Wedding mode: engage!

That's right, it's time for me to start cracking.  We have a venue, we have a date--I can finally start planning this wedding in earnest!

What's that you say? You thought I was already planning a wedding? Well, yes, I was. But now it's really really REAL. Now I have a target--an end goal.Something to work toward that actually exists outside of my mind.

Speaking of the end goal--I think that's a large part of my wedding jealousy I've been experiencing. I've done some thinking, and here's what I've come up with:

I wanted to be the only one planning a wedding.

It wasn't just that I was jealous of my friend having a date and engagement pictures already (although I definitely was). I just wanted my engagement period to focus on MY engagement. If there were going to be engagement pictures on Facebook, I wanted them to be MINE. I wanted to be the one posting cryptic messages about "don't make any plans for XX/XX/2013!" I wanted other people to be excited about my wedding, and no one else's.

The problem was that I didn't HAVE a wedding at that point. I had a dress and some foggy ideas.

Now, though, I HAVE A WEDDING. A date and a location. That's all we really need. Will we have more than that? Hell yes! Flowers, vows, the whole nine yards (as long as the nine yards are cheap and practical).

I was jealous of my friend's progress because I didn't feel like I was making any. It wasn't about her, really, at all--we're friends, and I'm so excited that she's getting married, because this has been a long time coming. It was about me--I was feeling left out of my own engagement period, left behind by someone who had gotten engaged AFTER me.

Is this the end of my wedding jealousy? Probably not. I'm sure that as time passes, I'll see things that I want but just can't afford, or wish that my invitations were a little classier, or my engagement pictures were a little more unique--but that's for later. Right now, I'm just going to be happy that I have a wedding date--and that it's before my friend's. :P

AAAAHHHH

You guys.

You guys.

AAAAHHHHHH!

We may have a wedding date. That means we are having a freaking wedding, you guys.

AAAHHHH!

Corollary to the wedding jealousy discussion I'm having with myself

So relationship pictures. You know, the cuddly, sweet, "look at my BF isn't he the cutest" pictures that every new couple seems to post on Facebook every five minutes? Yeah, those.

I hate those.

For a while I think it was just bitterness--I wasn't in a relationship, so I automatically despised any photos of couples in a relationship. I was all "why do they get to be so happy when I'm so lonely, wah wah, blah blah."

Then I started being legitimately annoyed by them. Because relationship pictures are a form of bragging, a form of showing off your perfect couple-dom, how well your head fits under his chin or how perfectly you're able to match outfits with your sweetie. Even if someone isn't intentionally posting relationship pictures with the thought that "haha, now everyone will be jealous of my relationship," that's basically what's going on somewhere in that sweet, chin-tuck-under-able head. Even when you are in a relationship, seeing how someone else's relationship is "better" (or at least, more photogenic) than yours--it's frustrating. And I have a very low tolerance for other people bragging.

So for me, my very least favorite thing about Facebook is when I log in and "Blondey McPretty posted 27 new photos to the album Our Engagement Pictures." I don't need to see 15 pictures of Blondey and Hunky snuggling on the couch or holding a banner with their wedding date emblazoned on it. I don't care to see Blondey's engagement ring in 6 different illogical locations, like on a tree branch or perched atop a cupcake. So Blondey and Hunky are planning their wedding faster than I am. Perfect. Great. That makes my little breaks from work SO much better and less stressful.

But the weird thing is? I love other people's engagement and wedding pictures. On Pinterest, on blogs, anywhere else on the internet--as long as it's not someone I know, I like to see a couple looking into each other's eyes or giddy with excitement. I just can't stand seeing my own friends posting those photos on Facebook.

Am I the only grumpy old woman who feels this way? Maybe I take it too personally--after all, Blondey and Hunky aren't really posting their engagement pictures to make ME feel inadequate. I should just be happy that they've got a friend with a camera and want to show off their love a bit. But I know my Facebook friends don't care how my wedding planning is going--so why do they think that we care about theirs?