How Planning a Wedding is Like Baking Holiday Cookies
II’m not going to lie. I somehow wasn’t blessed with the family talent for baking and cooking. My Grandma was a wonderful cook. She could make simple pasta with butter and parmesan taste like the best thing in the world. My Mom cooks all types of different ethnic meals and has a wonderful recipe collection. My sister, well my sister went to baking and pastry school. Enough said.
Every year at Systemation we do a cookie exchange. I always participate and I always agonize about what cookie I am going to make and how it will turn out. This year I went for ginger snaps and luckily my sister, Ariel happened to be over at my house while I was making them. Whenever we cook together she always catches me doing something that makes her laugh. This year I couldn’t figure out how to get the butter grease off of the mixing bowl. The solution? Apparently you have to use hot water. Go figure.
As I was in the kitchen with my sister I started to wonder, is there a similarity between baking holiday cookies and wedding planning? Nice Carrie Bradshaw reference, huh?
Well, let me put it this way. Each step of baking holiday cookies relates to a step in the wedding planning process. And thank goodness I was blessed with the wedding planning gene.
Finding a Recipe
If you are a perfectionist like I am you could search endlessly for a holiday cookie recipe. It has to be perfect because the holidays only come around once a year. News flash, your wedding comes around only once in your life so finding a style for the wedding dress, shoes, veil, jewelry, bridesmaids dresses, decorations, flowers, cake design, etc… is going to be an endless search as well.
Shopping for the Ingredients
Once you know what cookie you want to make you have to go shopping for the ingredients. Once you decide what style you are going for at your wedding lots and lots of shopping has to happen.
Measuring and Preparing the Ingredients
In baking you have to measure all ingredients very precisely. Otherwise you are going to get a runny, dry, too salty, too sweet, or flat cookie. In wedding planning you have to precisely select your vendors, determine guest counts, have your dress altered, and get your hair and makeup done. Otherwise the vendors may not be reliable, there might not be the right amount of food, the dress may not fit correctly, or you could end up looking like Toula from “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”.
Mixing the Ingredients
You have to put all those ingredients you precisely measured together in order to have a cookie. In order to have a wedding lots and lots and lots of people have to come together. Figuring out how to mix them is key to the success of a wedding.
Baking
Actually baking the cookies could be the hardest part because you have to wait and wait and wait while you smell those wonderful morsels cooking in your oven. Likewise, there is a baking period during the wedding planning process when most of the planning is done and you just have to wait until your wedding day while seeing pictures of your dress, flowers, cake, and everything else you are looking forward to on that day.
Eating
Eating your cookies after they are done baking is the reward so long as you made them correctly. It’s the enjoyment after all the hard work. Getting to experience your wedding after the months of planning and perfectionism is what planning a wedding is all about. Plus you literally get to eat food and cake!
Maybe if I remember all these similarities next year my cookies will turn out perfect.
Happy Holidays Everyone.
A Random Thought About Uggs
Ugg boots are ugly. That is why they are called Uggs.
