For those of you who don’t know, I’m originally from Southern Illinois – home of Charlie Birger and smack dab in the middle of the Shawnee National Forest. My hometown is about 3.5 hours from Nashville.

Although I never really dreamed about or imagined my wedding as a little girl, I’d always figured I would get married  at one of the hometown churches from my childhood. (I church-hopped a few times while I was growing up.) Of course, I never imagined I’d grow up and move away to Nashville either.

As Philip and I began planning for our wedding here in Franklin, we realized we’d need to plan for a few events at home in Harrisburg too. My beautiful bridesmaids are planning a bridal shower for us at my Aunt and Uncle’s home there and we’re also planning a post-wedding celebration in Harrisburg shortly after we return from the honeymoon.

To help my hometown friends and family and show our support for two of my favorite local businesses, we created wedding registries at two places unique to Harrisburg – Durham’s Hardware and Dream Baskets.

Durham’s Hardware has been around for as long as I can remember. If you’re looking for something for your home, kitchen, garden, etc., they will help you find it. That place is chock full of great stuff. I’m serious. If you ever need anything regarding home improvement, repair, cookware, lawn/garden care, and so forth, you call Janet at (618) 253-4817. If they don’t have it, they’ll lead you in the right direction. Such good people. Not to mention, their wedding registry setup is pretty darn cool. If you’re looking to purchase something from our registry, you head over to Durham’s and look for the display rack with our names on it. They have everything conveniently assembled and on display for you to browse through. Perfect.

Dream Baskets is a long-time favorite gift store of mine. They carry beautiful home items and accessories including lovely things from TAG. We selected several items from the TAG whiteware, dinnerware and entertaining lines. Whether you’re a bride-to-be or an expectant mother, I highly recommend registering with Dream Baskets. The staff is friendly and helpful and Julie, the owner, always keeps the store well-stocked with the latest and greatest gift ideas and home trends. If you’re in the area, go by and check out our registry OR stop in for a tasty selection from their lunch menu. Click here to visit their website or here to visit the blog. (And thanks for the shoutout to Becoming Mrs. Dial last week!)

I wish I could say I took photos during our Adventures in Wedding Registry Land, but I did not. I do, however, have some photos of the latest pieces of jewelry I’ve received for my vintage brooch bouquet! Stay tuned!

I’ve GOT to catch you up on things. Life seems to be moving at the speed of light these days!

Back on Valentine’s Day weekend, Philip and I devoted an entire day to registering for gifts. This was a piece of advice given to us by several of our recently married friends who said spreading it out over a week or two only made things more stressful…and we are ALL about keeping things as stress-free & simple as possible.

So yes…ONE WHOLE DAY devoted to registering & slowing down to talk about and plan for our future “nest” together. We made a leisurely day out of it, spending the first 3 hours of our day at Bed, Bath & Beyond. We had a blast. I’m pretty sure Philip’s favorite part was the scanner gun thing. Hehe. The folks at BB&B were great. Very helpful. NOT overbearing by any means. Plus, their return policy is great. Here are a few of the kajillion items we selected:

After scanning nearly everything we could ever imagine needing or wanting there, we decided to grab a delicious, quiet lunch at Royal Thai in Cool Springs. After enjoying a tasty meal, we headed to Green Hills to create a registry at Williams-Sonoma. Here are some of the lovelies we added to our registry there:

We rounded out the rest of our day by strolling through the Hill Center in Green Hills to window-shop and then grabbed all the ingredients we would need for our home-cooked Valentine’s Day meal from Whole Foods.

Stay tuned for part 2 of Adventures in Wedding Registry Land!

Back on New Year’s Day, I told you about how I was focusing on being a conscious bride and shared that I was reading a book aptly titled “The Conscious Bride” by Sheryl Paul. It was a quick read – around 220 pages in length.

In her book, Paul covers issues EVERY bride needs to think about as she nears the wedding.

Eloquently written with testimonials and first-hand perspectives from brides and wives peppered throughout the book, the wisdom and realism I gleaned were priceless.

Of the many, many nuggets of enlightenment I ascertained, here are two of my favorites:

“Perfection belongs to the gods: completeness and wholeness is the most a human can hope for.”  (page 89)

“The fairy tale of happiness ever after cannot be taken seriously; it belongs to the neverland of childhood, which is protected from the realities that will become terribly known soon enough.” (page 90)

These are some pretty strong messages, huh? They’re also remarkably opposite of how the media (and society in general) tend to view how the bride should feel/be/act throughout the entire engagement and wedding process.

I’ve seen so many brides (and mothers-of-the-brides) fret over the tiniest details of the big day. And I totally get it. Us girls are groomed, from a VERY young age, to desire perfection, transformation, completion, wholeness, etc. We’re given…dress up clothes. Pretend make-up kits. Bride-to-be Barbie dolls. Kitchen play sets. A plastic vacuum cleaner with small multi-colored balls that pop and light up when it’s moved. All things we will one day get to “enjoy” once we’re old enough and thrust into the real world. Then BAM! Here we are. Twenty years later. In the middle of our stacks of laundry, dreading the idea of stepping into the kitchen to whip up a meal and avoiding the vacuum cleaner as long as possible.

Perhaps things aren’t necessarily as complete or perfect as we thought they’d be at this point in life…with age and wisdom comes the realization that life isn’t perfect. As much as we TRY to plan and make our big day as perfect as we’ve imagined it throughout all these years…the most we can truly hope for is completeness and wholeness.

That being said, I urge any brides reading this to take a step back and think about things for a moment. Are you freaking out over centerpieces? Have you snapped at one of your bridesmaids lately? Are you kinda confused about things? Perhaps a little sad? Not sure about who you are these days, much less who you’ll become after the wedding?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, IT’S OKAY. There. I said it. It’s okay if things aren’t perfect. Something probably will go wrong that day. So just identify and accept that fact and move on. At the end of the day, all that truly matters is that a marriage takes place and you and your new husband get to celebrate with your closest friends and family.

Also realize that it’s okay to be confused or feel unlike yourself. Paul identifies the engagement and wedding as a rite of passage – a death to the old self and birth of a new self – of a new way of life. IT’S OKAY to slow down, look inward and grieve for this loss or relinquishment of old identity. Be denying this process, you’re simply prolonging the frustration and grief.

I’m VERY thankful that Mrs. Liza Hippler, bridal coach and owner of Maiden to Married, encouraged me to read this book. Whether you’re a bride, a friend, a wife, a mother or someone just looking for a great, insightful read, I highly recommend “The Conscious Bride”.

As I continue to march toward our wedding day, I’m slowly letting go of the childhood fairy tale fantasy of perfection and I’m striving toward being present and whole in every moment leading up to and beyond my vows with Philip.

“The Conscious Bride” – Amazon.com

Sheryl Paul’s Conscious Weddings

Big Spoon+Little Spoon (another Nashville bride/groom) also reviewed “The Conscious Bride”