My boyfriend Jerome (I guess fiancee would be more accurate, though I feel awkward calling him that), proposed to me after almost 4 years of dating in my favorite place in the world, Daytona Beach, Florida, on July 10, 2012. Though I almost derailed my own proposal, (more on that later) we are in the early stages of wedding planning. As one of those romantic girls who dreams of planning her wedding, I was beyond thrilled to begin the process. To get an idea how to go about planning a wedding, I created an account at TheKnot.com. Here, they told me step number 1 is to decide on a wedding budget.
Being that I have a very limited knowledge of weddings, (I have attended one wedding in my entire life...seriously, ONE. What is wrong with me? Better yet, why does no one I know get married?) and I have only observed wedding planning from watching shows like "Say Yes to the Dress" and "Bridezillas"-- It's fair to say my depth of information is at best, dismal. I am however, reasonably crafty, and am blessed to come from a crafty gene pool, so how hard could it be? The answer is... EXTREMELY.
So needless to say, figuring out step number 1, the budget, was also mistake number 1. Let me walk you through it.
I say to myself, "What is a reasonable wedding budget?" Hmm...no idea.
I ask my co-worker, "What is a reasonable wedding budget?"
She says, "Well I'd say probably however much you have."
I say, "Great, that means I have no budget! (Not as in, a limitless budget, but rather I have like $100 saved so I'm having a $100 wedding.)"
I ask Google, "What is a reasonable wedding budget?"
Google says, "On average, weddings cost around $27,000."
I say......
" 
"
"
Because I would probably need 10 years to save $27,000 and that money could buy us a down payment on a house, or car, or most likely both.
Then I take a deep breath.
Then I talk to Jerome, my wonderful, math teacher fiancee (who is my perfect compliment as I usually struggle with simple addition), and say, "Please help me figure out a budget."
And we say, "$7,000 seems reasonable and we can save that much over the next year."
Whew.
So here I am, planning a wedding for fall 2013 (October 12, 2013, perhaps?) for approximately 110 guests. I have scoured the internet looking for ideas, tips, advice, places to shop, etc. Depressingly, I have found that many budget wedding articles say things like how you can have a wedding for under $5,000! "Yay!" I think until I read how they invited 20 people. Not helpful. Thus, I have created this blog to detail my successes and mishaps in planning a budget wedding. I will be hunting through flea markets and yard sales, raiding clearance aisles, sweating through workouts, and getting knuckle deep in hot glue. I hope this blog can help other brides, and anyone really, who's trying to get through this crazy world on a budget.
Stay tuned for the next post... "Whoever said diamonds are girl's best friend lied. It's Pinterest."
~Your Bridzilla-to-Be,
Shane
