why i had a wedding
One of my most popular posts is the one where I declared why I don’t want to have a wedding. Pretty ironic since I just had my wedding. Awkward… So today I’m going to respond to that post and let you all know why I changed my mind and my general post-wedding thoughts.
So I didn’t want to have a big wedding for several reasons. The first was the fact that I have a small family and didn’t feel a lot of pressure to have a wedding “for” the family. Obviously I didn’t suddenly get more wedding by the time of my wedding, but it was nice to see how happy the wedding made my parents. My sister didn’t have a big wedding so I think they were excited we had a traditional wedding in a church. I’m close with my parents and it was so nice to have my father walk me down the aisle and work on planning details with my mom (who turned into a slight bride’s-mom-zilla). Plus my new family of Jarrod’s family had a great time too. It was nice to have everyone in one place all partying it up together.
The next reason I had was that I’m a little older and have different priorities. We have an older house that needs work, we have bills, we have hobbies that take up time, etc. So I wasn’t looking forward to the stress of wedding planning and worrying about all the little details. Though there were some annoying aspects of wedding planning, things went relatively smoothly. I think the planning part is what you make of it. If you want to stress about every little detail like the napkins are white instead of off white or that the dj mispronounced your bridemaid’s name or whatever, then it will be a stressful process. I tried (and hope I succeeded) in trying to stay relatively chill. My goal was to prioritize and not freak out about the rest. I was pretty chill about how the ceremony went, but for the reception, my priorities were my dress, the food, the photos and the music. So I didn’t fret about the other details. Just know that something is going to go wrong (or many things), but at the end of the day you’re married and that’s what is important.
My next concern was money. I couldn’t not think about all the other things we could be spending the money on rather than the wedding. But if we were doing the wrong wedding thing, I wanted it to be nice, so that was a fun compromise. As I noted in my Save vs Splurge wedding post, we worked to keep our wedding budget balanced. Some things were pricier, but we were able to save big on a few key things. So it worked out and we stayed on budget.
So my general wedding having thoughts? I had the best time on our wedding day. Everything turned out perfectly (and the the things that weren’t perfect? Eh,who cares) and we loved it all. There were definitely some hiccups along the way but I still think I would do it again. We have priceless memories with our family and closest friends. Doing traditional things like the first dance and the bridal polka (oh yes) were amazing. Jarrod taking shots with my dad. My mom and her Korean friends dancing to rap music. Wonderful speeches from Jarrod’s best friend and my sister. Photos with our puggies. Feeling like a princess with my prince. It was a lot of work, money, tears, unreturned phone calls, addressing envelopes, etc, but I would say it was worth it. And now I’m married to my wonderful man and we will always have those memories. I don’t think traditional weddings are for everyone, but I’m happy that we did it. Marriage!!
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