretty wedding pictures and read all the fun wedding content, and to do that, I had to become a registered member of The Knot.

I designated myself as a "no ring yet" user (not as bad as trying on the gown before you get the ring, right?), but still had to put a tentative wedding date, so I chose something that sounded a long ways away - August 12, 2012. It didn't have too bad of a ring to it either.

Not only is it the reverse of my birthday (Bday 12.8 - Wday 8.12 - get it?), but my parents and Brian's parents have anniversaries in August, were married the same year and have been together for over 30 years, PLUS, last year I lookey looed ahead and saw that August 12th was a Sunday - talk about a good omen, right?

Here's where the tricky, tricky, tricky, tricky part comes in.

Earlier this summer, we found out that not one, but two of my East Coast cousins were planning to get married in September of 2012 - shout out to Ari and David!

Of course, many Mazel's have been exchanged since, and we had already planned on making our way to the Big Apple to attend at least one of the weddings so we could reunite with our wonderful family - we're a really tight-knit bunch, you see.

I just didn't feel right planning for an August wedding until I got their blessing. I believed that it was only fair to see how they felt about this because, being the last one to get engaged and all (don't mean to rain on your parade, Bri), I didn't want to step on anyone's toes.

Last night, I wrote an email to my cousins to send my love and let them know where Brian and I were at with our setting-the-date dilemma.

Brian and I decided, before I even wrote the email, to push our proposed date to either the 4th or 5th of August, just to give a bit more cushion time in between our wedding and the first of the cousins' weddings, which will be during Labor Day weekend. We also discussed the possibility of postponing our honeymoon, so that we could jet it to NY for one of the weddings, then go from there to wherever we decide to soak up the sun.

I heard back from all of my amazing cousins today, and they couldn't have been happier or more understanding. They all agreed that Brian and I should go ahead with the date that we wanted, and that this year is only made better because all the love we get to share. They also all agreed that they would try their very best to come celebrate.

Bottom line, family is everything, and without their support, their love, and their approval, this wedding day would not be as big or as meaningful.

All that being said, the dilemma is almost solved.

The only thing left to decide is whether we will have it on a Saturday, which is more convenient for everyone, or a Sunday, which may help us keep prices down. Looks like Brian and I will be doing some pricing research, so that we can finalize a date within the next few weeks and move forward with the other dilemmas we will undoubtedly be confounded with.

I say, BRING IT ON, BRIDAL STYLE!