When I was sixteen years old I spent my summer working at a florist in Louisville called Creative Illusions. They are no longer in business and I may have something to do with that, one will never know I suppose. The owner was a lovely woman named Marci who was much more of a “creative person” than a “business person.” The latter comes in handy when you, um, own a business. Oftentimes I would be left to my own devices for hours on end with no guidance or complete knowledge of how to operate the cash register. Many of the items in the store would mysteriously be devoid of price tags, and with no log or catalog of prices to be found I had to use my keen sense of intuition to make up a price….on the spot. A favorite memory of mine was a lovely summer day when one of the “ladies who lunched” stopped in and inquired on the price of a nice sized hanging fern.
“Ten dollars.” I said, with a slight hint of concern
“TEN dollars!” she gasped, her eyes popping out from the shadow of her visor.
“Um, seven…” I choked.
I learned later that ferns should go for around twenty-five dollars. Needless to say she bought it on the spot. This happened a few times.
However one interesting fact I did learn while working there was that flowers are apparently best during the month of September. This may or may not be true, although it makes some sense to me. It’s not too hot to dry out the soil and it’s not so bitter cold that nothing even wants to be living.
From then on I decided: I wanted Gerber Daises for my flowers. I wanted to be married in September.
Outside.
In a garden.
Looking something like this photo.
Or maybe something like this.
This would be nice too, you get the idea.
Our final decision? January 3rd in Chicago.
Clearly what I thought I wanted is not happening. So how did we go make this decision? Well as this wedding isn’t just about me, even though I am the bride, I took Jürgen’s desire to have a winter wedding into consideration. However it was my mom that initially put the idea of a New Years Eve wedding in my head.
Flashback to June of 2007 and we were in the car somewhere in Indiana en route to Louisville from Chicago talking about, well, weddings. As an actor I have met many actor couples that have chosen to be married on a Monday, which is the “dark day” for a theatre person. However, I wasn’t crazy about that idea, but at the same time most of my friends are in the business and I would want them to be in attendance. Whatever would I do? It was then when my mom pointed out that New Years Eve is a day when 99% of the world is off of work, along with New Years day. Plus people are always looking for something to do. I loved this idea! How much fun! I began to reconsider my September idea altogether. If you have not put two and two together, I was not, in fact, engaged at this point, but rather being extremely girly.
Fast-forward to February of 2008 and I am now engaged. With my new love for the idea of a New Years Eve wedding we began to look into venues for that day. We did not look far because for one New Years is quite possibly one of the most expensive days to be married. Hotels are booked and at a premium months in advance. Most importantly one of my initial favorite possible reception sites wasn’t open on NYE. Hmmmmm. After a few days of wondering it finally dawned on me to, oh I don’t know, consult a calendar. It occurred to me that NYE ’08 falls on a Wednesday. Meaning 99% of the world will be off on Thursday. Leading me to conclude that a good 93% of the world will probably say “screw Friday, I’m not going into work for one day.” Therefore, a perfect travel day for our many out of town guests! Also (and I didn’t know this at the time) the Saturday after NYE is one of the LEAST expensive days to be married. Hotel rates are at the lowest for the year, and many receptions sites are more than willing to cut you a deal because that first Saturday heralds the “slow time of year”. What a lucky coincidence. Thank goodness for the leap year!
So that, fellow readers, is how we came to choose January 3rd. Picking the date is probably the most important step in planning, after saying yes of course.