Budget much? How the wedding industry has brides by the proverbial balls.

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Wedding planning would be a lot more fun if I had an unlimited amount of money (or I guess, in this case, if my parents had an unlimited amount of money). Yeah, I'm not ashamed to admit it, my parents are paying for most of the wedding stuff. I mean, it's great since if it were up to Math and me, we would have to wait a couple years to save up the money. Math has been working to pay off his (now "our" hehe) 2nd mortgage and I bought a car about two weeks before he proposed. (Bad timing on his part? LOL).

 A friend's wedding on the awesome balcony of the Colorado History Museum
(now the renamed and totally rebuilt, "History Colorado Center").

People have been asking me if I am going to put our budget on my blog. Some people think that I shouldn't but others (usually other brides-to-be) have been asking.  I figure that I might as well, I mean, I know money can be a point of comparison and contention between people but I personally think that everyone should be more open about it in general. For instance, I have a friend who did her wedding for around $10,000 and I have to say that she is one of the people I admire the most for this. Her ceremony was lovely, her reception a TON of fun, food tasty, dress beautiful etc. etc. And she did it without paying too much.

Hehe...Love this pic. 

I would like to be her. Unfortunately, I'm not.  While I'm cost-cutting at every turn there are a few major differences between her wedding and mine that increased my budget to...um...$15,000.

First of all, my guest list is much bigger and I just can't cut people. There have been a lot of people in the various stages of my life that have helped shape me into the person that I am today and I would like to have them share in this special joy. And feeding those people is going to cost money, unfortunately, you can't skimp too much on the caterer.  Unless you got Qdoba, and as tasty as that is...it's not really wedding food.

The Rockin' dance floor!

Second, I made the mistake of picking bridesmaid gifts that are more expensive (think $10-20 difference per each) and more rare per unit than I'd thought. Probably because they're vintage items....But I can't change it now since I've already bought some of them. Unfortunately, that's all the info I can give since I don't want my BrMs to know what it is. And I actually think all of them read this. Well...maybe.

Third, I'm just not quite as savvy as my $10,000 friend and DEFINITELY not as creative/crafty/DIY-y. I really should've just hired her as a wedding planner because she has given me so many great ideas that take me way longer to implement than she did because it involves me learning how to actually be artsy/talented.

One of the big budget decisions I've been waffling back and forth on is getting a florist or not since that will cost more money but also that person will have more knowledge of bouquets and bouttoniers etc. Though $10,000 friend made her own everything and as I was the one who caught the bouquet, I can tell you that that thing was SOLID like a ROCK! It took me around 10 minutes to unbind it all. =)

But, I mean, there are a lot of things I have done to keep the price down from making my own Save the Dates to hiring my mom (for the price of grattitude and kisses) to make my dress. Which brings me to the title of this post...I was reading this article on Boulder weddings and found this gem of a quote from the owner of Boulder Bridal (the same bridal shop that pretty much told my mom that my idea for a dress was completely undoable in every aspect):

"(some) Brides' dress budgets have dropped so low that (I ) often don't have a dress to fit their needs. And yet, it doesn't take much to convince them to spend more on a dress. Once the bride puts into perspective a $2,000 dress when the rest of their wedding costs 10 times that amount, they're willing to give a 'little more' to look and feel good (scare quotes added by me)."

TWO-THOUSAND-DOLLARS for a dress you will wear ONCE for about 4-5 hours. (I've been thinking about buying a Coach purse for ~$300 and am having a hard time justfying that. It is at least something that I will be able to use forever [lifetime warranty] in 85-90% of situations.  I'm sorry, but I really don't think my wedding dress should cost more than a Coach purse.)

The wedding industry has a tight grip on starry-eyed brides-to-be.  This is the shit they are selling...that: 

"OMG! $2000 is a GREAT deal for a dress!"

And:

"But don't you want to look beautiful on your wedding day?"

A $2,000 dress is, 8-15% of the "average" wedding budget (and also 2/3 the price of my first car that lasted for 9 years). That's the price for being beautiful?

Of course I do, but in the words of my fiance, my parents and countless friends and coworkers, I have looked "beautiful" in $20-$80 dresses. So, maybe I could add a little room for more fabric and a specialized style. How about $300? Now that's a GREAT deal for a dress. Here are some examples of ~$300 or less dresses (and yes, they're probably from China, but I'm sure so are David's Bridal's and countless others. And if not the whole dress, then I'm sure at least some piece of it.) All of these are from Milanoo.com. 

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