Weddingbee Blog

The wedding is less than a week away, and I don’t want to freak out or stress or worry or complain. Instead, I want to focus on some of the things that make me happy, namely those wedding-related items Mr. Parasol and I deemed “must-haves.” We may have had to cut quite a few things we wanted for our wedding, but by scaling back in other areas, Mr. Parasol and I were able to splurge on those few “gotta have” items we really, really wanted.

Our Ceremony Venue

Personal Photo

Originally, Mr. Parasol and I wanted to get married in Muir Woods, which would have been more cost effective. Long story short, my parents were opposed to this venue, and with good reason. Mr. Parasol and I both have elderly grandmothers, and it wasn’t the best idea to choose a venue that required a half hour hike.

In the end, we found two alternative venues: Bent Creek and Tilden Park. Bent Creek is insanely affordable considering it’s a California winery, but Tilden is an absolute steal. But as much as we like Tilden, it’s nowhere near as beautiful as Bent Creek, and we wanted exclusive use of our venue. We didn’t want strangers stumbling upon our intimate ceremony, and we didn’t want to have to worry about people staring at us while we take wedding pictures. So to us, Bent Creek was worth the extra money.

Our Food

Image via El Balazo

If you read my last post about our catering woes, you know that we’re actually getting an incredible deal on our food. But in the beginning, Mr. Parasol and I played around with the idea of just providing hors d’oeuvres and cake, a much cheaper option. Our reception doesn’t start till 7 pm, so I don’t think this option is totally inappropriate. But I really wanted to give our guests a full meal. I want them to enjoy good food and lots of it at our wedding, and I knew that hors d’oeuvres and cake wasn’t going to cut it.

My Dress

Personal Photo

If you remember, my dress is from Priscilla of Boston, and yes, that is an upscale designer wedding dress salon. I think their dresses start at $1500 and only go up (sometimes way up!) from there. Even though I feel self-conscious sharing this, I’m going to level with you and give you the numbers for my dress.

Ticket price: $2675

Price I paid after salon discount and tax: approximately $2700

Alterations: $495

All-told: about $3195 on my dress

Saying that number out loud makes me feel kind of crazy. I mean, I spent almost $3200 on a dress! How can I possibly justify that? Maybe I can’t, but I’ll give it a go.

When I bought my dress, Mr. Parasol and I were planning an intimate wedding with just our immediate family and grandparents. We wanted to get married in Muir Woods and then go to a nice restaurant for a celebratory dinner. Needless to say, these plans left a lot of room in the budget for us to splurge on those things we really cared about, and this was right about the time that I started dress shopping and found my dress. I went to Mr. Parasol with my concerns about falling in love with a dress that cost so much, and because we were planning such an affordable wedding, he reassured me that it was OK to splurge on my dream dress. He also absolutely loved the dress and wanted me to get it.

I still looked at more cost effective dresses, but honestly, none of them stood out to me. I did a ton of research on wedding dresses before I even tried any on, and I just couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for in a less expensive dress. There may be more affordable dresses that are similar to mine, but they just aren’t the same.

I did my due diligence and looked for a used version of my dress. I actually found one in my size and in white (not ivory), but the seller only took $300 off the salon price and wasn’t willing to negotiate. At that point, I thought it was better and safer to pay the extra $300 and get the dress brand new from the salon. And so, because I loved my dress so much and I could actually afford it, I decided to go ahead and get it.

Obviously our weddings plans have changed and so did our budget, and sometimes I feel guilty about spending so much on my dress. But when it comes down to it, Mr. Parasol and I stand by our decision because getting this dress was something we both really cared about. If you’ve been following our wedding plans, you know that we’ve cut back in so many areas and have done so many things ourselves. And the reason you cut in certain areas is so that you can splurge in others. I know a lot of people can’t imagine spending what I spent on a wedding dress, but on the flip side, I can’t imagine spending what some people spend on flowers or a DJ or a served meal. Those things just aren’t that important to us personally, and because we saved so much money in these other areas, I was able to afford an expensive wedding dress that I absolutely love.

My Wedding Band

Personal Photo

Will you believe me when I tell you that I actually didn’t want to splurge on this? It’s true! As much as I love and adore my wedding band, I begged and begged Mr. Parasol to get me a less expensive ring for now and upgrade me to this ring down the road (much like what we’re doing for him). I sent him links to inexpensive rings on Amazon and told him I would be happy with a simple, inexpensive wedding band. But he was adamant: I was not getting a “place holder” wedding band.

For him, I think it came down to not wanting anything less than the best next to my engagement ring. He worked a lot of hours and saved a lot of money to afford my engagement ring, and he even surprised me by getting a bigger stone. Given this, he didn’t like the idea of putting a “place holder” ring next to the engagement ring he had put so much time and effort into getting for me. He wanted to put just as much effort into my wedding band, so he found a way to work his magic and splurge on the more expensive band we both loved and wanted.

Our Mini-Moon

Image via Just Honeymoons

So you all know that Mr. Parasol and I aren’t able to take a real honeymoon right after our wedding, and that just kind of sucks. But we’ll be living like kings for our two day mini-moon! We probably should just go to a Motel 6 or something super cheap, but we decided that since we’re not taking a real honeymoon anytime soon, we wanted to splurge on making our wedding weekend as amazing as possible. I’m not allowed to say where we’ll be staying (Mr. Parasol is old-fashioned when it comes to that), but it’s really nice. It’s definitely the nicest place either of us has ever stayed, and we’re looking forward to enjoying all the good food and accommodations our hotel has to offer.

Our Photographers

Image via Jerry Yoon Photography

Our wedding will be shot by Aubrey and Blake of Jerry Yoon Photography, and this is one wedding-related purchase Mr. Parasol and I have absolutely no regrets about, even though they haven’t taken a single picture of us yet. Way back in 2008, when Mr. Parasol and I were young and freshly in love and nowhere near to marriage, I started stalking Jerry’s blog after my friend turned me onto it. Mr. Parasol started stalking with me, and soon, we were joking around that when we got married, we’d have to hire these photographers to shoot our wedding.

Well, three years later, we’re finally getting our wish. We researched other photographers because we felt like we “had” to and because Jerry’s teams are quite a lot of money. But in our opinion, no other photography company captures pictures as stunning as those shot by Jerry and his teams, and we feel like we’re getting the deal of a lifetime with them. While photography accounts for the largest portion of our overall wedding budget, we’re happy to spend the money here because good photography has always been our top priority.

After the wedding, Mr. Parasol and I will be married, and we’ll only be left with the memories of our special day and all the pictures. And we want to be sure that the pictures we have are amazing. We can’t go back and re-photograph that day if we end up with pictures we don’t like, but with Aubrey and Blake, we don’t have to worry about that happening. Mr. Parasol and I have no doubts that our wedding pictures will be absolutely stunning, and to us, that sort of confidence in our photography team is priceless.

What wedding-related purchases did you and your significant other splurge on? How did you decide what was a “gotta have” item, and how did you work it into your wedding budget?