$10,000

There's a site I link to called "A $10,000 Wedding." And what gets to me is that to most people, planning a $10k is all about planning something that's on a really tight budget.

I can't conceptualize it.

I can wrap my head around $10k worth of central heat and air. Well, $10k per system x 2 systems is what it really was, but still. A $10k car, absolutely. A $10k complete kitchen renovation... totally on the high end for me though "low budget" from most people's perspectives, but yeah, I can fathom our doing a $10k kitchen.

But $10k (or more, with some weddings much much more, 10k^2 more) for a single day's event? Nope, no can do. I'd have to reach for my inhaler every time I looked at the total of what we'd spent.

So does this make me cheap? The Bridezilla Contingent at The Knot seem to think so -- to sorta quote from one person who was commenting on someone's low budget wedding choice, "If you can't do it up right then you shouldn't have a wedding at all, just head to city hall." Thanks, bitch. But I'm totally not one to be bullied by society's absurd expectations as to what needs to be included in a wedding or reception into thinking that I'm having a sub-standard or cheap wedding. We're going to have the wedding that reflects US, and one thing that reflects us is that large amounts of cash need to go towards floor refinishing or bathroom remodeling or a new roof on the garage or the girls' college funds, NOT towards a party. There are just so many things that aren't us -- formal receiving lines, candy buffets, doing the macarena at the reception, big poofy gowns, expensive wedding favors, showers (though we do promise to both take one the morning of the ceremony, and use deoderant), chicken and green beans that cost $50 a person, open bars with 1/4 of the attendees drunk before we have our first official dance, child-free weddings and receptions.

The list goes on and on.

So I talk a lot about what ISN'T us. But what is?

Family and friends there, including children, and it will only make me laugh and smile if some not-yet-verbal toddler decides to make a loud commentary in the middle of our vows.

Yummy food taking priority over fancy food or expensive food or ostentatiously presented food.
Good music to dance to, though that can happen just as easily through a set of mix CDs as it can through a DJ, and a dance band is out of the question.

Keeping it real for us. Reflecting who we really are. Not having our wedding go against the rest of our priorities in life.

And oh shit - getting to work on time should have been a priority this morning, but it wasn't. Oh well.