Affordable Utah Weddings

As I began planning my wedding my sister gave me a fantastic bit of advice. Put simply, she told me to focus. She didn’t mean to think of nothing but planning my wedding- don’t worry!  I’m sure that subject is on your mind enough already.  Instead, she told me to choose one or two things that were the most important to me.  She then informed me to budget and plan to get those two things absolutely perfect and then let the rest of the wedding planning fall into place as it could.  A simple idea, I know.  But it’s amazing how many girls don’t take it to heart.

Allow me to explain.

I recently went wedding dress shopping with a close friend.  She had been dreaming up a particular wedding dress for years.  I know because I’d watched her sketch it out hundreds of times as we girlishly sat around and dreamed up our future weddings.  She tried on dress after dress.  We found a few she liked alright.  They were cheap and so she kept them nearby.  Then near the end of the day we found it!  It was the dress she’d been dreaming up ever since I met her- it really existed and she had it on right there in the dressing room!  I watched her smile fade as she looked at the price tag- it was $200 more than the other dresses she had tried on.  She just couldn’t justify it.  She hung her dream back up on the rack and bought a dress she would never love.

Now, certainly $200 is a lot of money!  But let’s look at the rest of the situation.  This girl had a full meal served at her wedding.  She bought a large bouquet for each of her bridesmaids.  She served ice cream, cake AND cupcakes for dessert at her reception.  She bought a big, white tent to stand under on the big day.  A beautiful reception, no doubt about it.  But when she looks at her pictures all she sees is that dress.  The one she bought because it was cheap, not because she really liked it.  How easy would it have been to serve elegant hor doeuvres instead of a full meal, or give each bridesmaid a single rose instead of a full bouquet or served only the wedding cake for dessert or buy a big, beautiful patio umbrella instead of a full tent?  The money for her dream dress wasn’t saved.  It was spent on details she didn’t even care about!

So, what do we learn from this sad story?  Focus!  Keep a careful watch of where your precious wedding budget is going and make sure it goes towards the things you will love remembering for the rest of your life!