My wedding. Well, first let me tell you that *I* wanted to elope, go away, hit a beach or a mountain top (or hey, Vegas would have been fine) but the (and I say this with affection) girl I married wanted a big wedding. Yes, my husband was pretty insistent. He told me he needed the world to know he was off the market (lucky me) and I told him to get over himself. ha ha. But, none the less, I then was in the position of having to have THE big wedding. My mom was passed away, I was in full blown career mode so what was I to do? Just go overboard, hire a wedding planner and get it done. Well, I didn't hire a wedding planner ---- I booked a hotel and it came with a wedding planner. Loved the hotel, very pretty. Loved my cake--- strawberry. ha, not traditional but ya know, I was paying. We kept the top, froze it and ate it on our first wedding anniversary. The bakery went out of business that made my cake or I'd order a small one every anniversary as it was THAT good. Food was said to be fantastic as well. Didn't have a sit down dinner but stations all over and passed stuff. It was a full meal but you had to get it yourself. I wouldn't know if it was delicious because I didn't get not a single plate. Still pretty bitter about that. ha ha. But between pictures and everyone saying hello and all that BUSINESS of weddings stuff . . . I missed the food and no one thought to save me some. In our room for the night after the wedding---- forget that intimate, first night as a married couple stuff, I ordered room service! And as I said to the kitchen that I was a bride who got none of the food I paid for at my reception, my room service pizza was free. So there. My dress was to die for. Wish I could still fit into it. I went with sort of sexy yet classy. Really loved the matching purse and shoes I got (both completely unnecessary). My flowers were off the hook. Yep, I labored over flower decisions as I have always loved gardening and for some reason, that was a big deal to me. Had a string quartet with specially selected music and a DJ who played dance music. A wedding party bigger than I wanted but husband has a lot of friends/family. And our guess list was broke down like this 2/3 HIS family and 1/3 mutual friends and my family. That's the story. Truth, wish I had the money back. So does my husband. It would sure come in handy now for braces, plumbing issues and fixing our 6 year old mini van. Oh well, hind site. My favorite bad spend was the video I had made in which the videographer had my husband and I miked the whole time and did not remove anything we said such as my whispering to my husband that so and so was beign an A hole. Yep, it's on the video tape. Been married almost a couple of decades. We still laugh at the funny parts of our wedding. But there is one part on our wedding video that is priceless. The videographer took us away from everyone and gave us each a few minutes to say how we felt. Oh, it is hilarious and to me, now after all these years, very touching. We were excited. We'd just wasted gobs of money . . . true. But we were starting a life together and that's special. No matter how you do it, that's a very big deal. Right?
People invest so much time and money into the wedding itself when in reality the investment should be the relationship. Ours was so small and intimate. Only family and 2 couples who we are close too(childhood friends) were invited. My bouquet consisted of a card my 6 yr old grandaughter had made. It said inside "I love my grandma". My dress cost 24.97 and i was barefoot! Our rings were from my dad and grandma. We had the ceremony at our daughters farm under 2 stately trees that had withstood the times, just as we had. It was simply amazing~
Mine was in the fireside room at the church (35 guests), followed by a 200-person reception at my dad's kind of fancy house. Some friends' kids drew a picture for the front of the invitation and wrote the wording, it was pretty funny, saying "[my husband's first and last name] and [just my first name] to marry" in a 10-year-old's best lettering. I wore a white wool suit for the wedding and changed into an embroidered voille dress that I made myself for the reception. (Ribbons from that dress went to my sisters as each one married, and each added a ribbon. I'm sure I still have that nosegay somewhere.) Total cost was $600, mostly for the suit and the food. I
I will let you know after Saturday!!