Dream Wedding
The title of today’s post holds true for what our wedding day truly turned out to be, but would you believe me if I told you that I never dreamt of having a wedding of this caliber. In fact, I never desired to actually have a wedding. The blessing of marriage — YES. My husband — YES. The big fancy wedding, no.
I Never Wanted A Big Wedding
In full transparency, I really wanted to elope. My dream was to get married in the mountains of Colorado — during a winter month.
I desired snowy and mountainous backdrops in our wedding photos, slow paced moments, cozy and relaxed vibes with just God, my husband, our pastor and the beauty of nature surrounding us. No wedding party, no extra fluff, just love, the divine presence of God, and great marital “fellowship” at the end of it all lol.
However, with being my parents only daughter, and the first granddaughter to get married, I felt a little pressure to have the wedding. I knew that it would bring happiness to those who meant so much to me, especially my grandmother who had expressed to me in private that she would love for me to have a wedding. Years ago, she and my late grandfather never got to have a wedding. They were only able to have a small church ceremony — no wedding gown, no wedding party or guest, no cake, dinner, or reception. So, of course, after hearing the opinions of my loved ones, we just decided to go full throttle with the wedding.
Now, you may be asking yourself, “what about your husband? What did he want?”
Ultimately, the final decision would have been up to my husband and I, and he absolutely, 1,000% wanted a wedding lol. In fact, he wanted the wedding party and all the bells and whistles, so his yes to having an actual wedding was what really pushed this wedding thing forward lol.
Do I regret having a wedding?
No. It was a beautiful day!
Was it what I personally wanted?
No. . . I still dream of the beautiful and intimate setting of an elopement in the mountains of Colorado.
If I could do it all over again, would I have a big fancy wedding?
No.
God’s Provision
I don’t believe that anyone should go in debt for a wedding. The marriage is what truly matters, and going in debt to impress others is something that I would never advise any couple to do. Have the wedding that you can afford! With that said, we did not go into any debt for our wedding — thank you God!
At the time of our wedding, my husband and I were also building our first home, so we couldn’t have gone into any debt for a wedding even if we wanted to lol.
As “tradition” has it, my parents paid for a very large portion of our wedding day. My husband and I did pay for miscellaneous wedding day elements and our wedding cake was a gift from my grandmother, but everything else seen was paid for by my mom and dad.
I was not a super picky bride nor a “bridezilla”. I really just went with the flow of things, and trusted the opinions of the professionals. In fact, looking back, I think I might have been a little too relaxed on things and probably should’ve spoken up more lol.
I think the only major request that I had was for all of our florals and greenery to be real. Real florals can be expensive, but it was the one request that I had as I don’t really like the look of silk/fake flowers. Thankfully we were able to accomplish this!
Extra Wedding Details
Our wedding was held in Downtown Houston. The venue itself overlooked the Houston skyline, and because we got married in the evening, it really felt like something from a movie/dream.
It was a formal black tie, all black event, which meant that our guest were asked to wear all black, formal attire. Most of the ladies opted for beautiful floor length gowns, suits or half length dresses, with the men either in black tuxedos or suits. Everyone kindly followed our dress code, and the night truly turned out beautifully.
The wedding reception started with a seated dinner, meaning that waitresses and waiters served our guest their meal at their seat. During cocktail hour, we served wine and beer with specialty appetizers passed around by waitresses and waiters. During the reception, we had an open bar for all guest 21+ with a specific start and end time. Our wedding itself was a “No Kids” event.
