{The Wedding of My Dreams}

Like most little girls, I always dreamed about and looked forward to my future wedding. When you’re really young, it’s all about the “fairy tale”. It felt so far away, and watching movies about weddings…possibly…led to some unrealistic expectations. I’ve always loved movies with weddings in them…some of my favorites include: My Best Friend’s Wedding, The Wedding Date, 27 Dresses, and my personal favorite, Father of the Bride. I grew up ‘planning my wedding’ based on what I saw in these movies.

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When M and I actually (finally!) got engaged, it hit me that movies are in fact, somewhat unrealistic. We decided right away that there would be no wedding planner – that I would be the “official” wedding planner. He didn’t see the point of having a planner, and I actually like being in charge so I know things are done how I want them to be done. It didn’t take many days after being engaged for me to decide that I “needed” a wedding planner…but I realized that it was because I was letting the planning stress me out…so I got it together and once again, said no to hiring a planner.

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We came up with a “strict” budget that was far below the national average cost of a wedding, and we felt some pride because we were going to put together a fabulous wedding without having to take out a loan. We actually have done really well, but when all is said and done, we will be over our original budget by close to $1,000. With that said, I still think we’ve done a great job budgeting for our wedding, and I think with the extra thought and care we’re putting into it, it will look like it costs more than we’re actually paying. The best part? We have paid out-of-pocket for the entire wedding…no loans or credit cards! I really wouldn’t want to begin married life with debt…from a wedding, no less.

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Without a wedding planner, we obviously saved some money, but admittedly it does add a little bit of stress (on me, especially)! I’m a total type-A, so there has to be a plan for everything, and when I want something done, I want it done right then. haha…oops 🙂 When we first started planning, I was stressed about coordinating all of our vendors for the same date – our venue, church, photographer, DJ, caterer, etc. All of these things were important, and I was so nervous that one or more would already be booked on our wedding date. Luckily, everything worked out and we were able to hire all of our favorite vendors! Next, I started stressing about things like rentals (chairs, tables, etc.) and the cake. Once all of that was settled, I started stressing about logistics for the wedding day…and that stress will likely stick around until the day of the wedding! I’ve already made a detailed day-of schedule for the bridal party, so that’s helped relieve SOME of my stress! There are a lot of little details that I’ve been working on over the past few weeks, and I feel overwhelmed sometimes that I won’t get everything done. BUT, I have to say that in the past few weeks as we’ve gotten closer to the big day, it’s beginning to feel more ‘real’. I feel like I can finally see my wedding looking like the weddings from my favorite movies, and I’ve started to feel more like a bride. I watched Father of the Bride last night with M, and I think we both felt a mutual excitement for the upcoming few weeks.

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I suppose that the point I’m trying to make is…at times, you may feel like your wedding day won’t be any type of “fairy tale” that you grew up hoping for. In reality, though, it will be much better than that for many reasons. When you get engaged, suddenly everyone wants to talk ‘wedding’ with you (which is fun!), you get to plan the party of the year (we can all dream, right?), and in the end, you get to marry your best friend and live your entire life with that person. Tell me how that isn’t better than some movie?! 🙂 27 days to go!

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