Baby Steps

It hit me yesterday perusing the blogs. At first I thought it was the standard blog panic (ohmygodthere'ssomuchhereI'llneverbeabletodohalfofthis) but it eased into a very important realization: I have no idea where to start.

I have ideas. (Oh don't I have ideas.) And I have tons of people offering help. But before I launch the army of the willing I want to be sure I'm not going to waste their time on something that may not work. I want to know the entire plan (and that it will work) before I start any of it. The result? Nothing. The result is absolutely nothing.

I'm doing things. Sure. This morning I finished the rough draft carving of a stamp that may become our save the dates. Occasionally I'll pop in an episode of Bones and cut some flags. But do the flags match anything? Will they actually look good in the yard? Should I save some of the material for the flowers? What color will the table cloth be, will it even match anything?

Questions begot only by more questions.

The only other big party I've planned (and big b/c of the preparation not b/c of the number of people) I learned a valuable lesson. (Oh this sounds so silly.) But basically it's like they teach you in community organizing, "Some time is not a time. Some place is not a place. Some one is not a person." Vagueness doesn't amount to anything. The same thing was very true with colors for New Years 09. I kept thinking, "Oh I want some version of gray, blue, yellow...and maybe brown." But the blue kept changing and it wasn't until I found a ton of fabric at Goodwill that was a very specific blue did I know that THIS blue was THE blue and everything else (food, drinks, color of ribbon on favor liquors) would be matched to this from here on out.

Because we're doing our wedding ultra low budget and because we're trying to do it without creating a bunch of new things, we're not really having a color palette. I've loved this idea for as long as I've been thinking about weddings. But maybe that's a mistake. Maybe I need to say this one color is the base of everything. Even if it's a warm neutral tan. If it doesn't match THIS then keep looking. I just need a starting point. Something solid that everything else can be judged against.

It sounds so trivial I know, and yet for this, it's that first step of a thousand. Knowing that I'll be walking in this direction for a long time, I'm still trying to figure out where to place my foot.