June 16, 2010

*Screeeeech!!!* A Pause...

As I was reading more and more posts from Wedding Bee, I stumbled upon a bride who gathered inspiration from a blog called 2000 Dollar Budget Wedding. I remember finding this a while back while looking for good wedding budget ideas, but almost instantly brushed it off as being a little too thrifty for my tastes.

But I'd thought I give it another go. I looked at the budget breakdown and said to myself: "OMG. I have to see how this whole thing turned out!" (They actually did it...really tiny, tiny numbers for everything...) So I read a post about the goals and vision of their wedding planning. (Read it!!! The whole thing. Done? Okay then, read on.) And it has really gotten me thinking about the whole wedding thing in general.

They had 9 fundamental rules for their wedding:

"1. To bring family and friends together to reconnect and form new friendships.
2. The experience will not be overly-orchestrated. It's a celebration of our love, not a show.
3. We will fight consumerism by spending only $2,000 max. The Wedding Industrial Complex is conspiring to make us think we have to spend more money. But we want to make the event special with sincerity, not money.
4. It will be good for the environment.
5. It will be connected to nature.
6. We will have real time to spend with guests. We want to be able to spend quality time with our friends and family. We don’t want to follow the traditional pattern of a few wedding “events” where the bride and groom only have time for a “meet and greet”: rehearsal dinner, reception, brunch the following morning. We want more of a family & friends reunion.
7. We will make all the decisions ourselves so our wedding represents us.
8. We only want to be surrounded by our closest friends and family.
9. We want to be relaxed and fully present."

Maybe I am going a bit too into the cookie-cutter, expected wedding.

Maybe I don't need the castle.

Maybe my family who would prefer to not travel for my wedding are cheering right now. LOL XD

But seriously. I like the way this girl thinks. She wants to go to the core of what a wedding is all about, and not the truly unnecessary things that, today, goes along with it.

Now I'm not saying that I'm now all against the "WIC = Wedding Industrial Complex" and not going to get a professional photographer or go save-the-earth/green for the reception. But I do love how she is looking at the whole of the experience, and how it will truly make her, her husband and her guests feel. I want to be able to feel my wedding day, not just agonize over how someone didn't set up the centerpieces right...

It's something I think every bride should consider and something to think about.

<3