Mr. O and I got engaged on October 13, 2013, and since then, it has been a rush of planning.
We’re aiming to get married sometime in the late Spring to mid-Summer 2014. This means that from day one of being engaged until the day of the wedding, there are only seven to nine months for us to plan. Yikes!
Here’s the good news: I’ve been around the wedding block. Not only was I a bridesmaid a whole bunch of times, but I worked in both the event-planning industry and also the flower industry.
Here’s the bad news: Being deeply involved and understanding of wedding culture, I know how much of everything is up-sold and overly expensive just because it is for a wedding. I don’t like that at all.
As I’ve mentioned on the blog, Mr. O and I have been actively looking to buy a house, which means we’ve been actively saving to buy a house. I can totally appreciate (and enjoy) putting $8,000 in the bank right now as savings (if anyone wants to give me the money), but what I cannot-in any way-appreciate is paying $8,000 to simply rent a space for the reception (not including tables, chairs, linens or even silverware for that matter).
I’m not trying to be a cheapskate. I understand that this will be one of the most special days in my life, and I shouldn’t skimp on costs. But then my next thought is this: A wedding lasts for one day; a house lasts for many days. Am I right?
Anyway, I know I’m not the first bride to feel this way. The whole point of what I am trying to articulate is this: I am going to spend the next six to eight months (Yes! Almost a whole month has passed since we got engaged!) working hard to plan the most splendid beautiful day celebrating the love between Mr. O and I. At this point, I have found the dress (but I haven’t said yes to it yet!), and we have narrowed down the venue to our top three choices (which we hope to decide on this weekend). We started looking at photographers and bridal party clothing and invitations.
Basically, I’m in a six-to-eight month cyclone of all things wedding related. I hope you don’t mind taking the ride with me.