Anyone who knows me knows how much I love weddings...I mean big letters and exclamation points...LOVE WEDDINGS! I watch things about them on tv, I read magazines and look at dresses online. I have had mine planned in varying shades of pink since I was probably fourteen. Just the idea of people vowing to share their lives together and share their love with friends and family and food and music...it really does make me happy. It is the hopeless romantic in me still clinging to the idea that someday I am going to meet my Prince Charming and we will live happily ever after together somewhere in our own little castle secretely pitying all of the people who have yet to find a love like ours. The idea of wedded bliss gives me hope, and I need that, I count on it.

But never before in my life have I ever been so close to the idea of matrimony as I am at this very minute. It's not me, my Prince Charming is still looking for me (hey, I'm right here in NYC...come find me!) But suddenly my close friends are discussing the topic marriage, and not in that slumber-party-I've-got-a-crush-on-Will-Smith kind of way, but in that "I met a man in Rome and we're getting married" Father of The Bride kind of way. Rings are already being selected and furniture is being purchased and I am wondering if I am going to need to write a speech for a congratulatory toast soon. I suppose it is right on schedule, most of us are getting to the quarter-century mark and suddenly coupling is more than a matter of pride, it is a matter of love. I thought I would be ready, but all of a sudden I am not so sure. I still love weddings, and I love my friends, and I even love the stupid games that our mom's will inevitably make us play at the showers, but I can't help being a little unsure. Until now, weddinsg were never tangible, just a fun way to pass the time on a Saturday afternoon as I tried on gowns in some boutique (yeah, I know, but it was SO much fun!)

I am totally happy for my friends who have found "the one" and get to have that special kind of love forever. I am prepared to helo in anyway I can, after all, I am the party-planner extraordinaire and much like Monica in Friends, I've all of the ideas together and just need to put them in a big annoying binder! So here goes nothing...my plan of attack will be to treat it like a game of hide-n-seek: close my eyes, count to ten, take a deep breath and then shout "Ready or not, here I come!"