Shame on me! Two days and no blog? I can't believe I let it come to this, but I feel I have a good excuse. Firstly, I'm a grad student. Meaning, I'm in a constant state of stress and unpreparedness. Secondly, as my last post was a little...disgruntled, to say the least. I wanted to make sure my successive post had a little bit more resolution to it.
Needless to say, I'm no less frustrated with the extravagant and over-indulgent wedding industry. However, after talking to hubby and once again eerily reading each other's minds, we've come up with the following remedies:
1. Having a private ceremony. To me, the ceremony is an incredibly personal and intimate moment in both our lives. To share that with strangers just doesn't seem right to me. So as of this moment we're planning to have a ceremony for our families to take part in and an open reception to celebrate with everyone! This also give us more freedom as to when both are held. We can marry whenever. And we can have our reception when we're financially able to do so. It's incredibly liberating.
2. Scrapping the idea that I need a brand new dress. Two words: Recycled Bride. I buy all my clothes second-hand, it makes complete sense that I would buy a pre-owned dress! It's less costly, more eco-friendly and rids me of some of the guilt of spending an exorbitant amount of money on an article of clothing I'll wear one time.
3. Doing US. I actively started thinking about what matters to me and what matters to us. I would love to be the reason that our friends and family support an amazing cause. I decided that I love the idea of having a table at our reception with pictures of children in need of sponsorship through an amazing organization like Compassion International.
4. Giving up the wedding porn! I love Offbeat Bride, Green Wedding Shoes, Etsy, Pinterest, etc. But by looking at visions of other girls' dream weddings, it's only served to distract me from what I want and who I am.
Those are my four steps thus far in the healing process. How have you remedied your wedding stress??
Girl, don't feel bad about not wanting a big wedding. We didn't have one either. It was private and personal and very intimate. Not to mention completely spontaneous :) & I wouldn't change it for the world. We are pushing the 10 yr mark already and now have 2 kiddos. We are planning on having a small ceremony for our 15th or 20th where we can include out kids.
ReplyDeleteBottom line, only you know what is right for you and your honey. Follow your heart :)