This is supposed to be fun?

Hrumpf. Unhappy bride.

I thought wedding planning was supposed to be fun. Why else do most girls (excluding me) start planning their weddings at age six?

Well, as of last week I wasn’t having very much fun.

Fiance and I visited our first wedding venue sites and it was … underwhelming. While both were lovely, one required a lot of elbow grease to turn it into a wedding venue and the other was all-inclusive, high-priced and kind of generic. And, worst of all, they were both alreadybooked for next May.

I knew we had a long list of venues yet to visit, but in the back of my mind these two places set a tone. I’d either get a good price on a fixer upper or get charged through the nose for something nice but boring. I didn’t really want to do either. And I sure as hell wouldn’t be a May bride.

I toyed with destination weddings and elopements. I had stress dreams of visiting thousands of wedding venues and arriving too late to book anything, even an outdoor wedding in the dead of winter.

All of this was the opposite of fun.

Then, on a whim, Fiance and I visited a third venue today. And, voila, I liked it. A lot. So much so that I could picture things like cakes and dresses and flowers, stuff I’ve never envisioned before. It had the feel I wanted in a wedding, elegant but relaxed. In short, it was lovely and within reach.

Nothing is confirmed yet, but it was like going on a good date after a string of bad ones. It restores your faith.

And, most importantly, it’s fun.