by Laura Coble - Used by permission
For me, this year has been the “Year of the Wedding.” My own wedding was on January 3rd, and I have 6 more friends marching up the aisle sometime during this year.
As I listen to my soon-to-be-married friends talk with fervor and frenzy about their upcoming weddings, I can’t help but to breathe a sigh of relief that my own wedding has been successfully completed. While I loved playing princess for a day, my blood pressure still jumps when I look at my leftover wedding decorations and remember the panic of searching Michael’s for the prettiest, loveliest, cutest, dreamiest, and of course, cheapest decorations that would create a winter wonderland for a winsome wedding.
Most of my panic came from price tags. Thank goodness for Michael’s Sunday paper coupon for 50% off ANY product in the store. Perhaps some of you are feeling a bit of that panic that accompanies the price tag for weddings. It’s not just decorations…it’s the cake, the caterer, the dress, the photographer, the jewelry, the reception hall…and it’s not just paying for the sundry essentials of a wedding, it’s choosing which dress, which caterer, which cake, which song to play for the bridesmaids.
While I can’t say as I’ve had a lot of experience with weddings, I did plan my own wedding, and for any of you who are planning a wedding, will be planning a wedding, or are friends of a panicked bride, here are some of the lessons I learned along the way.
1. Pick a budget. A wedding can be planned on ANY budget. My budget was pretty tiny compared to some people who spend $10,000 plus on a wedding. Rest assured, it is possible to have a lovely wedding on less, even if it is just $1000. As you pick your budget, pray and ask God to stretch each dollar.
2. Be flexible. A lot of girls are determined to have the perfect dress, the most inspiring cake, the dreamiest location. But many of these things come at a significant expense. When I was picking out my dress, I looked on the $200 dollar sale rack at a wedding dress store and said, “This rack may not have the dress I always dreamed of, but I can find a dress that I like.” This thought process saved me many tears when what I wanted wasn’t available for a reasonable price.
3. Plan Ahead. Many brides get lost in the decision making process. While they have dreamt about their wedding all their lives, few have actually thought about what they would like to have in a wedding (other than a prince charming). If you start gathering ideas now, you will save a lot of brain cells when it comes to making decisions over which song to walk down the aisle to or what to do during the reception.
Don’t despair! Planning a wedding can be overwhelming, but the one thought that encouraged me along the way was that ultimately, all that mattered was for Brandon and I to say our vows, even if everything else fell apart, if we walked away married, then we were successful.
For more advice and encouragement on wedding planning, please visit my blog at www.teabreakconnection.wordpress.com
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