Details, Details

So I've been dealing a lot with wedding vendors lately.  I've had countless emails, phone calls, and meetings with all sorts of people regarding our wedding.  It's been hectic dealing with all the vendors, trying to ensure every aspect of the wedding is covered, trying to ensure it all fits in the budget, and making sure everything coordinates together.  I am not even going to lie about my feelings.

I LOVE IT.

Faaaaaabuloussssss!

 

 

I posted a FB status the other day about how my favorite part of wedding planning is meeting with vendors.  For who else can you sit there and talk about the smallest details of your wedding, your vision, your overall theme, how you want ostrich feathers in your bouquet because you feel their uniqueness, texture and movement matches with the soft yet fashion forward quality of your dress, how your 3 year old niece is going to wear a pair of Swarovski crystal-encrusted shoes, and how you prefer pintuck to plain and eggplant to indigo.  And they don't judge you.  They don't try to change the subject.  They don't think any of your ideas are bad or disagree that you should actually send out Save the Date cards because their friend Cindy from work didn't and she regretted it.  They sit and listen as you babble on about your day nonstop, only interrupting to excitedly agree with everything that you've planned and tell you how perfect it is.  I know that they're probably hiding any negative opinions they may have and their primary goal is to get my business and my money, and I don't care.  They are a captive audience and I.  Love.  It.

 

To be truthful, I can tell which vendors love their work and which vendors are going through the motions to make a buck.  I think it takes a special type of person to be involved in the business of weddings, where cash is king and women are crazy.  I have such a respect for vendors that love what they do so much, that putting up with bridezillas week in and week out is worth it to them.  So when looking for people that are going to be in charge of HUGE parts of our special day, personality matters as much as price.

 

 

 

 

"Yes Mickaela, I agree, the vintage trend is SOOOO overdone..."

 

 

So in talking a lot about all these little details, I've come across several (and I mean several) opportunities to spend just a little bit more here, and a little bit more there, to get these extra things, and upgrade to that, etc.  It becomes a little overwhelming to dissect a quote and figure out what's going to mean enough to you to spend the extra cash and what you can do without.  When I'm not sure about those details, I usually use the Google machine to see what other brides have said about it.  In doing so, I found a very interesting article about the top 5 biggest money wasters in wedding planning.  So I thought I'd share that today with some of my thoughts!

 

 

5.  Meaningless and Expensive Wedding Favors.  "Your guests' presence is a present, indeed, but you don't have to pay them back with custom-printed tchotchkes that you might end up lugging home or tossing in the trash."

 

I do agree with this one.  When Eric and I were first looking at favors, we really wanted them to be representative of us and our shared love of wine, and something that our guests would actually use.  But at $6 to $10 a pop, an engraved corkscrew for every guest was putting our budget in the stratosphere.  So we looked at bottle stoppers, glasses, all sorts of things.  But when we finally decided on the cookies that you can read about in this post, it was the perfect fit.  They are Eric's favorite, people love to eat, and with how delicious they are there is less of a chance they will end up left on the table at the end of the night.  But if they are, it's okay because we didn't break the bank.  And fine, maybe we will find a good home for them.  ;)

 

 

 

LOL.  Cookie Monster DOES do that...

 

 

 

4.  The Dress.  "On one hand, it's a once in a lifetime occasion. On the other, it's just that -- once -- that you'll only be wearing your wedding dress, so do you really want to spend a couple of mortgage payments on it?"

Um, YEAH.  Next.

But seriously though, I do understand some people's stance on this.  Yes, you only wear it once.  But while I don't believe that your wedding day is the happiest day of your life (at least I hope it's not!), I DO believe that your wedding dress is the most important garment you will ever wear.  It is also a day where ALL EYES are on you.  So an ill-fitted Kijiji purchased satin disaster will not suffice.  I don't think this is a place to skimp.  A bride should look and feel her best, so I don't think spending a little more is a "waste".  To a point, of course.  When you're just paying for the designer label then yes, it's a waste.  Like this Pnina Tornai monstrosity, which was $34,000..............

 

Mother of God.

 

 

 

3.  Huge Wedding Cakes.  "Some couples only invite 50 guests, but they still order a cake that serves 300. With cakes going for $2-$15 a slice, that extra size adds up quickly."

 

I don't have this problem because my MOB is a Cake Boss and is making us a glorious wedding cake made of dummies, with a real tier on top just for us two.  But even if she wasn't, I still don't think we would be having real cake.  Nobody loves wedding cake.  Nobody walks away from a wedding going, "Damn, that cake was the best damn thing I've ever had in my mouth.  I would get a room with that cake.  I would show that cake a good time."  And now, with most meals served at weddings that include some kind of fancy dessert, there is no need to double-dessert and also serve wedding cake.  So agree.  Big waste of cash.

 

 

 

Am I actually seeing this?

 

 

 

2.  Printed Programs and Menus.  "Everyone there is there for your wedding, and if they don't know who the bride and groom are then they shouldn't be there.  Spend less money telling them what they're going to eat and more money on the actual food!"

 

Okay hold on.  I'm all for cutting costs, but this is going a little far.  Yes everyone that is going to the wedding should have some working knowledge of the bride and groom.  But what about all the other people standing up there?  Hey, who are those chicks in dresses?  How do they know the bride?  Why is there a guy standing on the girls side?  Which one of them is Eric's brother again?  Who is that lady marrying them?  She seems to know them.  Does she know them?  I know Eric's parents, what are Mickaela's parents names?  Wait, who is this MC guy?  How does he know the couple?  If ONLY there were some way of figuring all this out!  Our programs are like $1.75 each or something.  Not a huge price to pay to introduce our guests to all the people that are most important to our day.

 

And menus, well, I like to know what I'm going to eat.  And same thing, they are not that expensive.  I would hardly say this is the #2 money waster!  Unless the menus are being printed on $100 bills.

 

 

 

Come on, this is freakin' cute!  And fun!

 

 

 

1.  Endless Mementos.  "The wedding industry loves to sell you on keepsakes.  Does your wedding album need to be preserved in a 50 pound, leather bound book with a glass cover?  Do you really need a personalized pen to sign the guest book? Is preserving your dress and bouquet worth the money and the space in your home? And does every toasting glass, picture frame, and photo album need to be monogrammed with your wedding date?"

 

I can totally see this one.  Wedding albums especially.  When we were meeting with photographers, they would bring out the big kahuna album to show off all their best prints, and while the album was beautiful and looking at the pictures through my misty bride eyes affected my judgement ($3,000 for a book of pictures of the wedding?  Seems reasonable.) I have to admit that I feel like this is a place where couples get absolutely gouged.  I do want a nice album of our wedding photos and some framed photos of us and some special items to remember the day, but I don't think it needs to go into overdrive with preserving the dress and making your home a shrine to your wedding.  As I said before, I don't think your wedding day should be the happiest day of your life!  It should be all the days after!  I'd rather spend money on more happy days with my boo!

 

 

 

He's going to be horrified that I called him my boo.

 

 

 

Happy Wedding Wednesday!!!

 

 

~M