What is a wedding, exactly? It’s a ceremony. But it’s also a dress. And rings. And a band that plays love songs. The list goes on. And the price list goes on, too.
If the cost of getting married is giving you gray hairs, and you don’t care much for dated wedding traditions, it can be tempting to call off the whole thing rather than feel obliged to splash out on all the necessary bells and whistles. From a diamond ring to an indeterminate number of identical bridesmaids’ dresses and groomsmen’s tuxedos, the ‘essential’ wedding accouterments can cost huge amounts of money.
But what if you scrapped the wedding traditions that leave you cold? Can you do that? In a word, yes. And your wedding will be much more affordable.
Here are a couple of examples of wedding ‘essentials’ that you can totally do without.
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The Wedding Band
If you’re planning a wedding, one of the first questions many of your well-meaning friends and family will ask you is, ‘have you booked a band yet?’
Well… should you? And won’t any decent band be expensive? Thanks to many depictions of ‘dream’ weddings in movies and T.V. shows, many young couples feel obliged to hire a band to play at the reception, despite the fact that you and your guests might not even like the band that you pick. While you may come against resistance when you announce that you are not going to have a band—you’re getting a digital Jukebox from Trez Entertainment instead—everybody will forget about ‘tradition’ when they’re having a blast at your wedding, dancing to music they actually like.
The Professional Wedding Album
If you’re not too keen on the notion of leaving your friends and family at the wedding reception while you and your bridal party (should you choose to have one) retreat to a hayfield or other contrived setting so that a photographer who you don’t know from a bar of soap can take formal photos of you, then you can totally scratch a professional wedding album from your budget.
That’s not to say that you won’t have wedding photos. There are many less traditional and cheaper ways to get the wedding album of your dreams. For one, every single guest at your wedding will have a smartphone. You could also put a disposable camera on each table and let guests take photos of themselves, or invest in a polaroid camera for some special vintage shots.
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The Bridal Party
Many wedding traditions are relatively new, but some traditions are age-old. Strangely enough, it’s often the oldest and most obsolete features of the ‘traditional’ wedding that are hardest to shake. Take the wedding party, for example. Originally, the bridesmaids and groomsmen served the purpose of protecting the happy couple against jealous demons. It goes without saying, the role of the wedding party has changed in recent times. But if it doesn’t float your boat, don’t have one. You and your partner can probably look after yourself. Don't forget to Visit Here: teachjewelry.com for some beautiful jewelry.
A wedding should be a day for you, with as much or as little tradition as you want. As a good rule of thumb, if a wedding tradition feels unnecessary to you and your partner, you should probably scrap it.
You totally can have a wedding on a budget!
