I hear wedding bells in the distance

Wedding planning. Sounds fun, exciting, even exhilarating. And don’t get me wrong- it is!! Well, for the first few weeks, at least… After having traveled to Colombia to look at places for a wedding, being sick all the while there, and still having to get up at early to continue on the relentless hunt, when every day on that “vacation” rains, and no one is cooperative in terms of negotiation for the wedding venue, and every place you look at won’t reserve a year in advance or guarantee the place six months in advance, When the car you depend on  to get everywhere breaks down and your suitcases never arrived in the airplane and the “vacation” is almost over and still they’re not there… somewhere along the way it stops being so much excitement and unbridled fun..
Well, basically that describes my “vacation’ to Colombia. Allow me to explain.
When I got engaged last month…(oh yes, to those who didn’t get the memo, I’m ENGAGED!!!) I decided, or rather, ‘we’ (I keep forgetting that now it’s probably gonna be more ‘we’ than ‘me’ from now on out) ok we decided we wanted the wedding to be in Colombia. Reasons? Expenses, and guests, to be precise. Basically, we could have a very nice wedding over there for much less ($$) and all my family could come while so could his, they could all travel, get to know the wonderful country, and all my best friends are in South America, so the maid of honor and bridesmaids all there etc. It was a brilliant idea, to be sure, and so I decided to pool my restricted vacation time from work and take a quick trip down there to look at places. I could only afford a week off, in other words that’s the only time off available I had. So I merrily bought my ticket with Delta, never dreaming what a nightmare Delta could turn out to be, and gladly I packed my bags and got on the plane. To make an endlessly long story short, they never landed in time for my next connection flight in Atlanta, ended up leaving me stranded in said airport for 24 hours ‘till the next flight to Bogota’, and had it not been for my thoughtful fiancée who booked me a hotel online so I could take a shuttle and rest for the night, I would’ve probably lost it… Having missed my second connecting flight in Colombia, things weren’t really looking that hopeful. That is, until my wonderful fiancée called me and after hearing my despairing voice decided to book the next flight to Atlanta and join me the next day on the trip to Colombia. At this point, of course, my tears dried up and the semblance of a smile lit my face once  more.  
We arrived safely in Colombia the next night, and all things looked better.
AS soon as we arrived to my parent’s home then, the wedding planning started. Of course I ended up sick like I related above, suitcase never arrived, all the places we tried to get for the wedding were a total mess of complications, and I was ready to throw the towel when we found a wedding planner and our troubles seemed done with. All things then being taken care of, we happily returned to the states- and dare I mention I have NEVER before in my life been so happy to be back. I suppose it was because I had a miserable time and I even lost my voice over there due to that malicious cold. Ben however, had the time of his life, and at least for that I’m grateful.
So… Are we done with the wedding planning?? Pardon the expression, but, hell no! apparently, it has just begun. Because, you see, due to several complications and traveling issues with various (groom side of the family) guests,  we decided to cancel having the wedding over there.
So, yes, my dear people, the wedding will be in beautiful Fort Worth. Ah, but the planning has but begun. The endless hunting for the right church or chapel, and the reception place is just begun. And the most exciting part of it, (sarcastically speaking), is that almost all places are already booked for next year. So here we go. But it’s still fun. Visualizing yourself in that white dress walking down that aisle in that beautiful chapel- until , reality check, it’s prohibitively expensive to even think about booking… or, no, not really. One gets married only once in a lifetime. So, let’s hope all goes well, and next year, well- let’s just say there will be a new Mr. and Mrs. Batiste  forming a family and we will all want you to enjoy the moment with us.
So those be my thoughts wedding-wise for today. I’m afraid I must now get on the phone again for the thousandth time to see if we can still get that Robert Carr chapel for the wedding…wait!? Was I not supposed publicize that?? Oh well.Too late!!
Ps- comments are appreciated