I love video games. I always have, and I expect I always will. I get a total thrill from catching rare Pokemon, taking down difficult enemies in RPGs, and even tapping like crazy in games like Disco Zoo, The Simpsons: Tapped Out and (my current faves) Ridiculous Fishing and AdVenture Capitalist.
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My love of games came in handy when I was getting incredibly frustrated at wedding centrepieces. I got so miffed that I just had to put everything down and play some Dragon Age: Inquisition (killing some dragons will make me feel better about this!). That’s when I realised: I could gamify my wedding planning.
Now I’m not quite at the stage where I’ve made EXP bars or levels to correspond to the stage of wedding planning I’m at (but I’m thinking about it). But I’m breaking things down in video game terms so that I don’t get quite as frustrated at things.
Getting married is like a multi-choice RPG (like Dragon Age)
At the end, (hopefully) everyone achieves the same goal of getting married, but how you actually get there and the decisions you make are up to you.
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For example, in Dragon Age, you can choose to keep a party of people with you, kind of like a wedding party. In my case, my future husband and I are doing this with no wedding party. Some things might be a little harder for the both of us to get done alone, but you can summon in different kinds of people with different skills to help you out when things get tough. We’ll still be married at the end of the day and we’ll need to ask for help at some point, but we won’t be penalized for not doing it the same way a lot of other people have done it.
Plus you can choose to include things or exclude them, kind of like side quests
Totally optional, and not essential to the whole story, just something a little extra if you want it. For me, wedding centrepieces are necessary to the day, but that’s my take on our wedding day. Others might feel that invitations are their biggest side quest, or making (or forging!) their own bridal bouquet. Whatever floats your boat and gets you to the end of your main storyline!
Finally, my wedding is not a competition
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I know this has been covered on Offbeat Bride before, but knowing something and understanding it are two different things.
My sister is getting married four weeks after me, and as an anxious person, I immediately wanted to cancel my wedding out of fear that hers will be better than mine. But rage-quitting on my wedding over something like that is silly. We’re two people with two distinct styles who will have two very different weddings. We’re not having a multiplayer battle to the death — we’re playing two single-player story campaigns, just at the same time. She might be playing as a mage and I might be playing as a rogue, but that doesn’t mean either wedding will be objectively better than the other.
So if you’ll excuse me, I need to go level-grind (aka search on Google and Pinterest) more wedding centrepiece ideas…
10 responses to “How being a gamer helps me win at wedding planning”
Yes! Yes! The love that is Disco Zoo! <3
I LOVE DISCO ZOO. I mean, it’s a zoo that throws discos. I want it in real life.
I love this concept!! Grinding is satisfying in its own way – good luck!
Thanks! We’re currently experimenting with three different types of edible candy centrepieces – stage one is growing rock candy. Very akin to level grinding because I am hella impatient. Still half a week to go before we can see if they’re done or not…
I have never heard of growing rock candy before! Following a quick Google I am SUPER excited – I will be trying this science experiment!
Have a lovely wedding 😀
I can’t help it, I am getting married next year after my 33rd birthday and I would have a straight up tantrum if my 25 year old sister got married that close to me. Thankfully that won’t be an issue. Good for you for being a grown up lady and not rage quitting. I am over planning as that is my best strategy for not gwtting overwhelmed.
Hahaha, I wish I could have a straight up tantrum about it, but my sister is a bulldozer of a lady. When she wants something, she gets it. So I just need to chill out and let it happen – I can’t change it!
Me too! Fusband and I have had several heated discussions about my over-planning and his under-planning. Le sigh.
This might be the greatest article I’ve read yet on Offbeat Bride. It’s amazing how much more sense something makes when it’s in context you can relate to! 🙂
Gamifying everything is maybesortakinda how I get things done IRL. If you don’t want to make the EXP bars, etc, yourself, http://www.getyedone.com is a site where you make your own Quests and Odesseys and you can assign different skills that get used when you complete tasks. Forget a “wedding checklist”; it’s a wedding quest-log!
My partner and I have been engaged for ages. I started planning towards our wedding and have been doing it in a piecemeal fashion ever since. We are definitely a non traditional couple so trying to have a quirky but traditional reception just isn’t going to work for us. I spent a few years trying to think of ways to gets it to fit until last fortnight when I was asked 5 times in one week, when we were finally going to get married. The last time I lost it and said “I’m over it! We aren’t doing a traditional reception! We are going to have our reception at the skating rink where we had our first unofficial date.” since then I have wondered why not? We are having an Alice in Wonderland theme for the wedding anyway and the notion of skating in costume sounds like heaps of fun of me. My traditional family will probably have fits over it but I’m past caring.