Phases of Blog Insanity

Let me start by saying, I have never been that into weddings. I didn’t plan mine when I was a little girl. I did not ask about the details of my friends’ weddings when they were getting married. And I certainly did not know that there is a wedding subculture that lurks just below the surface of normal society whose sole purpose is to talk about every last detail involved in getting married. And look. Now I’ve joined it.

Phase 1: Besieged
It started out simply enough—googling ‘wedding ideas’, finding a couple of sites, clicking on the recommended sites of those sites, clicking on the recommended sites of those sites…then one day I realized I had 40 Favorites in my Wedding folder.

Phase 2: Systematize
I realized that I could not continue down this path, so I created sub-folders (Blogs, Ideas, Resources) that would help me manage my newly-found addiction. When I found an invitation suite that I loved the look of, it went into Ideas. When I found a vendor that looked useful, it went into Resources. And when I found a Blog that updated frequently and featured weddings that I liked, it went into Blogs.

Phase 3: Obsess
The amount of information that you can find on wedding blogs is astounding. The Real Weddings features quickly became my favorite and I felt like I was getting so much inspiration from them. They update them so frequently. And they are all so pretty. I was checking the sites several times a day. I was a crazy person.

Phase 4: Forgo
Then I took a week vacation to the beach. With no computers. And no blogs. And guess what? I survived. I didn’t miss them. Everything was still okay.

Phase 5: Awareness
When I came back to civilization and had my blogs again, I realized: These are completely unrealistic portrayals of planning a wedding. On my budget. With what I like. And that’s when I didn’t need the blogs anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I still read them. But I know that I don’t have $100,000 (like, 1/10 of that) and I don’t have crafty skills, and I don’t have services to trade with vendors. And that is 100% okay with me.