I'm engaged.

Congrats to you.

By far, the most important thing is to make sure your wedding takes place late enough in the afternoon so you can get 18 holes in.

 

Congrats

The more simple the better with a wedding.

Hiring the local high school strings dept. is a classy touch that does not cost much.

 

That's a helluvan idea.

 

Gonna have a lot of weddings this year on SJ, it seems.

Congratulations, BBAM, I hope you both have many years of happiness.

 

Congrats, BBAM.

Will you get married at a ballpark or a soccer field?

 

Wait you are marrying Mrs. Johnson?

Confusing?

Shouldn't you be marrying Ms. Big Buckin' Agate Monkey to be?

Man she's getting screwed on the last name.

 

God, not Pachabel's Canon. I would suggest for her, 'The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba' by Handel.

You'll need a really good organist or group to play it though.

 

No no ... she's MS. Johnson ... or should it be Miss? I dunno. Anyways, she's the future Mrs. BBAM.

 

Make sure you have Burger King available at the reception. And the reception must have Fat Tire, karaoke and the Macarena.

In all seriousness, I'd talk to your fiancee to make sure that anyone you absolutely want to be part of your wedding is. Don't let her dictate how "her" wedding is supposed to go. It's your wedding, as in the collective you. You both should be happy with the wedding.

If there's something you're uncomfortable with, make sure you let your fiancee know. If she wants a lavish wedding and you want something simple, you both are going to have to find a way to compromise to make it work.

 

BBAM -- congrats!!!

For the wedding plans - first things first... you two need to decide who's going to pay.. go old fashioned and have the bride's parents pay, both parents split the cost, or are you two going to be independent and pay for it yourselves?

Then decide if you want a big or small wedding .. invite everyone you know or keep it limited to family, and close friends/co-workers.

The Save the Date card should be simple, plain, and maybe even a postcard type thing if you're looking to save money. For the invitation, since most people (except for the wedding couple and some family members) will throw the invitation out shortly after the event, make it nice, but it doesn't need to have bows, lace, or any frilly things like that. If you don't want to spend hours upon hours looking at invitations, do what I did, send the future Mrs. and her mother out to look at invitations, pick their favorites and then show the favorites to you. In my case, they picked 3 "ok" looking invitations and 1 great looking one, with the intention of getting me to pick the great one and it worked.

For ceremony location and food/catering, that will depend on your budget and if the reception hall offers its own catering services.

In terms of DJ vs. band. DJ will probably be cheaper, band will add some class. Might be best if you can find a band that doesn't mind playing some songs off CDs. That way for some songs you can hear the music the way you want - by the artist - and for the party the band can get people moving. This also gives you the advantage of having the band throw on a CD of some songs you want while they take a break.

 

Fixed. And by football, I mean the real football, not that American game.

f-t and Joe,

At ease. She very much wants my input and we have similar visions for our wedding. We're looking to save money where we can, but have a memorable wedding and an enjoyable party. She is already saying, "It's OUR wedding ... what do you think about this?"

It should be noted, this happened almost three weeks ago ... sorry, SportsJournalists.com, you weren't my first stop to announce this. We're well into the planning process ... I'm gathering info on reception sites, she's figuring out the church. We've put together an invite list.