Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Unrealistic Expectations

Even before Mr. Newport proposed I watched a lot of wedding shows. I loved watching Whose Wedding is it anyways?, Say Yes to the Dress, Platinum Brides, etc. etc. After Mr. Newport proposed, it was finally time to start planning our own wedding, after months of watching others. I knew a lot of these weddings were over the top, but they still formed my idea of a wedding and apparently Mr. Newporth's, too.

I feel like you hear a lot of people go into planning a wedding and they are totally shocked at how expensive they are. We had the reverse effect. We knew how expensive they can get. Both of us knew this, so there weren't any shocking moments of "THIS COSTS WHAT?????"

When you watch shows like Say yes to the Dress, it kind of gets in your head that you can't get a nice dress unless you spend upwards of $5,000.00. "Your dress budget is $4k? Sorry we don't have anything in your price range". Luckily, I knew this wasn't true. I've been to a lot of weddings and overtime, I've kind of picked up on how much things cost, what's appropriate etc. Mr. Newport hasn't been to a lot of weddings (well not a lot pre-me). His entire foundation of what a wedding costs has come from his glimpses of shows like Say yes to the dress and Platinum Weddings. He's never actually sat down and watched one, but since I watch them fairly often, he gets glimpses here and there, or "Starfish, you have to see this!". He obviously knew these shows and weddings could be over the top, but it still shaped his ideas of weddings.

I never really realized this until I called him after my first dress appointment. I found my dream dress, but it was about $200 over budget. I promised myself I wouldn't go over budget, but I loved it so much. I called Mr. Newport and told Him I went over budget. He asked what it cost and when I told him, he said "that's it?" Real confused. Which made me confused. He proceeded to tell me that he thought I'd spend like $5,000 on a dress. My response, "did you even look at the wedding budget spreadsheet?" (that I spent quite some time on). His response, "No I trust you". So I have a finace who trusts me and thinks it's ok to spend $5k on a wedding dress....Hmm.... Luckily I'm more realistic.

So thank you Say Yes to the Dress for making me look like I saved a ton of money on our wedding budget, when actually I went over.

Were you or your fiance surprised by any wedding costs? What shaped your idea of the cost of weddings?

1 comment:

jacin {lovely little details} said...

my shoes (http://jacinandpat.blogspot.com/2010/07/shoes-final-post.html) - the conversation went something like me being all fidgety and him finally asking what was up. well, i found these shoes, and they're the last ones in my size in the country, and they're meant to be, and i can sell them after the ceremony, but they cost X. him? "ok, i trust you."
love these guys :)