Wednesday, August 31, 2011

A Girl's Evaluation of an Unconventional Wedding

I still consider myself a newlywed (when does that title run out?) as we just celebrated our six month anniversary this past weekend with a pig out at Fuddruckers (yeah, we're classy). Anyway, before the title of newlywed wears off and people start to get annoyed that I'm STILL talking about my wedding, here's a break down of some of the more unconventional things we did.
  • VERY small bridal party: Our bridal consisted of my sister as my maid of honor and my husband's best friend as the best man. 
    • Pro: It's super easy to style everyone. My sister's dress didn't need to match anyone else's so the options were endless. We eventually settled on a 1950's silk dress with pink roses and mint-colored leaves. I was actually more worried about the tailoring of her dress than mine because I knew where to find mine again. Also, she could do her hair, make up, shoes, and accessories however she wanted.
    • Con: There's a lot less help. My mom stepped up, basically acting as a second bridesmaid, during the planning and execution (I typed evacuation by accident first. That would have been all kinds of bad) portions of the wedding.
  • No veil
    • Pro: It turned out to be a windy day leading up to the ceremony, but it luckily stopped right before the ceremony. I can't imagine being tangled in it during the wedding and not being annoyed.
    • Con: When else in your life do you have an excuse to wear a veil?
  • First dances before dinner
    • Pro: By having the first dances before dinner, it meant that some of our older guests did not have to stick around after dinner, waiting to see the dances.
    • Con: Everyone is just staring at you, hungrily, for what seems like eternity, waiting for the songs to end so they can be served. 
  • No bar
    • Pro: A bar can run upwards of $1000 pretty easily. Hell if I had that in the budget. Also, and probably more importantly, I don't drink. My husband barely drinks, meaning he likes to sip other people's drinks just to know how they taste. I didn't want to be the only sober one at the wedding, worrying about how drunk everyone else is. (Side note: a couple of months ago, I went to a wedding and the mother of the groom got so sloshed that she accidentally lit her hand on fire during the sparkler exit.)
    • Con: Not that many people danced and the night ended fairly early. 
  • Sunday wedding in the end of February
    • Pro: Because February isn't wedding season in Tucson, we got a discounted rate by shifting the wedding date up from mid-March to the end of February. Also, the rate got slashed even further by choosing a Sunday. We easily saved $4000 by choosing the date we did.
    • Con: A LOT of people we invited were not able to attend. Since there are no holidays at the end of February, everyone was working and in school and couldn't escape to Tucson. Some people, like my awesome cousin Christal from Alaska, came for the wedding weekend and actually had to leave before the wedding itself. Of a guestlist of nearly 130 people, only 60 were able to attend. While this saved us quite a bit of money, it's hard not to be hurt by it. Oh, and because it was February, there was a freak snow storm. SNOW STORM! The first one in four years happens on my wedding day. Everyone kept saying that if rain was supposed to be lucky then snow must mean we're going to have a super-awesome marriage or something.
Overall, the wedding had a lot of personal touches that may not have been exactly unconventional, but they were definitely us. One of my favorites being this cake topper. You have no idea how hard it was to find female red hair for a Playmobil person!


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