Hitched.

So.... I'm married now.


"Til death do us part."


So, now that I'm married, I'm going to post a couple follow up blogs on the vendors I used at the Outer Banks. If you know anyone considering getting married on the Outer Banks, please let them know these blogs posts exist (once I get them up), so they hopefully learn from our successes and mistakes.

That being said, however... It's amazing how much time, effort, and money is spent on a wedding. Everything is expensive. Doesn't matter what the cost of a "normal" item is... add the term "wedding" to the front of the item, and it becomes ridiculously expensive.

Flowers = $250
Wedding flowers = $1000

Dress = $180
Wedding dress = $500

I call this the "Cinderella Scenario." The situation where the bride-to-be is sitting there, looking at the catalog, or trying on a dress, and "Oh, that looks beautiful. And you deserve it because it is YOUR day." What generally goes unsaid, but is understood, is, "...regardless what it costs." Any person in the room CAN be the culprit of this costly phrase; the sales agent, the mother of the bride, the maid of honor. Our society believes the wedding day should be the most special day of the Bride's life. Our society also promotes hyperconsumerism. Truly a costly combination!

We decided to get married on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. There were a large host of reasons we decided on the Outer Banks, and cost was one of them. We thought we would be having an inexpensive wedding, but not so! Everything ended up being more expensive than we projected. Part of the expense was the aforementioned "wedding" phenomena. Another part of that expense was the "this is only going to happen once in my Life (hopefully), so let's have what we want." However, combatting these dollar-eating, bride-exploiting frivolous costs, was my soon-to-be wife (now "just," "wife") managing what it SHOULD cost, against what it DOES cost, and what we WANT against what makes sense. So, to be honest, I think our wedding was a deal, considering what we ended up with, and considering the practices of bridal exploitation inthe "Cinderella scenario."

So weddings are expensive.

BUT, I realized while I was in the process of getting married that there is a reason for at least SOME of the additional cost of the wedding.

When I buy flowers, it's for an event. I'm buying them to tell my wife I Love her. I'm buying them for an anniversary. I'm buying them for a nice dinner with friends.

When I buy WEDDING flowers, I'm buying them for my wedding. For my one and only (hopefully) wedding. I am paying the extra money to make sure that it all goes smoothly. The extra cost COULD be justified because I'm paying for the best florists in the field to provide their normal service in a "no worry" fashion. I don't want to hear about any problems. I don't want to be involved in any "mitigating" decisions, and I SURE AS SHIT don't want to show up and not have the right flowers. I am paying extra money for the florist to know what's right, how to manage the risks of the floral industry (whatever they may be), and to make sure that it goes well.

Anyway, check out my blogs. My wedding event was generally great. Good time with friends and family, and an opportunity to hang out and enjoy ourselves... oh... and get hitched.