first let's talk about pinterest, style me pretty, and all the other wedding sites for a minute. while i used to think they were the most amazing planning tools and sources of inspiration, i am now seriously questioning my ability to plan a beautiful wedding. who are these girls?!
did they really only spend $5-10k on a beautifully styled day with gorgeous flowers, food, makeup, hair, photography, attire, etc? because from where i sit it just isn't adding up! (unless they only had 10 guests)
and then they write things like "we just wanted a really beautiful, unique wedding that was a reflection of us and our family. i'm a graphic designer/event planner/anything artsy you can be and the groom is a master craftsmen. so i did all of the styling and the hubby built these giant mahogany pews with his bare hands. we had a great time crafting all of the little details you see around the venue. the table decorations are little things i've been collecting for the last 15 years. everyone i have a relationship with is incredibly talented. my brother is a photographer, one maid is a pastry chef, the other owns a catering company, yada yada yada."
you read that and think to yourself, this is great! look what you can do and it's so cheap! i have tons of time to plan, we can just make all these crafty decorations, and do our own flowers, and get family to make desserts, and have some creative friends help style things, oh but wait... this is not humanly possible! who wants to spend the week before their wedding running around like a chicken with its head cut off to get everything done? who really has these friends with nothing better to do than create your wedding? anyway there will be plenty to do the week before without adding tons of projects to the list.
here's the second thing i'd like to talk about. say you have a job (that isn't as an event planner) so you don't have the time and experience to do it all yourself. and say you have to invite 150 people because the groom is catholic and it will mostly be his family ;)
here's some simple math for a 150 guest budget wedding of $10,000:
- $2000 photographer
- $2000 buffet of bbq or fajitas, disposable dishes/cutlery, etc.
- $1500 flowers
- $2000 venue
- $500 dj
- $500 alcohol
- $500 cakes/desserts
- $300 officient
- $500 dress
- $200 invitations/postage
even with those super lowballed prices, if you don't do things yourself we are talking a minimum of $10,000 and this doesn't even include rental expenses like linens, tables, chairs, other decor expenses, dishes and glasses, makeup, wedding party gifts, transportation, ceremony music, i mean there is sooooo much more to spend money on.
i wish that these people would just be honest and say, oh we spent $50k and hired someone to do it all. we only had to show up! then i'd feel better because honestly who wants to spend that much on a wedding?
i'm generally on the side of not caring because at the end of the day, if you're married, it was a success!! and that's a great way to think. but honestly, we all secretly want to end up on SMP ;)
SO - in an attempt to put some kind of reality on the internet, once this whole thing is over, i'm going to do a post with a detailed budget of our wedding complete with pictures. weddings are a racket, so this will be my part played in an attempt to stop the insanity.
the end.
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