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 — in one of the winter months. I desired snowy and mountainous backdrops in our wedding photos, slow paced moments, cozy and relaxed vibes with just my husband, God, 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 surprisingly felt this internal pressure to have a wedding that I knew would bring happiness to those who meant so much to me, so that’s pretty much how we ended up here.
You may ask yourself, well. . . what about your husband? What did he want?
He absolutely wanted a wedding lol! He wanted the wedding party and all the bells and whistles, so with his personal desires, and my 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 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 seemed overwhelming to me and I had quite a lot on my plate at the time aside from just wedding planning. From being a fresh college graduate who had just started a new job, to an MBA grad student, and not to mention our first home that was in the process of being built, it just seemed like a lot at one time. So, in order to alleviate some of that stress, a wedding planner was key for me. Thankfully, our wedding planner was amazing and well worth the money.
In terms of support, both of our parents were supportive of my husband and I getting married at such a young age, and our extended family members were just as supportive.
Cost
Weddings can be expensive, and they absolutely don’t pay for themselves, but please don’t go into debt planning a wedding. I was extremely adamant about this from the very beginning which is another reason why eloping was so appealing to me haha, but with God’s provision, our wedding was fully paid for, debt free for all parties involved, and much of that is attributed to my parents for blessing us with such a beautiful wedding day.
My dad is a “whatever you want baby girl” type of guy, and the man never stops working. If you know us personally, you know how true this is, and of course, my mom is typically always on board with the plan. I was in no way a “bridezilla” or a picky bride. In fact, looking back, I think I might have been too lax on too many things lol. I really only had one major request and that was that all florals and greenery be real. It had nothing to do with anything other than my personal dislike of silk/fake flowers.
My husband and I did pay for some of our wedding day elements, such as our premarital counseling and pastor fees, the wedding planner, wedding invitations, DJ, my wedding dress, my husband’s tux, some floral and decor items, and our rehearsal dinner. Our wedding cake was a gift from my beautiful grandmother, but the rest. . . my parents.
I would never publicly disclose the total amount, but yes, as it may seem to some, your assumptions are likely correct $$$$.
