Wedding stress

So I started out this weeks blog with the idea of talking about the influence of being in school. I realised that I do not have much to say on that topic, but the stress of my wedding in one month, I do. So hear I go. Planning a wedding always seemed like fun to me and is just about every girls dream, right? WRONG! Well the dream part is right, but the rest is not. Picking out flowers, favors, dresses, invitations, decorations, thank- you's and all the rest, IS NOT FUN!!!!!!! Cost is a big issue, at least with me. Over the years, I had come to realise that a wedding is just a big party and to me there is absolutly no point in spending tens of thousands of dollars just to marry the person that you love. Yes it would be nice but the fact is, with a 2 year old son, I just could not afford it. Plus I would rather spend that amount on a down payment for a house, so we could stop renting. Flowers are expensive, depending on what you like. Dresses, expessially wedding dresses, are expensive. Invitations are expensive. Favors are expensive and most of all food is super expensive. You need to decide what styles, what theme, where to have it, when to have it. You need to decide what decorations to have, where to have them and what to do with them afterwards. Once you have decided what you want, then is the process of payments. Then setting up arrangements for out of town guests, coming up with activities for them to do. Do you do welcome bags or hope that your guests will understand if you don't have them so you can save some money? Then you send out invitations and wait for RSVP's to come in by the deadline that was set for you by the caterer and the venue where you are having your wedding. When that deadline comes up, those who have not responded you need to call and (as rude as I think it is) find out if they are coming or not. At the same time that you are doing all of that, you need to either decide what decorations you are having and let your decorator know or start to make them. Here I lucked out and my maid of honors mom, jumped right in and took over. I am so thankfull that she did as she is very creative and has done a wonderful job so far. Dresses are a huge stress. Not only do you need to decide if you are going to have everyone in the same dress or if you are going to have them in the same color and let them choose the style that suits them best. Ordering the dresses early enough so that if they need to be altered, you have enough time to get it done. You also need to make the decision of are you paying for the dresses or are they? Invitations is another stress. Do you pay for someone to do it all and spend a crap load of money or do you do it yourself? I went with do it yourself and had to make the decision of the design. Once I had the design, we had to print and address and send. Many other people may have an easier time with wedding plans but between school, work, losing a job, finding a new job and trying to spend time with my son, it is stressful. Now the wedding dreams are starting. I dream about what can go wrong, my fiance marrying someone else in front of me, that I got the wrong dress, that some of my bridesmaid showed up naked, and many more. Here is my advice for the next person who starts to plan a wedding. Take your time, save where you can and get as much help as you can. Do not do it all yourself.