I once went to a seminar (Dale Carnegie I think it was), that gave the advice, “swallow the big frogs first”. By that she meant tackle the tasks you’re dreading the most. The rest will seem easier without the dreaded task(s) looming. Good advice I thought, but can’t say I’m good about following it. I am a major procrastinator! (Like last night I spent hours just looking for Trash the Dress inspiration even though there are much more important things I should have been working on.) So what looming tasks am I dreading?

Well one will be the making of the wedding CDs! I still love the idea and have a nice little collection of music going. I need to pick the songs that will go on the CD and still am wishing I had some more Aruba inspired music. The DJ gave me a few ideas that will hopefully help. I have this memory of walking downtown and there was all this fun fun music pouring out of the clubs! Reggaetone and other latin and blended music. You just wanted to start dancing! And I’m wondering what kind of music they play on the sailing excursion. The Mi Dushi sells a CD (called Mi Dushi I think). I would have loved to have been able to get a copy of the CD or even the list of songs, but don’t think that’s going to happen. I may ask one more time for the list, but really, I need to get to work on this (I asked for a list last weekend). All I reallly want is maybe 2 songs that will take people back to that sail! And what is the ‘Aruba Carnival’ music like? Maybe there’s some samba? Where would I even begin without being there.

Once the songs are selected, I need to do some more work on the CD label. What I have will work if I need it to, but I still think I can do better. And then there is designing the CD case. I found some cute plain white cardboard CD sleeves for like 40¢ each. Its one of those things that could be a fun project but getting started is hard. I’m just not terribly creative. (There’s a very good reason my career transitioned from graphic design to web development!)

Finally, along with the CD cases, I should go ahead and do the favor tags and stickers. Another one of those things that should be easy but like almost everything else, I make it more complicated than it needs to be!

Another thing I really need to get done is selecting my fruity ’signature cocktails’. Unfortunately we didn’t get to party in Aruba so I didn’t get to find out of there are any great local drinks. So, I just need to focus on finding something fruity and tropical (and not too heavy on the booze). If you have ideas, please share! They will be served for our cocktail hour on the beach.

– Oh, and that reminds me! One thing we are bummed out about for the reception — all glasses have to be PLASTIC! Even your champagne toast is done in a plastic glass. How tacky is that? But I guess it does make sense — guests walk around there barefoot. If something breaks they’d have a heck of a time getting all the pieces. And if the party is good enough you can pretty much bet at least one glass will get broken. So yes, I totally understand, but what a bummer. I don’t know yet if these are super cheap disposble plastic glasses or at least nicer reusable acrylic picnic glasses.

Anyway – I’m going to head out and buy the CDs as well as a couple of other errands. Shout out to the new brides I met this week! In particular the one who has not yet decided on Aruba (but hopefully will after visiting in January). Don’t let anything in my rants scare you off — please know that I’m super fussy and a little high strung and a bit of a control freak. As I said – I make everything harder than it has to be – just my personality. And my guy even KNOWS about this tendency! Anyway — my best advice is to try to just relax and have fun with it. Pick good vendors and then trust them to do a good job for you. And try to not get caught up in what you can’t have because there is plenty that you can have! I know I have a couple of emails to get to and promise to do so after I swallow at least one frog!