The cost of forever

The bank account of my parents doesn’t like me very much at the moment.

This morning has been spent paying suppliers and venues for the big wedding day. Despite the massive excitement in the lead up and the fuss over dresses, flowers, suits, jewellery, hair, cakes and decorations, there’s nothing like forking out thousands upon thousands of dollars to bring you back down to reality.

I really do understand why people elope! A low-key ceremony with just you and your partner plus a witness and the person who will be marrying you with minimal fuss and cost.

Don’t get me wrong – I want the big white wedding with all the frills and I’ve been lucky enough to have parents who have offered to pay for most of it. I mean I’m not talking in the realm of hundreds of thousands of dollars for our wedding or anything… although I’ve seen a few celebrity nuptials in gossip magazines that I wouldn’t mind replicating for ours…

As soon as you mention the word ‘wedding’ suppliers and venues must jack the price of things up a minimum of 20% of what they would usually charge. I really don’t appreciate the fact that the wedding industry sucks you dry! And most of the time you’re dealing with grouchy, moaning people who are obviously in the wrong area of work!

My fiancé and I are paying for some things ourselves like gifts, our own dresses and suits and the photographer. Those few things alone have cost and arm and a leg. The thing is though, everything we’ve arranged, bought and ordered looks absolutely stunning and we can’t wait to see it all come together on the day. And I’m glad we decided to plan things ourselves – there was no way we were having a ‘wedding planner’ (if they can call themselves that) touch anything to do with our special day. It’s much more personal if you do it yourself.

One thing we were more than happy to fork out for was the honeymoon. That is going to be money well spent (I can say that now because despite the stress of organising a wedding, we have the overseas, island-destination honeymoon to look forward to at the end).

So as it’s meant to be the biggest day of our lives (and I can say now I am damn sure it’s going to be) I really appreciate the financial support offered by our parents and one day I hope to do the same for my kids.

If I am lucky enough to have a daughter, I might have to start saving for her wedding day now if she is anything like me….

xx