Making good on my priority list

I'm not rich. There, I said it. Lest any long lost relatives come to me hoping for a piece of the pie, I am here to inform you it is a very small pie indeed.




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What does this have to do with our wedding? Well if you are like me, spending hours on end drooling over stunning images of weddings that had a limitless budget will tend to give you that "I must have the best of EVERYTHING!" feeling.

Yeah, back to the not being rich thing. As much as I would love to, I simply cannot have everything my little greedy heart desires. So I had to prioritize.

Prioritizing our wedding meant that I needed to identify what was most important to us as a couple, and what things could fall a little further down the list and that we would be ok if they weren't completely perfect.

Here is a list of our priorities, and a list of things that aren't so important:

1) An amazing photographer - when the wedding day if over, the cake has been devoured, the dance floor has been torn up (by the guests' amazing dancing skills) and the guests are gone, the only thing you have left are the memories. . and the photos. So for the love of all that is good about weddings, we needed a photographer that could capture our day perfectly.

{Love it! Source}

2) Southern food at its best - We are NOT, by any stretch of the imagination, a caviar and lobster kind of family. When I think of good wedding food, I think of finger licking, savory, stick to your ribs kind of food. More importantly, 90% of our guests simply will not eat fancy food (more than 3 ingredients? you can forget that!) So we needed to find a caterer who could bring us the best the south has to offer, and serve simple food. . artfully.




{Shrimp & Grits, you are my B*tch lover!}

 * 10 points for any one who can name the above referenced movie. hilarious!

3) Location - I am of the firm belief that if you pick a venue that jives with how you want your wedding to feel, it makes everything else (setting the mood with decor, lighting, and music) so much easier. We needed to find a place that oozed with southern charm. And we did!

And now for the things that are not so vitally important to us:

1) The flowers - Yes, of course I want our flowers to look pretty. Beyond that, I'm not worried about it. I know the general color scheme that I want, but I'm not obsessing over specific flowers that MUST  be included or how big my bouquet should be. I picked our vendors because I felt that I could trust them, so once I convey my vision to them, I back off and let them do what they do best. If the flowers don't turn out exactly like I pictured, I certainly won't lose any sleep over it.

{Yeah, I have no idea what most of these are called}

2) The attire - I love my dress and I will tell you all about it in a separate post. Beyond that, I chose the bridesmaids dresses after minimal searching, am giving the groom and his men full reign on their look, and am letting my maids choose their own accessories and shoes. Why? Because I want everyone to look good, and know they look good. If they are comfortable, I will be comfortable. I'm not going to pull my micro-management card on this one. Let's be honest, I have waaaayyy more important things to obsess over.

{O.k. well maybe the guys can't wear ANYTHING they want}

3) The Paper goods - Photoshop? Gocco? Yudu? Illustrator? ummm, yeah I have no idea how to operate or use any of these. Nor do I want to learn. Here are some of the amazing paper creations that I see in the blogosphere.

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Say it with me. . .ooooo, ahhhhhh. Gorgeous paper goods at every turn. Do I have the skills to produce said gorgeous paper goods? No freakin way. So I will resign myself to having minimally pretty designs that I can somehow scrap together on Microsoft word, and call it a day. It would be nice to have pretty paper things and I envy those brides that posses skill in this department. Ultimately though, it won't matter one cent and our wedding day will still be fabulous. I'm doing all the paper goods myself (Except for the invites, more on those later!!), so let's KISS (keep it simple stupid!).

I have to give myself a pat on the back here, because despite my tendencies to want everything at its finest. I have really stuck to my priority list and given those things on the "must have" list the bulk of the budget. It means we will be sure to get what's most important to us before we run out of money to pay for it!!

Have you had to prioritize (and perhaps re-prioritize) your "must haves" for your wedding? What would be your must haves if you aren't planning right now?