Our First Wedding Buy – The Tie

Okay, here’s the first post in the budget series, accounting for all our expenses:

As of today, our grand total is $37: $30 to resize my ring, and $7 for this tie my fiance picked up used – I love the texture!  I’m still deciding if I want to go with the color scheme (the stripes are dark blue, a color I really do like a lot), or stick to my original plan of having my accent color be red (which would be really convenient since my friend who got married a few years ago offered to let me use a bunch of  things she saved). For a link to the dress I like, see this post.>

I’m pretty stoked that he was the first one to buy something for the wedding, and has been just as excited as I have.  I guess it was his idea in the first place, but I’m such a planner and list-maker that I expected to be doing most of the coordinating.

I hadn’t really thought about what a creative endeavor the whole event planning thing is, and he’s such a creative person.  The night we got engaged, he started talking about what he wants to wear (including a top hat like Slashes – he had to show me the video for November Rain to see what he meant), and he’s been talking about locations, invitations and food. Having him be so excited is really helping me enjoy every bit of being engaged, which is making me really happy that we decided to wait a year so I get to savor the anticipation for even longer!

Non-traditional Guest Books

For an eco-cheap guest record, think outside the book

I really like the idea of making sure everything we use for the wedding will be used again, frequently. A guest book is something I can’t really imagine myself pulling out to read all that often, but taking a cue from this couple, who had guests sign their skis, I think it would be fun to have something unique and personalized that everyone could contribute to. And if we use something we already own, like our guitars or a white tablecloth with fabric paints, it won’t cost anything!

Photo: Red Loft Studios / The Knot

You’re Only Engaged Once

I saw this great reminder to enjoy your engagement, and immediately felt super-lucky that we get
Two Whole Years to enjoy ours!  We spent the first few days of our engagement practicing our wedding kiss, starting a folder of dresses we love, and watching November Rain (my fiancé was trying to describe the kind of top hat he wanted – like Slashes – and was shocked to learn that not only had I not seen the video, but I didn’t even know the song). We shared the news with our families, talked about locations we liked, and he bought a really cool tie he found on Ebay. I took our daughter with me to get my ring fitted, looked at jewelry with her, and went out for gelato while we waited – all amazing special memories.

Since then, I’ve continued to go wild with planning, reading, and searching for ideas, sometimes to the point where I have to remind myself (or worse, he has to remind me) to put down the computer and hug the sweet boy who is the inspiration for all of this. I’ve been trying to just sit back and have fun doing the things we love to do together, the things that keep us connected.

And I’ve been thinking more about the really meaningful elements of the wedding – the vows & the ceremony, instead of just the fun parts – the dresses and decorations, and how much I love our life together and am so looking forward to spending every day with each other forever.