wedding fatigue = potential $$
Many wedding books and articles warn that as the wedding gets closer the bride/couple will start to hit a wall. This is the time when all of the hard work, all of the budgeting and cost savings could go RIGHT OUT THE WINDOW. It is also the time that unscrupulous vendors could take advantage of the unsuspecting couple. So be careful.
I can attest to the fact that once you hit the wedding wall, you do not pay as close attention to things. First of all, I don’t really have time to find a better deal and second, I have been finding a better deal for 7 months now. It is tiring. I have found myself willing to just pay a little extra to have the box checked. Most of my financial decisions have been made, so there is nothing too big, but there are little things. And as we all know, little things add up.
I hit the wall on Thursday. Now, I am sure the straw that broke the camel’s back was the Jordan almond debacle that had happened earlier that day, but the ramifications were far reaching. Thursday, I had a meeting with my event coordinator and the florist (the meeting had been set the day before in a rather harried manner). My florist wanted to show me the chair covers and sashes and we had to decide on the vases that I wanted for the ceremony flowers (I decided to outsource the ceremony flowers because it was too overwhelming to figure out how to balance a larger arrangement - I attribute the outsourcing to fatigue, my fiance attributes it to wisdom). My florist had also kindly let me chose a fabric from a fabric store for the chair sashes because she did not have a color that I REALLY liked. She had new sashes made- all for the same price as if I had picked one that she already had. So she wanted me to see the sashes to make sure they were okay. As we sat there and discussed the chair covers, the florist asked if I wanted table runners. They were a nice addition of color; they had tassels; they had a modern flair; they were only a small addition to the bill. This was the decision that I made that was not based on any past rationale I had applied to planning the wedding. I agreed to the runners. But even as I made the decision, I knew that it had been made through a cloud of fatigue. I couldn’t picture how the tables would look with the runners, but I said yes anyway. Now, I should have known that if I couldn’t visualize it, I didn’t want it. But I was tired of making decisions, so I just went with it. To be clear, I don’t believe that my florist was trying to sneak something in. She was giving me an option that was completely normal. As a matter of fact, before I changed the chair covers business over to her, the event coordinator had asked me the same question.
The next day I IMed my best friend to ask her opinion. I described the runners and the way they would be on the table. She was not for it. She thought it would be too much. We have colorful enough flowers. She was right. Anyway - who is going to miss them? They were an added expense that was not necessary. I canceled the runners. I needed the sanity check and my best friend provided it. I just hope nothing else comes my way, because I am not making totally logical decisions anymore. From now on, I will just refer people to my best friend. She is the decision maker for the next week.
2 weeks before "W" Day, Wedding planning |