Going Bridal!

I'm starting this blog to deal with my increasing - and rather unwelcome obsession - with all things bridal.

I am most definitely NOT one of those girls who has dreamed her whole life about the one perfect day: the perfect dress, the location, the guy, the cake, the ceremony, the centerpieces. In fact, until about a year ago, I had no interest in getting married. That was a hard-won stance. Most of my friends got married about a decade ago, just as we all turned 30. At that time, I was eager to find a long-term boyfriend and settle down. However, things didn't go that way, and instead, I developed an amazing career that took me all over the world, meeting fascinating people. During my travels, I dated some amazing men, but all those relationships were clearly short-term. Both parties knew that I would soon be leaving, and often the cultural differences seemed too large to surmount over the long-term.

By 35, I had come to the conclusion that I would not get married, and set about building a happy and fulfilling single life. I had work I loved, many warm and wonderful friends around the world, and even young people in my life, thanks to those friends who had gotten married and procreated. I became a contentedly single gal, with my singleness very much part of my identity.

Cut to two years ago, when I met a brilliant and articulate young professor at a start-of-the-semester party. Though I didn't think much of it at the time, because I was involved with yet another unavailable man, who had just moved 3000 miles away from my and I was desperately trying to make the long distance relationship work, this professor would ask me out six months later, travel to the ends of the earth to visit me during my fieldwork, and eventually ask me to marry him.

Now, as I contemplate our wedding, the girl who was never gonna get married has become obsessed with all things bridal. I stay up late at night, surfing the internet, collecting ideas, reading etiquette columns, searching for dresses.

Though I had never imagined my wedding in detail, there's are a few key elements that I had always imagined would be part of it if I ever did get married: we'd be on a bluff over-looking the ocean, we'd be outside, and we'd be barefoot.

Enter One Barefoot Bride.