Flowers, Gurl

You know, even if you elope, you should have some flowers. For the photo. Maybe something casual and informal and wild-looking, a bouquet that looks like you just gathered it yourself in the field behind the temple.

Or maybe you should just have a simple cluster of pink roses, your favorite. But, then again, maybe that looks too young and prom-like.

How about a simple, straw-tied bunch of wildflowers and greenery with one beautiful pink bloom right up front? Yes.

Picture This

Hey, even if you elope you need a good photo of the two of you, right? So we still need a photographer. That is, if we elope, which I'm not saying we're going to, but just if we did.

I fell in love with this photographer when I saw this photo:

Priorities

I don't even want to go into the details, but between over ten thousand dollars' worth of expenses, and another ten thousand dollars' worth of lost revenue due to contracts canceling, the piggy bank is now empty. No money for a honeymoon, no money to buy tickets to fly everybody in for a Texas wedding, no money for hotels and dinners and flowers and a photographer and a cupcake wedding cake. The question is, do we postpone the wedding until the coffers are full again, or do we take my little mother's advice and just elope?

A Dress with Sleeves

Now it was official, and even though I had already picked out a ring and a honeymoon destination and bridesmaids' dresses, I didn't have a thing to wear. I just wanted something casual and informal, but long and white and WITH SLEEVES, so I searched the Internet for a "wedding dress with sleeves." NONE. They were all strapless.

I finally found one I really liked with spaghetti straps, that had 73 "reviews" by women who all claimed it was a miracle-working slenderizer of a dress. That sold me, since the only criteria I had other than white, long, and with sleeves, was "slenderizing." So I ordered it. And when it came, I tried it on and I loved it. I figured I could find a little bolero or jacket to go over it when the time came. But I'm still looking for said little bolero or jacket...

The Proposal

We were in Dallas on a date at the swanky French Room and my boyfriend wanted to show me something at a high-rise downtown a few blocks away. But it was raining. And I had on uncomfortable high heels. And I was tired. But I was a good sport and I went.What he showed me was Fountain Place, a tree-lined water garden surrounding a shiny blue-glass skyscraper in the middle of the city. I thought, OK, that was pretty much worth the walk in uncomfortable high heels. And then he asked me to marry him! Totally worth the walk!

The Dream Ring

All of these wedding plans and conversations took place before any question was ever asked or any answer given. In fact, The Ring was chosen before The Proposal.

My boyfriend, who was not my fiance yet, said, "If I were engaged to you, I would want you to wear a ring so people would know you are taken. Do you want to look at rings?"

Come on. Did he really not know that women are always looking at engagement rings? I have been looking at rings for DECADES! In fact, I already had my dream ring picked out, a bezel-set ring that was not one of your average run-of-the-mill-sticky-uppy prong numbers, so I emailed the link to him. He loved it, too. He said it looked high-tech, like something from Star Trek, tee hee. We love Star Trek. So we ordered the ring. In platinum--because that felt more solid, more permanent, more TAKEN.

And when the ring came, there was an inscription engraved inside it, a quote that was very special to us both. It said:

"Live long and prosper."

Choosing a Temple

Trying to choose the temple to get married in went kind of like this:

Which temple do you want to go to?

The Houston temple, it's my temple (this is EASY, I'm thinking).

But you won't be living in Houston when we get married.

Oh, yeah.

Nobody in your family will be living in Houston. You will be living closer to Dallas at that time.

But Dallas is the ugliest LDS temple in Christendom! And nobody in YOUR family lives there.

But you and I will live near it.

Well, what if we had a destination wedding and flew to the temple nearest the most members of the family?

OK, how about Orlando? You have a sister and a daughter there.

But then we'd have to fly everybody else in, including ourselves, and we would HAVE to take everybody to Disneyworld, which we can't swing right now. What about Salt Lake, you'll have two kids there and I have one there.

But we'd still have to fly all the other kids there and YOU AND I would have to fly up.

What's close to Iowa, there's one daughter and her whole family there. Nauvoo? But then again we fly everybody else including US up there?

Dang (this is NOT as easy as I thought). So we just stick with the Dallas temple and fly everybody here?

Dallas it is.

Wait a minute. What about the Anchorage temple???

Honeymoon Possibilities

After getting the important bridesmaids' dresses and boots all figured out, the natural next step--of course--was deciding on a honeymoon destination. I wanted to show my fiance beautiful Sanibel Island, which I had discovered off the coast of Naples, Florida last year when I was there on business. I could imagine us walking barefoot in the white sand, hand-in-hand, under the moonlight.

He wanted to take me to ALASKA! His idea of romance was white-water rafting and glaciers! I was game!

But we both wanted to save money, so we decided on Hot Springs, Arkansas, a charming artists' community surrounded by a national park full of natural, you guessed it, HOT SPRINGS! Ahhh, relaxing. And just a little way up the road.

Our Iowa Boots

So almost as soon as I met my fiance's two beautiful girls (beautiful 30- and 32-year-old women they are) we were off to the RCC Western Store in the nearby mall to try on cowboy boots. And we found some! We all laughed at the fact that the bride's cowboy boots for her Texas wedding were purchased in Des Moines, Iowa.

And here they are: Sara's boots, my boots, and Lizzie's boots.
We love them!

Bridesmaids 'n Boots

The minute I got engaged, my daughters wanted to know what their bridesmaids' dresses would look like.

"Well, I'll be in white, since I'm getting married in the temple. Let's all wear white, and take pictures outside on the green grass," I said, "like the British do."

"OK," they giggled, as they googled "white dresses." They hit upon a cute, ruffly dotted-Swiss number from J. Crew. It came in shell pink, too, which was tempting, but we agreed on white.

"And let's wear cowboy boots--it's so Texas!" said my 21-year-old. She showed me a pic to back up her idea. Why not? It was a Texas wedding. So I ordered the dresses (four total, for my two girls and his two girls) (OK, I'll admit, I got one for myself, too, they were too cute) and ran the cowboy boot idea past my fiance's daughters. They were in!

The Un-wedding

My little mother said to me the other day, "Suzy, you've had too many weddings. You don't need another one. Just elope with him and be happy." I am considering her advice.