My killer green sapphire ring, designed by FH and me with a lovely actress friend who "daylights" at Reinstein Ross in Manhattan.

When my spectacular future husband and I got engaged in December 2008, I was thrilled for a million reasons having mainly to do with the lifelong partnership I plan to enjoy with the best person I have ever met in my life… but there was also a piece of me that was excited for the chance to put years of non-profit benefit planning to work on an event I could truly put my own stamp on (no worrying about board members’ favorite flowers or peanut allergies).

Since our engagement began, Russ and I have spent countless hours plotting an event that will reflect both our separate identities and our shared passions, our disparate pasts and the life we’ve built together in our well-loved Brooklyn apartment with our two freakball cats.

Lola

We know it will have to incorporate tons of live music and lots of crafty but (hopefully) elegant touches, that it will exude love and warmth to combat the cold February weather, and that to to make it all happen in New York, we’ll have to be militant about the budget.

The hardest part of all of this may well be convincing ourselves that the answer to our money concerns can’t be to do it all ourselves, at least not if we want to be sane and functional on the big day, with hair done, shoes shined and minds focused for our walk down the aisle. My goal is to prepare as much as I can as well as I can and then just let go and enjoy the day! No sweating of small stuff allowed.