Enough about the Linens! —Wedding Planning from the male perspective

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Hi!  It's Sam.As you undoubtedly know, Caitlin and I are in the midst of planning a wedding. We are both really excited to get married and share that special day with our friends and family. I’m sure that every couple ever feels that way, but I’m also fairly sure that the majority of engaged couples feel that planning their wedding is a rather stressful endeavor. I guess it’s just the nature of the beast, really; there are just several factors that make planning a wedding very difficult at times. I mean, planning events that involve feeding and entertaining a large group of people are always hard. It’s very easy to get stressed out when so many different people (a photographer, a florist, a caterer, etc.) are involved in making your event a success. Furthermore, it’s you’re wedding! Society has created this stigma that your wedding has to be the most perfect day of your life or else it’s a total failure (that’s at least 5,000 more stress points to count for those of you keeping score at home). In addition, this entire wedding related anxiety escalates when you realize that you only get one shot at it. Sure, divorce and other things happen and some people will have more than one wedding in their life, but when you’re planning your wedding it’s not something that you’re planning on doing again. All of these things combined cause millions of brides every year to be subjected to the evil wedding planning virus (also known as weddingplaneosis, bridezillitis, or bitchophrenia). Caitlin’s good attitude and sense of humor have helped immunize her against the symptoms of this planning related pathogen, but even for a girl who manages stress well planning a wedding can be rather taxing. And then there’s the man in the picture, seemingly on the sidelines, wanting to help, but not really knowing how to do so. That may seem like a shocker, the fact that your significant other actually wants to help with the wedding plans, but I think it’s true. I’m not saying that the man in the equation is concerned about color schemes. I’m not even saying that he cares a fig whether or not you have napkin rings (what is the point of those things anyway?), but I am saying that he loves you (heaven knows he probably wouldn’t be marrying you if that wasn’t the case) and wants to make pulling off a decent wedding as stress free as possible. So, here are some of my tips for guys and girls that will hopefully help encourage more male involvement in wedding planning.