Choosing THE Date.

The days after Matt proposed to me were a blur. Our families threw us an impromptu engagement party, I was given numerous bridal magazines (more than I could take back on the plane with me to Korea!) and I even tried on the one and only wedding dress I will try on until my actual one (more on that later). Along with being bombarded of all things marriage from family and friends, Matt and I found ourselves talking secretly behind closed doors about the wedding. 

Figuring out when to have the wedding proved a bit difficult, at least at first. The biggest reason why we chose to hash out the details in private is because the two of us had already talked a lot about signing on for a third year in Korea, and we had yet to tell our parents. It was hard enough explaining our reasoning to stay a second year, and we hadn’t even begun our second year yet, let alone a third! Our families automatically assumed that we’d be home the following February and would have the wedding sometime shortly after. Not wanting to disappoint, we came up with a plan.

Our plan involves staying a third year in Korea, planning the wedding from afar, and going home to get married during our summer vacation. Crazy? Yes. Doable? Definitely. We knew we weren’t the only ones on the planet that planned their weddings from abroad, we knew we could handle it. When it came down to it, choosing to have a long engagement (19 months) has allowed us to save for the wedding without worrying or going into debt, and gives us a lot of time to make it a true reflection of us. 

Sure, it’s going to be pretty stressful stepping off the plane exactly 3 weeks before “I do”, only having to get right back on a flight one week after the wedding. A month at home to do one of the most important things in our lives seems a little cheap. But we’re staying positive, telling ourselves that it will be more meaningful when time is of the essence. 

One good thing about only having a month to pull off a wedding is that we didn’t have to think too much about the date. We literally had two weekends to choose from. We ended up choosing the 18^th because we were engaged on January 18^th, eight eighteen has a nice ring to it (a nice sparkly one!), and my Jewish friends say that 18 is a really lucky number. Actually, 18 in Hebrew is Chai, which translates to “life”. Perfect.