My 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 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 this internal 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 because she and my late grandfather were only able to have a small church ceremony — no wedding gown, no wedding party, no cake, dinner, or reception.
Now, you may be asking yourself, well. . . what about your husband? What did he want?
He wanted a wedding lol! In fact, he wanted the wedding party and all the bells and whistles, so with his personal desires, and the internal struggle of wanting to please my loved ones, we just went full throttle with the wedding.
Do I regret it?
No, not necessarily. 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.
The Details
We hired a full service wedding planner pretty early on into the planning process simply because I can sometimes be a bit indecisive and had absolutely no clue what I was doing. Also, the stress of planning a larger scale wedding was a bit overwhelming to me, plus I had quite a lot on my plate at the time of wedding planning.
I was a fresh college graduate who had just started a new job and an MBA program. My husband and I had also began the process of building and purchasing our first home, and it just seemed like a lot to juggle at one time. So, in order to alleviate some of that stress, hiring a wedding planner was key for me.
Thankfully, our wedding planner was amazing and worth the money.
Cost
Weddings are expensive, and they absolutely don’t pay for themselves, but one thing that I will always advise newly engaged couples is to not go into debt planning a wedding.
Set a budget, and try your best to stick with it.
I was extremely adamant about this from the very beginning which is another reason why eloping was so appealing to me lol.
God’s Provision
Our wedding was fully paid for, debt free, with a large portion being paid for by my parents.
My dad is a “whatever you want baby girl” type of guy, and the man literally never stops working. If you know us personally, you know how true this is lol.
My mom of course, is typically always on board with the plan. I was not a “bridezilla” or a super picky bride. In fact, looking back, I think I might have been way too lax on too many things lol. I should’ve spoken up more.
I think the only major request that I had for the day was that all of our florals and greenery be real. This particular request had nothing to do with anything other than my personal dislike of silk/fake flowers.
Aside from my parents contribution, my husband and I did pay for some of the miscellaneous wedding day elements such as: premarital counseling and pastor officiating fees, our wedding planner, wedding invitations, DJ, my husband’s tux, our rehearsal dinner and some of the small floral and decor items.
Our wedding cake was a gift from my beautiful grandmother.
I’ll never publicly disclose the total amount spent for our wedding day, but yes, as it may seem to some, your assumptions are likely correct $$$$.
