When I first started working on putting this whole crazy day together, wedding magazines overwhelmed me with stuff I had to have or fancy little art projects I had to do. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t fall under the spell of some of it. As I’ve mentioned before in my blogging, sometimes it’s hard to focus on what can actually and practically be done. After all, Martha Stewart’s Siren Song is pretty loud here in wedding world and has caused many a good crafter to crash/have a nervous breakdown in the midst of wedding planning.
However, a lot of the time, as much as we hate to admit it, all of the stress and panicked phone calls to try and find more Stardust paper is often for nothing, because 90 per cent of the things we do for our weddings go unnoticed by most of our wedding guests.
Before becoming a bride, I fully admit to being an unobservant wedding guest. Not intentionally of course, but as someone not in that arena of life, I didn’t know all the work and decision making that went into doing everything. This fact became glaringly obvious to me when I got engaged and first sat down to talk details with Erin, my Matron of Honour and FSIL Hummingbird.
Even though I had been to her wedding two years prior and had a good time, I found myself asking her what were probably borderline ridiculous and annoying questions as a result of my blindness to all things bridal (”You wore a veil? Really?”)
Now that I am on the other side of things, though I certainly have areas of the wedding I feel are important and am willing to splurge on, to save myself some stress (and in some cases money), I have tried to think like a guest again to survey my wedding plans to see what is important. If I were a guest, would I notice and/or appreciate letterpressed coasters? Probably not. Would I enjoy water or juice while I was waiting for the outdoor ceremony to get underway? Heck ya!
So while my plans to handcraft 100 invitations with supplies from the expensive paper place in our old neighbourhood may have fallen by the wayside, I feel pretty good about splurging a little more on adorable and delicious favours for our guests.
How about it, hive? Where have you saved and where have you splurged while planning your wedding?
Such a good post. I’ve been reading guests’ gripes and complaints on other websites to remember guest empathy.
I also went the invite DIY route, and boy did I throw so much stress at those things. I also wasted a bunch of gasoline driving around to find the perfect colors. Sigh…I’m certainly wiser now. But I digress.
We spent more on nice chairs for our guests, many of whom aren’t comfortable sitting for long periods of time. I wanted guests to stay for a while, so we did the sit down test on a couple different chairs before going with a nice padded, sturdy number. I also was obsessed with offering every beverage under the sun. I think I was trying to make up for the fact that we didn’t have alcohol, but you can bet no one went thirsty. We also splurged on a caricature artist.
Of the stuff guests might enjoy, we cut back on programs (none for our 10 minute ceremony) and music (no one dances in our family).