Cool stuff does not cease to exist just because it doesn’t make it into my wedding

Guest post by Kelly aka Bug
10661513076 90e0c0ec7f c alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

I'm one of those people that can easily appreciate, sometimes even fall in love with, lots of things that aren't necessarily “me.” This makes me a good person to have over to your house after you're done decorating, because I will enthusiastically comment on your color choices, art, purple couch and funky shag rug, etc. And then, even if it's not necessarily my style, I will go home and wonder, “hmm, maybe I should try a purple couch and funky shag rug.” Then I will buy it. And three months later I will hate it. I don't know if this because I am easily swayed or if it just means I really do have a broad range of taste when it comes to, well, just about everything.

This personality trait has made wedding planning significantly tougher than I expected.

I'll decide on, say, the woods as a good location. “The woods! I looooooovee the woods! I belong in the woods!”

And then I'll see pictures of someone's beach wedding. “The beach! Ohmigod the beach! I was made for the beach!!!”

And then a friend will point out that one does not necessarily think “beach” when they look at me unless it's along the lines of “when was the last time that girl got some sun?”

And then it's a lighthouse. “Oooh, lighthouses!” and I'm off and running in a completely different direction.

In talking about this with my friend Kristal, who is also engaged and fabulous, we decided that what makes this so tough is that you're doing this ONCE (you hope). You can't have five dresses. You can't use five different photographers. You can't get married in five different locations. (Okay, some of you may be able to. I can't. Budget, budget, budget.)

Anyway, the lesson I've taken from this is two-fold:

  1. I can't have it all, and, more importantly
  2. Cool stuff does not cease to exist just because it doesn't make it into my wedding. Yes, I adore photobooths at receptions, but the twenty-ish people we plan to have at our wedding will not justify the cost of renting one, especially since I know for sure that four of those twenty people (our parents) will avoid any photo ops like the plague. (My mother will look like a celebrity defendant in all of our pictures, because her hands will be in front of her face.) And a lighthouse wedding sounds very cool, but would likely come with a foghorn and a ride on a ridiculously small boat, etc., etc., etc.

And for this, I'm so thankful for Offbeat Bride, because I can enjoy other peoples' weddings without even having to get them a gift!

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