Wedding Journal

TheKnot.com has this semi-useful "Planning Calendar" page that breaks down, by month, what tasks a bride-to-be should be addressing. I say "semi-useful" for two reasons: 1) It assumes that the bride is starting her planning a full 12 months or more the event (I maintain that it's possible to pull off a nice wedding in a much smaller span of time) and 2) Some of the suggestions seem a bit silly, or at the very least directed toward a fairly high-class audience.

Case in point: At 8-10 months, the calendar suggests, "Decide what type of entertainment you want. A pianist for the cocktail hour, strolling violinists, a DJ, or band?" The general advice is sound, but strolling violinists? (Meanwhile, I'm debating whether to hire a DJ or just figure out how to hook my laptop up to a sound system and pray to the Party Shuffle gods that we get a good playlist.)

Granted, some of my cynicism has to do with the choices that we're making for our wedding, both to keep costs down and out of practicality. But now that I'm actually planning a wedding for myself rather than thinking fancifully of one, it seems especially clear the degree to which big wedding sites play to that fantasy wedding -- and the jaw-dropping costs that result (more money for The Knot, its advertisers and the rest of the bridal industry).