budgetinsight.wordpress.com
Have you ever wondered how people pay for their weddings? Do parents have a secret stash of wedding money ready to be dispensed when their kids finally get engaged? Do couples conjure up the money by wriggling their nose [if that’s the case, can you wriggle me up some cash to cover my student loans]? Where are people getting all this wedding cash from?
I will admit that, along with researching the weddening, I have also quietly been setting money aside to cover the costs of our blessed event. My main motivation for saving the money before our engagement was that I didn’t want to worry about where we were going to get the money to pay for our wedding. Since my original estimated budget was on the more elaborate side, I figured it would be smart to begin saving money now. That way we can slowly put aside small amounts of money whenever we had extra and would hopefully have the majority of it by the time we were engaged. I have since readjusted the budget and eliminated the parental contributions because I didn’t want to put any extra pressure on our parents to contribute. If they want to contribute, cool, but I don’t want them to feel compelled to. In fact, I’m not expecting them to.
And I will admit a small part of it was also because I wanted us to retain complete creative control over the planning. I’ve seen too many friends battle against their parents because they didn’t like some of the options their parents were offering but since they had accepted their money, they felt compelled to follow through. I did not want to lose the essence and soul of our wedding day in the swirl of parental obligations and what they felt was “wedding appropriate.”
I know that some people build in extra time to save money for the wedding by extending their engagement period but with a super short engagement, that’s not an option for us, at least, not unless we don’t want to eat or pay rent or something. And I refuse to take out loans. I don’t believe in taking out loans for one day; especially not with student loans breathing down my back! I really like knowing that we’ll be able to essentially pay for our wedding in cash and be done [though I will put everything on a credit card for the purchasing protection and rewards points, I intend to pay of the bill in full each month]. At this juncture, we have roughly about 64% of my proposed wedding budget saved up. I really hope we’ll be able to save up the rest of it before we get married.
Okay, another disclosure: is it weird that part of me hopes he waits to propose until after we have the money, or at least close to it? When I went through that brief episode of the –itis last month, I may have gotten a little freaked out because I didn’t have all of the money saved up yet. Crazy, I know.
Already having a budget in mind helps with the wedding research because I can get a good idea of what we’ll be able to afford with our money. Though I’m still trying to figure out the cash allocations for each budgeted item but it’s hard to fine tune. I keep going over our budget! I need to find a good budget calculator. Does anyone know of one besides The Knot and Brides.com?
Or more specifically, soft serve cones?!
Tangent: my former college roommate has one story that she loves to tell over and over and over again. In our dorm dining hall, there was a soft serve machine and we ended many a meal with cones. Soft serve cones had a way of making a dismal dorm meal much better though it added insult to injury when the ice cream was icy and hard.
We ate it anyway.
Anywho, there were usually several schools on campus for tours and field trips on any given day. On one such day during lunch, we decided to get our cones. Well there were two kids just standing there deciding what to get. Look, there are 3 options: chocolate, vanilla, and swirl. It’s not that hard. We’re standing there with our cones in our hands waiting for them to make a decision when finally, I was tired of waiting and, according to my roommate, I HIP-CHECKED THE KID out of the way so I could get my cone. She claims he was standing there all shocked but I swear I just moved in. There was no contact whatsoever. Funnily enough, everyone believes HER story.
Last night after my accounting final, I decided to celebrate by treating myself to a cone at McDonald’s. As I was waiting, I thought, wouldn’t this be a fun addition to the reception? I really want to have a fun, laid back almost backyard bbq type of reception. Have I discussed that before? I’ll have to go more in detail soon. Anywho, so don’t you think ice cream screams backyard bbq? I mean, it’d be perfect!
So now I’m on the search for machine rentals. I’m not sure when we would pull this out but it would have to be churning away beforehand. Hmm. I could always rent one of those gelato carts but the soft serve, it calls for me!
And I am not above hip checking someone out of the way.
Sorry for the random disappearing act! My webmaster, aka my darling boyfriend, decided to switch hosting services as the former provider was no longer up to his standards so it took a little bit of time to get everything ported over from the old place. But we’re back and ready to get back to writing. Well, once my finals are over with later this week!
I’ve noticed that I have found it getting increasingly harder for me to complete a blog post. It’s weird really, because it’s not like I’m at a loss for topics, but simply that I feel like I’ve lost my voice. I like my writing to reflect me and my thought patterns so that you feel like you’re sitting here talking to me. My natural voice is quite evident in my personal blog but here? It’s waning.
My blog posts are hardly ever novellas. If I took the extra five minutes to proofread further than I already do and implement rewrites, then I’m sure all of my posts would feel much heavier and substantial. However, that doesn’t feel right to me. When the topic deserves a much heavier hand, I’m more than happy to take those extra steps. But for every day stuff? I just want to be my breezy, funny self.
I know where I’m going wrong: focusing on my dream of one day blogging for Weddingbee. I was so concerned with creating a WB appropriate blog, one where I was so funny and so introspective, so imaginative and so whatever else is a common trait amongst the Bees that I lost myself in the process. It wouldn’t do me any good to lose my personal voice in some vain attempt at being accepted to blog on that larger scale that heavily depends on distinct personal voices.
Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think?
So I say all of that to say this: I promise myself that I will find my voice once again. I promise to develop that voice and be happy with the results. I will continue to be breezy and funny and sometimes irreverent because that is me in real life. I make random connections [sometimes slower than most people], I like to make people laugh but I don’t like to try so hard at it. I don’t stress over the same things other people do because I just don’t see the point. I want to remember that I can be well written without being overworked. I want to sit down and work on a post and be done in how ever many minutes it takes without treating it as if it were a research paper for school. I’m fun and casual and that is the voice I want to reemerge.
And it will. So please hang in there as I make this work.
i wrote this on my personal blog but thought to share it here as well:
I am thankful for a great many things in my life:
I am thankful for my family and friends who have stood by me this year, celebrating the highs and commiserating the lows and hanging out during the times in between.
I am thankful for the love of my life and glad that I get to spend another year with him.
I am thankful for my ability to pursue a higher education once again and the new friends I am making through that program.
I am thankful for my new career path and all the exciting unknown adventures that await as I traverse it.
I am thankful for my relationship with my Heavenly Father even as I have struggled a bit with maintaining it this year, I am glad to know that He truly has my back.
I am thankful for this year because I have experienced many new things, visiting new places, eating lots of fantastic cupcakes and knowing that my wanderlust and hunger has not yet been satiated.
I am thankful to get to celebrate another Thanksgiving with my dad.
I am thankful to the wonderful, anonymous donor who gave their life so my dad could continue living his.
I am thankful for that donor’s family who graciously supported their loved one. My family is forever in your debt.
I am thankful.
so i wish you and your loved ones a very happy thanksgiving