I love weddings. I was the flower girl in my cousin's wedding when I was 4 and since then, I have dreamed of my own perfect wedding. For years I dreamed of being a wedding dress designer, leading me to draw many a wedding dress with crayons although I have no artistic ability whatsoever. As soon as I was old enough to know what TLC was, my TV was stuck there, obsessively watching "Say Yes to the Dress" and "Four Weddings". Not surprisingly, when Pinterest became a popular thing, I created a wedding board that now has approximately 865 pins. To top it all off, "27 Dresses" is in my top 5 favorite movies with "Bride Wars" breaking the top 20.

My love for weddings has even poured over to my career goals. After college, I plan on pursing a career in special event planning, specializing in weddings. I think there is something so special about two people deciding to spend their lives together. As a wedding planner, I would get the opportunity to hear the love stories of happy couples and get to work with them to create the perfect environment to celebrate their commitment to each other. What more could you want in a job than to be a part of people's "happiest day of their life"?

The Pinterest culture that we live in makes it easy for us to have a clear picture of the flowers we want and the barn filled with mason jars that we envision all of our friends and family dancing in at our reception. I have pinned countless ideas about how to ask my best girlfriends to be my bridesmaids and pictures that I want to make sure to take so I don't miss out on those Instagram worthy moments. Is a compilation of the most trendy items on a Pinterest board the best way to symbolize the love that two people have for each other?

We are planning our dream weddings. What about our dream marriages?

I admit to thinking far more about the color of my bridesmaids dresses and how I want the chairs to be arranged at the ceremony than my future husband. Don't get me wrong, I think about my future husband a lot but as a single 20 year old, those thoughts are only ideas of what I want him to be like. Because I don't have a significant other to fantasize the perfect wedding with, I can't put a face to the person that I will be standing across from at the altar (after strutting down the aisle in my "perfect" wedding dress, of course). Is planning my wedding before I meet my future spouse taking away from my future marriage?

Going into a relationship with your dream wedding planned can lead to a string of missed opportunities. The wedding planning process can be an extremely stressful time for couples but if utilized correctly, can provide room for the relationship to flourish in preparation for a long and happy life together. Amongst arguing about what flavor of cake to have, a couple can learn the way they practice conflict resolution most effectively. While families disagree on the length of the guest list, two families can come together while learning the best way to get along. In exchanging differing opinions on traditions that go along with the wedding ceremony, a couple can take time to talk about deep rooted values that may not have joined the conversation before. In sitting down and deciding what kind of vows to exchange, two people can reflect on the words that best describe their connection. Having a pre-planned wedding stunts relationship growth that comes with joint decision making.

A wedding is for two people. This rite of passage symbolizes two differentiated individuals coming together to form unity. I believe a wedding should be a reflection of the couple that they are and the relationship that they want to have as they move forward in their lives together. Wedding planning should be a team effort in order to craft an event to best portray the unique and complicated love that each couple possesses.

The perfect marriage is a myth. Every relationship comes with compromise and working through struggles, all the while attempting to love a person unconditionally in a very conditional world. Most people don't have an image of the perfect spouse in their heads. We have qualities and attributes that we are attracted to as well as requirements for the person that we are going to marry. But even with those guidelines, the way life works is so unpredictable that no one can ever know what their soulmate will be like. Why should our weddings be any different?

My dream wedding is an imaginary portrayal of the perfect relationship that will never exist. Until I find a unique and complicated love of my own, the wedding that I'm planning in my head, although beautiful, isn't accurate. If a wedding is a reflection of a relationship, my single self shouldn't be planning one. I can have qualities that I want and requirements that I'm unwilling to change, but overall should be open to the unpredictability of the other half of my wedding planning duo.

I'm not going to stop pinning things to my wedding board or thinking about which of my amazing friends I want standing by my side when my love comes along. I am not going to abandon the desires that I already have for my future wedding or remove "27 Dresses" from my list of favorite movies. But I am going to remember that Pinterest is a great reference but my real wedding inspiration should be coming from the amazing man that I get to spend the rest of my life with. I just haven't met him yet. My wedding may not be perfect but the marriage that comes with it will be perfect enough for me.