New and Exciting events.

Clearly I haven't written in a long time. In fact, you've probably all given up on me. But, I guess I should still post my most exciting news: I am engaged! On April 26th, after the better part of 5 years, Mark proposed to me, in our kitchen after a beautiful 3 course breakfast, flowers, and champagne. By now, you've probably already seen pictures of the ring, but I'll put one up anyway:
So, now the thing is, I have to have a wedding. Mark and I have tentatively set the date: Sept. 12, 2009. This means we have a long time to plan, which is great because:

1. We don't have any money. This includes me, Mark, and my parents. I'm thinking I can push the budget to about $7,000.... I already have $2900 put away, and I plan to make an extra thousand this summer, and I'm still trying to figure out where the other half comes from. Just for reference, the average (American) couple spends about 25 grand on a wedding. I think that's ridiculous, wasteful, American consumerism at its worst. Then again, it's easy for poor people to say that. And, I digress...
2. I want to incorporate as much environmental sensitivity as I can into the wedding. I won't say I'm planning an eco-friendly wedding, because weddings are, by nature, NOT eco-friendly.

Trying to work within these two limitations is going to be difficult, I know.

First off, part of me WANTS the Cinderella, super-glam wedding, (without the large guest list though... Mark's little sister got married a little while back, and had the most horrifyingly large number of attendees.... it was awful and so impersonal). So, I've got to get over these competing ideas in my head (one, which has been emphasized over and over again by corporate America, Martha Stewart, TV, etc, and the other, which I know is the better way to go). In general, not just with my wedding planning, I need to move beyond my materialism and wastefulness, and focus on being a more ecologically and socially responsible global citizen.

Secondly, organic anything (food, flowers, dresses) is super expensive, and may not even be that much better than traditional options. Also, the wedding is going to be in Mississippi, which is more or less LAST on the list of environmentally-sensitive states. So, I thought I would use this blog to list out this next year's journey, and how I have managed to be successful in cutting down our wedding's footprint, and what compromises I will have to make, to keep the whole thing in budget. We'll see.