What is Important to You? ~ Yard Sale Weddings

You’re engaged, congratulations. Now you have your dream wedding to plan. This should be such a fun time. Keep your priorities simple which will the whole process more enjoyable.

So, here is my question about your future wedding: what is important to you? Quick. Write it down, say it, send a text to yourself, open up a Samsung folder, whatever. Needless to say, important to both you and your fiance

Cost – had to be within budget. Can’t have a wedding if it cannot be paid for, no matter who is paying for it.
Personal & Intimate – this was so, so, so important to me. I almost listed it at # 1, but I wouldn’t have been able to have or achieve priority # 2 without # 1. My husband and I created our entire day. Well, honestly, I created our day and my future hubby went along for the ride willingly. I felt that the wedding needed to be heartfelt, memorable and honest. A friend of the family married us and I created the event from beginning to end (shocking, huh?). Yes, I was carried away with the details because that’s just me.
I wrote every single word of our ceremony. No, I take that back. I pieced together every word from things I read, questions I asked future hubby, vows I found in books (at the time I actually checked out a book or two from the public library), asked others and put together my day. I had our vows printed on fabric, sewn to cranberry colored felt and fastened to wooden dowels. Future hubby actually took over my pathetic sewing skills and finished up for me. Man, that was hot. I had bridal assistants (husband’s young cousins) carry the dowels down the aisle. Those vows meant everything to me at the time. I envisioned these vows hanging on each side of our bed in years to come. In reality, 15 years later, they are still rolled up on the top shelf of my closet, untouched. I had a candle ceremony in the ceremony. That cracks me up. A ceremony in the ceremony. Anyhow, I made the ceremony as personal, as intimate and as much as a reflection of us as best as I could. The reception, dinner and dancing was important to me, too, but not as much. Certain things I paid more attention to than others. Had to have a horse and carriage, oil lanterns on each table (btw, $5 each from Wal-Mart), ivory chair covers, a set of pewter toasting glasses for the head table, and other things to my liking. Please note that none of my guests had a champagne toast because I figured they could just pick up their current drink of choice or their water glass to say cheers and you know what? No one complained. I also spent very little on the flowers. But, hey, that was what was important to me to make it MY INTIMATE DAY. Flowers may be important to you.
Venue – HAD TO BE A NICE PLACE. Like, a really nice place that I could afford. I chose a country club. Beautiful scenery (golf course), beautiful ballroom, amazing cocktail hour area, not a far drive, good food AND within budget (oh yeah, my # 1).
Guests – not too many, but who we wanted to be there and people you just have to invite (Uncle Hank?!). I think we invited about 120-130 people and our final count was 106. Perfect for me. Very close friends and family – immediate, aunts, uncles, cousins (but not twice removed). I vividly remember when a friend sent in an RSVP of no and I called her and said I was bummed but understood and she ended up going. What that inappropriate to do? Does it matter? I wanted her there. There were definitely a bunch of people that I thought wouldn’t miss it, but did. Inevitably, there was one that RSVP’d yes plus one and never showed up. Never called after. Nothing. You never forget those.
Photographer/Videographer – I wanted all this captured. But, man oh man, is this last priority freaking expensive. Ugh. Another blog post (in hindsight!).