Wedding Planning: As Long as the Last Bite
My wedding was one of those small-budget productions. You know,
like a B movie, complete with bad camera angles and lighting.
Not that I don't cherish my day; there's just a lot of things I
would have changed to make my memories more fond and vivid.
With a budget of $5,000, we had to skimp on a few things so that
we could have certain aspects that were important to either my
husband or me. Our ceremony was simple, short, and on the beach.
It cost us the marriage license, the rental fee for twelve
chairs, and some tulle. My gown was a repurposed prom dress, and
my husband wore a shirt and tie. We were on the beach, after
all, and a tuxedo and oversized gown felt out of place. The
minister was a friend of the family, and did the ceremony for
free.
Where we skimped on the ceremony, we splurged on the reception.
We spent hundreds of dollars on a fancy cake. While we kept the
catering simple, with sandwiches and salads, it still cost us
nearly $1,500 to feed 250 people. We spent somewhere around $250
on the reception hall, not including the bartender's fees, the
single keg or the unlimited soda that we supplied our guests.
Of all of the money we spent, our keepsakes from the event were
photos taken by friends and family. While their photos catch
most of the important moments, and some in stunning detail, we
lack the mementoes that a professional would have been able to
provide. There are no posed shots of my husband and me cutting
the cake, nor are there any good videos that captured our first
dance together.
While none of this seemed important to him or me at the time, we
now look back with regret that those memories are lost to us
forever. All of the details, that we spent months and months
planning, won't matter when we forget them years down the road.
The extra money that we would have spent would have captured the
effort and funds that we invested into one of the most important
days of our lives. Instead of looking at photos and videos taken
by friends and family, complete with bad lighting, bad camera
angles, and overexposure from developing, we would have
professional memories taken with quality equipment.
Looking back on it now, I think that instead of spending $800 on
our cake, I should have split that money in half. A $400 cake
that I can remember and see in quality photos is worth more than
an $800 cake that I only remember through my mind's eye. After
all, my wedding was one of the most important days of my life,
and photographs can tell stories of that event for a lifetime.
The cake only lasted as long as the last bite.