A not-so-single mom's word to the wise

Here's a little nugget of insight that should probably be intuitive but that maybe you never thought of before (I didn't): Planning a wedding when you have children is markedly different from when you don't.

Take, for example, our search for a wedding venue. Since my fiance and I both have full-time jobs during the day and are both full-time single parents the rest of the time, any spare moment we have for wedding planning, we generally also have our children.

One recent Sunday afternoon, we decided to check out a little chapel in Greenville as a possible wedding site. It's located at one of the city's older churches, which also features an extensive (and also quite old) graveyard.

As soon as we walked through the gates, the younger boys thought we had brought them to the world's most awesome playground. Early on, I lost count at how many times my fiance or I said the sentence, "Don't walk on the graves" (or some variation thereof like, "Don't climb on the tombstones" or "Don't push each other onto the graves").

After a suitable amount of energy-burning time, we decided to mosey from graveyard to chapel, our actual reason for coming here in the first place. There was once a time when I could just go somewhere without having to build in some mandatory play time. Ah, the good ole' days.

Being well aware of the boys' propensity for noise-, chaos- and general trouble-making, we spoke to them before heading into the chapel about being calm, quiet and respectful. And while not on perfect behavior, they honestly did very well.

So well, in fact, that I got a little cocky and ahead of myself and, without really considering how long little boys could hold out on that good behavior thing, invited everyone inside the "big church" (vs. the little chapel) to look around its beautiful sanctuary.

Let me fill you in on something -- little boy shoes' slapping against a marble floor really echoes around a big, empty church, especially when they're racing to see which one is going to be the rotten egg for getting to the altar last.  So much for calm, quiet and respectful.

You try getting a couple of kindergartners to NOT want to play with shiny altar rails, velvety kneeling benches, giant organ keyboards and the very tempting door that leads to the bell tower.

When the giggling and playing reached an unstoppable crest, we finally ushered them back outside where they proceeded to climb every single very old tree they could get their little shoes on. I figure that's the most appropriately respectful thing they did all day. Old trees surely love to be climbed by little boys.