I Said Yes

Well, the date is set: October 10th, 2010. I'm getting married. For the second time. It's a funny thought sometimes. I mean, hell, I never thought I'd get married in the first place, let alone twice. Of course, I never thought I'd be divorced either. Especially after 27 years. But, crap happens. He had a death wish, I had a life wish. Simple as that. I got out to save myself, my sanity, my kids.

Anyway, there's something to be said for maturity. This time 'round, I'm old enough to understand what "marriage' really means. And with that in mind, I've said yes to The Most Wonderful Man I've Ever Known. We've been best friends for 12 years. We think alike. We spoil each other silly. We're both hopeless romantics. We have a great time doing absolutely nothing together. What more could a gal want?

Okay. There is one other thing. We want a simple wedding. A low cost, no-muss no-fuss, DIY wedding. 'Simple' being a relative term, you understand, considering we're flying both ourselves, and the minister, from 2 states away into southern Minnesota. We're getting married on Honey's parents' farm, preferably outdoors, with his ten (yes 10!) brothers and sisters, their spouses, kids, assorted aunts, uncles, and a few friends in attendance. About 50-60 people all told. Geez Louise, I don't think I've even seen that many people in one house in my life.

Now, what is it about the word 'wedding' that doubles, triples, sometimes quadruples the price of everything you look at? I found that if I don't put the word wedding in my searches (wedding dress, wedding flowers), the results are more reasonably priced. I've also come across several sites that say couples are spending about $21,000 on average for a wedding these days. That doesn't even include the honeymoon or the rings! My God. 21k is a downpayment on a house! One site I found, CostofWedding.com has an estimator that will give you the supposed average nuptial costs by zip code. I say 'supposed' because as overpriced as weddings are, this still seems to be on the ridiculously high side.

We're looking at spending about $2,000 total, and that includes the plane tickets, ceremony, dress, suit, decorations, reception and honeymoon. So, I'm on the hunt for great budget wedding ideas. I'll post what I find here. If you have any, please share them. Maybe we can both get thru this without a coronary and a 2nd mortgage!