Weddings!

I've been thinking about weddings recently!  I went to one last weekend, and I sold my own wedding gown today, so it's just been on my mind.  Part of what I have been thinking about is how much I have changed in the last three years and how different our wedding would look as a result.  I'm not saying that I am not happy with our wedding, I really am.  My family and friends were there, and it was a really beautiful and happy day for us. However, it's kind of fun to consider what would have been the same and what I would have changed.

I did pretty much all of the planning myself which I didn't mind doing being it was a welcome study break throughout that year!  I figured out the food, attire, decorations, photos, and other details, and I made sure they all came together.  It's not that I didn't have help; I did, but I was pretty much "the planner".  I would do a lot of it the same.  I baked my own wedding cake, and I frosted it with some help from my now sister-in-law.  I also baked some of the food for the reception; some Amish friendship bread and some chocolate chip cookies.  The rest of the food my mom, my bridesmaids, and I prepared the day before the wedding.  I think that it was really fun to do this, and I remember the excitement of the day as my friends and I made my plans come to fruition.  I ordered flowers wholesale, and a lovely lady from the church volunteered to arrange them for me.  I used a fair amount from the church, too, like vases, pedestals, tablecloths, etc.  My friend from high school did our photography, and I had a couple family members with video cameras catch the footage.

I think that the biggest things that I would change are the attire and the flowers.  My wedding gown cost $600.  Because our wedding was put together by ourselves and our family and friends, it was not a terribly expensive wedding by the end of things, so I decided to splurge on the dress.  Mind you, I realize that $600 isn't even that much compared to many dresses, but it was a LOT to me.

It is pretty though, no?  However, I think that if I was getting married now instead of then, I would have either rented, found a gown used, or ditched the "gown" idea altogether and found a nice white dress that I could wear for more than just the wedding.  I did decide to sell my dress, and I finally sold it today for $40 to a friend-of-the-bride who wanted to buy a dress for someone who couldn't afford one herself.  I'm happy that it sounds like it will be put to good use, but it took me 2-3 years to sell it, and it didn't sell until I listed it as $150 or best offer.  Tux rentals were also fairly expensive, and that could have been saved by going with a more casual feel for the attire.  Additionally, my bridesmaids bought their own dresses.  While they weren't particularly expensive for bridesmaids dresses (I think they were about $70) and I let them wear any black shoes that they wanted, I doubt that any of them ever wore the dresses again.  Hopefully they sold them, too!  I think that I would be less picky about the dresses now.  Perhaps they'd wear something they already had?  Or we'd find something they'd wear again?

The other thing I'd change is the flowers.  I learned only recently that so many of the cut flowers that we get are actually grown a) in another country..., b) often in a poor country, and c) on land that probably should be used to supply food to people in said poor country.  With this new knowledge, if I got married now, I would feel like I should use locally sourced flowers and greenery that was in season.  This might have involved me being less picky again, but I would be happy to feel like I was doing something good for the earth and not supporting big farmers that are making it hard for people to grow food in their own countries!

I'm sure that other decisions would have been made slightly differently along the way, but these are just things that come to mind.  I'm not exactly itching to get married again soon, so if you are ever interested in talking about what you can do to make your wedding fun, friendly for the earth and the people on it, inexpensive but beautiful, etc., let me know! :)