budgets and such

I seem to be joined at the hip to the computer lately, mostly looking at wedding porn and discussion forums on OffBeatBride. Also had a nice chat with mum, again mostly wedding related. And I got the guest list back from David’s mum with their additions. Anyway, things are coming along swimmingly and I feel like I’m in a really good place to be this early. Still over a year away…with all this time on my hands I see how people can go overboard!

The best wedding related thing I did last week was to actually sit down and make a budget now that David and I have an idea of what we want. I accounted for us doing everything ourselves, no help from family, because I am trying to keep to a certain for more than just practicality. I really have a problem with how much weddings cost, with how “wedding _____” means costing ten times as much because of the W word in front. Don’t get me wrong—if you have the money and want a certain thing because it is an expression of who you & your fiancée are, that is great. It’s the whole idea of getting sucked into the wedding industry’s traps, guilt trips, and threats that should be avoided.

In my mind, having your life peak at the wedding is like peaking at high school. You know the people—“high school was the happiest time of my life”. No different than, “my wedding day was the happiest day of my life”, or “better be the happiest day of my life”! I’m not saying these times should be happy, I just think there’s always more good to come. I mean the day we got engaged was ONE of the happiest days of my life, but I really hope that when I’m 50 I’m not looking back on January 1^st, 2009 as the happiest day of my life. I’m hoping I have something more recent to top it!

The point in all this is that by keeping to a modest budget we’re forced to really consider what is important to us, and to make sure that we weigh each thing we have carefully. I’m hoping this will save me from bride-musthave-insanity down the road. Currently I’m over the budget for the day by $256. But I tend to overbudget, so I’m hoping I come in under. I also have a budget including what I’d like to spend on the honeymoon, because I don’t see the point of separating the two.

I am so excited and I’m really hoping we don’t need to postpone it for finances. But I refuse to go into debt for one day!