The Important Stuff

I've been thinking a lot about priorities when it comes to wedding planning. Most planning sites tell you to decide what's important to you when it comes to budgeting so you don't blow your whole budget on cake or something (unless your priority is cake!).

I'll be the first to admit, Mr. Hyena and I did not think about what our budget priorities are. I knew I wanted fabulous pictures, but I wasn't willing to spend several thousands of dollars on them. I knew I wanted fabulous food, but with a limited budget, we couldn't afford to pay for four-course meals for everyone we wanted to celebrate with us. Actually, I want fabulous everything, but I am a prime example of champagne taste but too-cheap-for-anything-including-sometimes-beer budget. (Seriously. I order water at restaurants 99% of the time, because it's free. Hyena Sis thinks I'm nuts.)

The things that ARE important to me don't seem to come with price tags. It's important to me to personalize when at all possible, and come up with creative ways to execute the traditional wedding "stuff." I really, REALLY wanted to design our invitation suite, instead of hiring someone to design them, even if it meant they weren't going to be letter-pressed or fancy. It's really important that I spend time with my friends and family leading up to the wedding. It was really important that we get married in a church, and that whoever marries us actually KNOWS us as a couple. It was important to me to not spend a ridiculous amount of money on one day, because even though this is a very important day (and one that I'm sure will be one of the best days ever because I get to marry such a hottie ^_^), it IS only one day in the end. I feel wasteful and spoiled having the opportunity to spend so much money at one time.

So what does this mean for all the "stuff"?

We're having artificial flowers. I'm 100 percent okay with that. In fact, I'm excited about it, because it will provide an opportunity for me to spend time with the women in my family as we work on putting together the bouquets and boutonnieres.

We'll be throwing an iPod reception, because music is something Mr. H and I are both decently good at working with, and we didn't want to skimp on a DJ and be disappointed. I worked the iPod at Bridesmaid A's wedding, and she offered to do the same for mine.

We're going to have an hors d'oeuvres buffet at our afternoon reception and invite everyone to stick around and eat dinner at the local restaurants around our venue so we can spend more time with them (if they aren't totally stuffed from the hors d'oeuvres ... our caterer is FABULOUS. More on that later!).

Our wedding will be beautiful.