The journey has begun!

"The rock feels like it's found it's proper home on the ring finger...a week of adjusting and now I can't remember what my finger looked like when it was bare. Now we're ready - - - wedding planning starts today. let the madness begin!" :0)

This was a post on facebook on August 10th, one week after being engaged. The seven day journey we have now been on tells me that I need a blog - I need to capture every moment of this creation of a life together, every moment of ahhhh's and every moment of madness. If this can help anyone who sets foot to create an indian wedding from scratch, great. If it's just for me....well let's just say, I'm hoping that it will be an outlet that keeps me in check and keeps me sane during this time! :-)

So far, we have done....nothing.....well, that's not true....we have done LOTS....we just have nothing secured....meaning dates, venues, etc. In the first week of being engaged, the order of priority was to:

1. Shut off all phones and all modes of communication for at least a couple days. As my dad said "The day you get engaged is the most special day of your life (before having children!). The wedding turns into a show, and nothing signifies the love of two people more than the day you get engaged"
2. Get the ring insured
3. Get the ring adjusted so that it fits - securely
4. Keep looking at it, bedazzled, until it starts resting in a grove on your finger and it starts feeling comfortable.


It took me about a week to adjust to having something on my ring finger - a finger that has been sacredly empty for 32 years! But now it feels like it has found it's home, and I can't imagine my finger without the bling. :-)


1. The second week, the order of priority was to find a wedding planner.
We both live in Chicago, I am from LA, and he is from here. Hence we wanted the wedding to be in San Francisco - several reasons - beach, back to the West Coast, we were supposed to be living there, etc etc etc. So, per the plan, I found a great indian wedding planner out there. Talked to her over the phone several times, and discovered the most beautiful venues that comprised exactly what we wanted.

2. However, to begin looking at venues, one must know approximately how many guests may attend. Indian weddings - - - - so, 200? 300? 400? 900? hmmmm.....so we had to back up and put our estimated guest list together. My dear Saurab comes from an extremely large family (80 close direct family members) and I come from an extremely small family who is in the States. Talk about un-even numbers - - - so then how in the world did his guest list and my guest list equally come to about 300 people? That's it - I have too many friends!!! :-)

3. So, 300 people - venue on or near a beach. Shouldn't be a problem, right? RIGHT....think again. If a venue was large enough, it wouldn't allow indian caterers, if a venue allowed indian food, it couldn't hold more than 200 people. And then there were the oh so cliche hotels. Now I understand why so many indian people get married in Westins, Mariotts, Hiltons and the like - - - huge ballrooms and they allow indian food! Ah-ha....there is always a method to the maddness. Indian food or not, I still don't like the notion of getting married or having a reception in a ballroom.....it's like being in an airport....after a while you loose sight of whose wedding you are attending, and even what city you are in. Not my preference (which probably means i'll be sitting in a hotel ballroom come July next year)!

4. So...there is one exception....I don't REALLY consider the Ritz to be a hotel. C'mon....the Ritz is always a piece of art....that's deviation away from "hotel" right? Certainly when the Ritz is the one on Half Moon Bay. The wedding planner showed us this site, and I just about fell over. It was EVERYTHING I was looking for. EVERYTHING. Except for the price. To do an Indian 4-day event-type wedding, there is no way you can scoot out of a $150K price tag at the Ritz. Sorry. Not looking to start our "I do's - forever and always" in debt. Well, there goes that plan!

Guess we have to keep looking....

The journey continues to the next few days where a three hour exercise determined that SF was NOT the destination for the "I do's". More to come tomorrow....since he's already expressing his lack of desire to sit with me as I keep writing the rest of this post! So much FUN!