Wedding Planning During a Pandemic

“Planning” probably isn’t the right word here.

In case you missed it when I slipped it into my last post, my partner of nearly 10 years and I are now engaged, as of Easter weekend. There was absolutely no fanfare — in fact, it was almost more of an afterthought — but it’s also been a long time coming, and at least part of the low-key aspect is to blame on the stay-at-home order. (I don’t even have an engagement ring, yet; I’m using another ring he previously bought me as a stand-in.)

None of this bothers me. I know he’s bad at planning ahead or taking the lead on, say, where we should travel next, for example. And that’s okay, because I have enough wild ideas for the both of us, and his willingness to try so many of them out is more than I could ask for.

So, along with an engagement usually comes a wedding, and now I’ve basically been given full license to plan one, with a couple caveats: 1. everything is closed, and 2. no one knows when any of it will reopen.

You can do a lot online now, of course; I’ve looked at decoration ideas on Pinterest, browsed dresses on Etsy and Google (and about a million other places), and checked out Illinois venue options. We made a guest list. I talked to some of my bffs over Zoom about ideas for a bachelorette weekend getaway. I even made myself a little notebook to write down all my ideas and favorite options. But you can only do so much planning without actually being able to implement any of the plans. Knowing where and when seems like it would go a great deal toward lining up everything else.

In the meantime, though, would it be crazy for me to start making decorations? (If you’re familiar with me or this site at all, you had to know that was coming.) The answer is obviously “no,” and in fact, it would probably be good for me to have something fun to work on right now (plus lots of extra time to get extra). We’re not planning to go super heavy on a theme, though there will be book- and travel-themed aspects, because these are two of the things that brought us together. Luckily I used to make books (blank ones) and still have most of the materials. I think a lot of my junk journal supplies will come in handy, too.

Those of you who are married (or getting married, if this pandemic ever goes away), how much of your wedding planning and decorating did you do yourself? Did you have a theme you used? Is there anything you wish you’d done differently, or anything that turned out better than you’d hoped?