Traditional Wedding or Elope
Given the choice would you prefer a traditional wedding or eloping? Think about that while I digress.
Back in the day, young girls started what was called a hope chest for when they got married. Over the years we would fill it with dishes, silverware, the things you need to start a household ~ most kitchen items as I remember. By the way I am still using the items kitchen items that mom and I placed in my hope chest, and I still have the chest ~ it was my great grandmothers. Mom would teach me how to cook because after all they said the way to man's heart was through his stomach. We would look at bride magazines, plan out our Maid of Honor and bridesmaids all in anticipation of our BIG wedding day. We had our 'dream man' and he would appear one day, sweep us off our feet and we would live happily ever after ~ kids, dog and a white picket fence.
The man of our dreams has proposed, (not sure why only the guy gets to propose, why not the gal). He slips the diamond (always a diamond, what's wrong with the other gemstones) now the fun (work) begins.
Select a wedding date ~ The date you select never works for everyone in the family or wedding party. Yet you have to select a date, you just have to figure out who may be the least upset (mad) with the date you select.
Maid of Honor ~ Usually your best friend, therein lies the next challenge. You think Suzy is your best friend, but Debbie thinks she's your best friend and is upset (mad) when she is not the Maid of Honor. The question is will she settle for being a bridesmaid? Which brings us to our next hurdle.
Bridesmaids ~ A small group of your friends. You only want four bridesmaids, so friend number five is now the one upset (mad) that she is friend five and not in a bridesmaid.
Best Man and Groomsmen ~ This is where things can get interesting. The bride may think her brother should be the Groom's Best Man and the Groom may not agree 😊 If you and your soon to be hubby have been friends for a while there is a good chance that your friends all know each other, could have dated and could now be an 'ex'. So, you have to be careful who you pair up, it's also good to take into consideration the height factor.
The Dress ~ It's your wedding day, all eyes should be on you. Yet remember bigger isn't always better.
Their Dresses ~ Notice how most Bridesmaids dresses are not very attractive. Is that because we don't want folks checking out the bridesmaids instead of the bride? How many of us ever wear that dress again, not to mention the shoes that have to match it.
The venue and reception~ You never know if the venue is available on the date you selected. Not to mention the fact that you could have dualling mothers and friends trying to plan the reception. Which leads us to another challenging part of planning a wedding.
Seating Arrangement ~ How do you decide who sits where? First you have those who will be seated with the wedding party ~ do you have bridesmaids on one side grooms on the other? Boy - girl? Secondly how do you decide who will be sitting at each table? Are they friends, did they have a fight, did Aunt Connie ask to sit with Aunt Patty....
The Cake ~ Why ~ so you can smash some of it in each other's face? Plus, there is always so much cake left over.
Cocktails ~ Yes, there is a good chance that some (many) of those attending the wedding could get a buzz (drunk) and well we all know what that can lead to.
Cost ~ This is a big one literally. If you didn't have to pay for a traditional wedding, think of what you could do with that money. Down payment on a house?
Consider eloping? No way only girls who had a 'situation' aka' were pregnant would elope ~ not true!
My hubby and I considered all of the above and decided to elope. Just the two of us on the side of a mountain overlooking Lake Tahoe, bottle of wine and a great view. Something to think about 😊
Peace and Love