wedding porn addiction

As most brides (and some grooms for that matter) know, wedding inspiration is addictive.

For me, it started with The Knot but I soon realized that most of the photos on there were either out of reach for us financially speaking or simply didn't mesh with our tastes. Though I was stuck in the traditional wedding mindset for the first 6 months of our engagement, photos from traditional magazines and websites never seemed right to me because they often didn't match my love of all things handmade, crafty, colorful, and rustic.

Shortly after that, I discovered the world of wedding blogs. And although I am eternally grateful that I did because blogs like A Practical Wedding, Offbeat Bride and 2000 Dollar Wedding offered me a great sense of perspective which I desperately needed, they also provided something else that consumes thousands of engaged people: wedding porn.

Beautiful photos of lavish weddings with every detail meticulously thought out and carefully executed are scattered throughout the wedding blog world. It's so pretty and so inspiring, but it's also scary. On one hand, I will be forever grateful that I had so much wedding inspiration because it allowed us to add details (like a photo booth and tissue paper pom poms) to our wedding that we may not have thought to add otherwise.

On the other hand, however, it has the ability to drive me completely nuts when I see projects that I simply must recreate. It took me a long time to realize that the handmade, DIY details of wedding blogs is just as addictive as the $40,000+ weddings featured on The Knot. This is especially true for me because I often refuse to pay for anything if I think I can do it myself. I knew I could make my own jewelery, decorations for the tent, ring pillow... the list goes on and on. If I thought for a second that I had the ability to make tablecloths, I gladly would have made some rather than pay $10 to rent one.

So when I open up my blog feed and see tons of blogs that are consistently featuring weddings with mondofabulous details, I get excited and try to add more things to my to-do list. It's the kid in the candy store complex. Let me tell you, the "wedding folder" on my computer is full of projects that I would love to have at our wedding. Unfortunately, with 11 days to go, there simply isn't time. Or energy.

Given this time and energy constraint, I've decided to remove some of the inspiration-only sites that consume my mind. As much as I love the inspiration that comes from wedding shoots like this one (*swoon*), it's time to let go of the details that we don't have the time, energy or (let's face it) money to complete this close to the wedding.

Part of me is sad to see them go and part of me is ridiculously relieved because I'm already up to my ears in DIY projects. Although it sounds like I'm complaining, I know I wouldn't have it any other way. I love making things and I love the fact that our wedding will consist of things that I've made or that were made through a joint effort through the help of family, friends and Mr. FP.

There's no regrets here, I just realized that I need to stop before I go completely nuts. Remember the whole idea of "keeping it simple"? Yeah, what the hell happened to that? Here's to hoping that the downsized blog feed will help us to return to that.