Hi...I've been lurking for a month or two, thought it was about time for me to say hello, now that I've officially turned 40 this past weekend. :-)
I'm Carolyn, and my fiance is Gary (45). This will be my first marriage, his second. But I went about things backwards - traditional I am not! I have three boys (16, 10, and 8) and Gary has always wanted kids but doesn't have any (well, soon he will!) We live in Oklahoma, and the wedding will be on 11/19/11...in the loft of a historic round barn.
I'm planning a small wedding. Actually I would have been happy to elope and skip the whole wedding thing entirely, but Gary (and our Moms) wouldn't hear of it. I still have days where I wish I was running off, as the whole wedding planning thing is just overwhelming some days. The nice thing about getting married at 40 I've discovered is I could care less about what other peopel think, and so I'm throwing some of the typical wedding traditions out the door. I'm skipping the garter and boquet toss, all the dances (everyone else can dance if they want but I have two left feet!), no STDs or programs or a gazillion other things I see on other boards. :-) I'm doing my own flowers, ordering them online from Sam's and fiftyflowers. It's an afternoon wedding, so I'm doing my own food too - which will be really simple, just fruit, veggies, dips, cheese and crakers. And of course there will be cake - lots of cake! (I'm not doing my own cake though.) I am designing my own invites and such (free download of Adobe Illustrator 30 day trial - need to get them printed before my 30 days runs out!). Centerpieces will be wine/vodka bottles sans labels with orchids. Boquets will be primarily hydrangeas (I think, I keep changing my mind)- purple for me, white for my sister (she and the best man are the extent of the bridal party.)