I started planning my wedding the day I got engaged. Well, okay, that's not entirely true. I started planning my wedding the day I got a Pinterest account and that happened like four years ago. Ever since that day, I've been pining over gorgeous designer wedding dresses, adorable flower girl pictures, and table settings that are more intricate than those at the royal table.
But when it came time to sit down, make a budget, and stick to it, I was appalled to find that those designer wedding dresses I'd already fallen in love with were 2 times my entire wedding budget. I never considered that those fine China table settings would be more than a year's salary for a working college student. How was I supposed to have the wedding of my dreams if my budget wouldn't cooperate?
So I began cutting. There wouldn't be any ornate silverware placements and table cloths. Instead, those would be replaced by Kroger plastic ware and Party City plastic table cloths. But I'm not complaining. Because those things that I once spent so much time worrying about and fawning over are not the point of my wedding day. Having "Vera Wang" printed on the tag of my wedding dress is not the point of my wedding day. In fact, I can't make myself believe that my wedding day is the most important day of my life, because what about the day after that? Or the month after that? Or the year after that? No other day of my MARRIAGE will be as important as the day of our wedding?
I think that Pinterest planning is what leads us to unhappy marriages. Now, let me clarify, getting ideas from Pinterest is not going to ruin your marriage. But I think this idea of fanciful weddings, filled with perfectly done DIY projects and bouquets so well done you could cry is what makes us unhappy when we reach the point of reality. When we finally get to the point where it's time to plan, we start getting upset because we can't have the wedding of our dreams. Then we lose sight of what's really important...
I started to realize what's really important to me on my wedding day: having my family there, having photographs to remember the day, and spending time with my husband. I have never understood why people are okay to spend 5 minutes with their spouse on their wedding day. It's your wedding day! It's the day that you start your marriage with your person. Of course I want to spend it with him! That's why I stopped planning my Pinterest wedding and started planning OUR wedding.
