To elope, or not to elope, that is the question??

This picture was found by googling Crystal Bridges Images. This is the bird's eye view of the beautiful facility mentioned below!


Ryan & I have been engaged since August. We set the wedding date for September 1, 2012. This date was a fairly easy choice for us. I basically provided him two choices, one being May 12 (our dating anniversary) because it falls on a Saturday and it would be fun to have just one anniversary. Or September 1. That is the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. I like the idea of being married over Labor Day weekend because my parents were married that weekend 34 years ago and I have a couple cousins who were also married over that long weekend-- which seems to be a good omen, they are still going strong. It also happens to be my Grandma's birthday. My grandmother just passed away in January after 8 months of fighting Lung Cancer. It was a short amount of time really, it went by too fast and it's hard to believe she won't be around for our wedding. That being said I called my Grandpa and asked my mom if they would see any problem with being married on Grandma's birthday. Both said they thought it was a fabulous, wonderful, fantastic idea. Ryan decided on September 1, so the planning began immediately.

We decided to get married in Arkansas, because that is where we met and because my parents live there. I enjoy the area because it's not as expensive as trying to tie the knot in Chicago, a lot of "small town" aspects like conveniently having everything right there, but it brings up a few struggles. Ryan & I now live in Illinois, we are ten hours away from all the wedding planning. AHHH!!! The other issue, besides being ten hours away, is that there is not much choice. We are having difficulty dealing with the rental company, the ONLY rental place in Northwest Arkansas, who doesn't seem to understand how important communication is, and then of course we have NO CEREMONY SITE!!! What?!?!?! STILL!?!?! ARGH!!!

We wanted, more than anything, to be married at Crystal Bridges, brand new beautiful museum built in Northwest Arkansas. Unfortunately they will not let us use the facility until 6pm at night. We have already reserved the reception site and I just don't want to have a ceremony at 6pm, then RUSH our guests over to another site for the dinner, dancing & fun. I mean I am a firm believer in tradition and I do not want to see my groom until I am walking down that aisle. For us, waiting until 6pm to do that is not only difficult to wait that long (we actually love spending time together, so spending an entire day, especially our wedding day, away from one another just does not seem right!) Plus it's a waste. We wouldn't do pictures during the day, we wouldn't get to do much of anything, so.... I'm just not a fan of that idea.

So we are still without a ceremony site, which brings up the biggest debate. Should we elope? Can we elope? Will I regret eloping? The thing is we could easily elope and just have a formal reception/dinner/party in September since we already reserved all the reception stuff. We already reserved the site, the flowers, the cake, the DJ... so, can we elope? Ryan's afraid I'll regret it & sometimes I think I will too. I am Catholic. I'm Italian. I have always wanted that long aisle, the stain-glass windows, the hour long ceremony (hey, I'm going to be dressed in a beautiful gown & promising a life time of love to the love of my life-- i don't think a ceremony should be rushed through!!) Of course, the Catholic church will not reserve our date because Ryan is still going through the annulment process, plus all the Catholic churches in Northwest Arkansas are the standard semi-circle church now-a-days. There is no GIANT, beautiful aisle to walk down. So much of the life-long wedding dreams are just not falling into place and so it makes me wonder... do we elope? If I cannot get the perfect dream wedding do I go with just Ryan & me vowing our love to one another in a simple, just us ceremony. I mean it would cut down on Julie-Stress. (Being slightly obsessive-compulsive, total control-freak, and completely prone to emotional-meltdowns and tears flowing a the drop of a pin.)

Our simple red-romance, classic-white, traditional wedding is full of questions, lacking in answers. I realize we are still over 8 months away, but between annulments, no Catholic churches, no ceremony site and ten hours away from it all.... will it ever come together?