The Media Maven: Planning Your Wedding Before Meeting Your Groom

By Rachael Smith, Alumna of Radford University

Commonly known as one of the best days in a gal’s life is her wedding day and whether you want it big or small, in spring or fall, you will probably devote months of planning to make it perfect.

Since its launch in 2010, Pinterest has been a go-to site for future brides to plan for centerpieces, dresses, hair styles, bridesmaid colors and photography. Many wannabe brides would say this is completely sane and is just for fun, however, one single woman took this one step further and took action on her wedding plans.

ABC News reports that 34-year-old Kate Owens was so keen on having the perfect wedding that she went as far as to plan it 10 years before she even met her groom.

Some might argue that planning a wedding is something the bride and groom do together. Some grooms want a say on some aspects of the big day, but Owens took charge by herself.

Owens booked her band, picked out her dress, her bridesmaid dresses, the venue, flowers and even consulted with a wedding planner all a decade before she would actually wed.

“I think some people probably thought I was nuts,” Owens told ABC News.

According to The New York Times, Owens is not alone. The Times reports that in 2011, 40 percent of the 20,000 users of The Knot were not even engaged, and the Weddingbee found that 14,974 of their users from 2012 had admitted they were not yet engaged also but were planning their wedding.

It’s fun to daydream about your first dance and what songs might play and the crazy things you will do for your bachelorette party, but beyond all those things, clinical psychologist Dr. Lisa Morse told readers of The New York Times to be warned.

"... I think for some people this becomes a way of taking away their anxiety or refocusing their anxiety away from their real concern, which is meeting somebody," Morse said.

As we grow older and we begin to watch our friends get engaged and start planning their dream wedding, it’s easy to become envious and want that for ourselves and that is OK ... to an extent.

Don’t get caught up in all the tiny details of what that day will be like because so many things could change between now and then. Be carefree, go have fun while you’re single and when the time is right, Mr. Right will come around!

Image courtesy of Aleksandr Kutsayev / FreeDigitalPhotos.net