It’s September and it’s been seven weeks since our engagement on July 28, 2012 in Jemez Springs. I never understood why some newly-engaged girls do not start their wedding planning right away after getting the ring. Heck, some girls even start planning before they get a ring on their fingers!

But not this girl! I sheepishly stalked wedding blogs, careful not to get too excited about planning a wedding before I knew for sure I had a wedding to plan at all. I did not want to jinx things, after all!

But I always insisted, the moment I got engaged, I would rush off right away to planning my wedding, indulging in all sorts of eye candy from pretty white dresses to flowers and twinkly decorations.

But alas, I did not.

We had a good month to let the engagement soak in and enjoy our new status as a couple without fretting about colors and venues and tablecloths, and worst of all, money and budgets! But now it’s time to get to work, especially since the number one question from everyone’s mouths is “have you set a date for the wedding yet?” I have not quite figured it out why when you tell someone you are engaged, their first reaction is “congratulations…when is the date?” Did I miss something here? Was I actually supposed to be planning the wedding before the engagement? Who knows.

So now, where to start?

I haven’t even started planning and I already feel overwhelmed! Silly me, for so many years I have laughed at other brides on TV shows and how they turn this one simple, romantic union and celebration into a chaotic circus. I had no idea what was involved and that it’s hard not to get a little worked up over choosing the perfect dress or perfect table centerpiece. I was so naive to think that a wedding, as long as it was not a ridiculous circus celebration of 300+ guests, should be easy and stress-free.

As a matter of fact, I’m finding that it’s really easy to get carried away with the details of the wedding — the details you will likely not notice on the day or your wedding — and to forget the real reason you are having this wedding.

Bryce and I love camping so much that I thought it would be a brilliant idea to have a small outdoor wedding in the woods with camping involved. I figured it could be relaxing, just like when we go camping, and there would not be much planning involved since we have done the camping gig many of weekends.

But I’m finding that even a small, simple wedding could have a lot more involved than I expected, especially when you are expecting a simple, low-budget camping wedding to look like the gorgeous, flawless dream weddings you see many girls posting online these days. So many questions arise since this sort of thing has not been done many times before.

How do we find a location? How will we haul everything out to a remote camping spot? Who will set up the decorations on the day of the wedding? How will we cook? How will the bride and groom get ready? How do we plan for bad weather? How do we get food cooked and desserts set up? How do guests get to their lodging at the end of the day if they don’t want to camp?

It has occurred to me, that not only am I making a wedding more difficult by wanting a gorgeous dream wedding I’ve seen pictured online, but I’m making it more difficult by wanting a camping wedding that no one has done before.

I have never planned a wedding before, much less attended but one wedding in my lifetime. It’s pretty clear I have no idea what I’m doing. But somehow, I’ve got to put it all together, and perhaps without the help of my fiance, who just last week hinted to the idea of metal chairs for the ceremony and engagement photos taken inside a studio. Obviously, he hasn’t spent as much time on Pinterest as I have, conjuring up ideas of the perfect dream wedding.

Oh well. Here goes nothing!