What is it with themes? I've always hated those fancy dress parties that have you spending stupid amounts of money on items of clothing you wouldn't normally even pick up at a jumble sale just so you can fit in with some overriding but vague theme like "eighties", "heaven and hell" or, even worse, "French". I'd rather buy a nice outfit and be done.
That was certainly my attitude to the wedding - until, that is, it began to dawn on me that weddings are now like any other party and expected to be, in some small way at least, themed. Not necessarily in a garish, "everyone must wear devil horns" kind of way but in a subtle, personal sort of way.
Those pesky wedding magazines (which I'm beginning to think may be bad for me, my health and my bank account) are forever talking about what defines you "as a couple" and suggesting ways of incorporating this into your celebrations. I read of one couple who combined sand from both their travels as part of their ceremony - a beautiful sentiment but not one for us.
So, now I'm wondering what is "us". Travel is a big thing for us but I can't think of a non-tacky way of incorporating this, and Doug's first love is golf - something which definitely needs to be done right to avoid looking, well, hideous frankly. And even if we decide to sidestep all this theme nonsense, there's still the colour scheme to choose.
We've discussed deep purple and dark green, monochrome and neon brights; we've looked at bridesmaids dresses in Coast; we've even been to Homebase and picked up paint swatches - and we still simply don't know what we want. Every time we lean one way I see everything heading off into some hideously matchy matchy world where we all wear the same colour to tie in with the table centres which match the cake - and I want to scream.
So, do we need a colour scheme at all? Can we just pick what we like when we find it and to hell with the matching ribbons? Or would this look like a mish-mash of clashing colours on the day? Answers on a colour-coded postcard please....
