Wedding update…sort of.

So it turns out Shain and I have been engaged for 7 months today, what the HECK!? Where did the time go??  I don’t know how you rock-star brides out there planned a wedding in a few short months because I have been doing nothing but dragging my feet.

On top of that I have people saying to me, but Jill don’t you want your wedding to be unique?  Don’t you want it to be different?  It HAS to be perfect, you know.  It is the most important day of your life!  Everyone has to remember it! BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH.  That is how I feel about that.  Perfect Shmerfect.    As long as everyone is eating, drinking and dancing that is all we care about.  End of story.

I just want to marry Shain.  I want my close friends and family to be there and have fun.   And I don’t want it to cost a million dollars.  Is that so much to ask?

So in all seriousness, here is where I am at right now.  We have the place, which is basically a big beautiful backyard that we get full reign of.  We will be getting married under a big oak tree and putting up a tent for the reception/dancing/dinner.  My biggest item of stress right now is our catering menu.   We are not going crazy and spending a lot of money on decorations, photography, flowers etc.  The majority of our budget (seriously like 95%)  is going to food and drinks, yet the numbers are quite frankly still putting me in shock.   Even with a bunch of corners we are cutting, it is still insanely expensive.  I would love nothing more to tell you that I will plan a decent size wedding  for under 10 grand, I am fighting like hell to make that happen but let me tell you it is NOT easy.

Managed to scoop up 60 mason Jars at a garage sale for 20 bucks. Woot! Centerpieces, check.

When we originally did our guest list, there were close to 400 people on it.  Not kidding.  I wish could tell you that some of these people I could care less to have at our wedding or are friends/family I don’t talk to often and can easily cut off the list, but that is not the case.  I have a really big family with lots of close family friends, church friends, etc.  Yes, some are cousins I only see once a year but it does not make them any less important to me.  I want all of them there, honest to goodness.  But we just can’t.   I don’t know any other way to make this wedding  more reasonable than cutting down the guest list.  I just hope people are not upset with me,  I hope they understand.  Right now we are at almost 300 people which still makes me nauseous.

For all of you out there who have already gone through this….what did you do to cut costs? Any catering recommendations you have had good experiences with for an outdoor wedding? I am pretty set on our caterer as they are very reasonable, but there is still time to be open to new ideas 🙂  Please share!

Oh and did I mention I am going to try on wedding dresses this weekend?! OH MY GOD AHFASJKFHASJKFHASKFJHASJKFH.  That means this is really happening huh?  Snap.