An Aside

In my last post, I admitted to completely giving up my humble ideals in order to have a 'big' (in our little universe, at least) wedding. I feel I should explain myself a little bit, at least. We've had many friends get married over the last couple of years. Not one of those weddings was a small affair. They varied in style and cost, but all were celebrations of the love that our friends shared for one another. I really think that my life is richer for having been a part, large or small, of all of those weddings. I'm grateful to know so many people who have found their life partner, and that they chose to let me share in some small part the expression of their love by attending their weddings.

In short, I hope that with our wedding, David and I are able to give back some of the joy that we have experienced at all these other weddings. If we were to elope, that couldn't happen. That may not be a good reason, but it's ours.

Love and kisses,
The Fiancee

Weddings & Money - Part One

Weddings cost money. Everybody knows this. It is the ugly truth of weddings, the ever-present elephant in the room. In short, weddings are just one big racket (Steph, I'm sorry if you are reading this...feel free to rebut, or just tell me about affordable options in the central MA area :)) This is why I decided a long time ago that I wanted to elope. What is the use of spending thousands of dollars for ONE DAY? In my opinion, the purpose of a wedding is just a formality to acknowledge that you want to spend the rest of your life with another person.

Ah...but that was B.E. (Before Engagement). Once you have that little sparkling ring on your hand, it is oh so easy to let your imagination run away with you. 'OK,' we thought, ' so we'll do a small wedding, just around 20 people.'

"Well, well, look who's too good to invite her own family to her wedding? Look who moved to California and suddenly doesn't have room in her life for her family." (This, by the way, is a completely fabricated accusation, but one that haunted me for a couple weeks.)

So. We put together a guest list of family and friends--totaling around 130 people. (I've been told that this is on the small side, so I guess I should be grateful about that? I must know some people who know some very rich other people if they can afford to have hundreds of people come to all of these weddings.) It's true that not everyone on that list will come, especially since it is in MA and so many of our friends live in CA. BUT WHAT IF THEY DO? On the one hand, great! On the other...yikes. In case you were wondering, the latter hand is the one holding the wallet.

What in the world happened to my high ideals about not spending money on this? How did they suck me in???

...coming up in Part Two--The Vultures Surround Us...