Wedding = $$$

I am very much a D.I.Y person when it comes to this wedding planning. There are some things you simply have to outsource to have a decent wedding but the things I am able to do myself, I do.

Some of the people involved in our wedding happen to be friends with particular skills. We requested a quote from them as we would with any supplier as they are pro's at what they do but they were insistent that they wanted to offer their services as a gift to us.
We were really, really lucky here and are very, very greatful to them as they're not just any old someone throwing a cake together or "playing DJ", they either have extensive training or have had years and years of experience, or both.

What I like most about these lovely people is that even though we were very willing to pay them for their services, they didn't see money-signs and decide to exploit us simply because the word "Wedding" was mentioned.

This sadly can't be said for everyone.

Getting married is meant to be exciting and fun and a wonderful experience and while it is, it can also be very stressful when you have a strict budget and you have people try and take advantage and it takes away from the experience. It makes it so much worse when it's not people who have any sort of valuable skill but just try to take chances. I encountered this very situation on Friday and I varied between extremely amused and absolutely horrified the entire weekend. Oh well, I suppose there could be many reasons for it but I don't feel like being subjected to exploitation for any reason and nor will I allow people of that calibre to ruin the experience for us. "Off with his head!" ;)

On the plus side, we chose the flowers this weekend and went back to our venue to look at the lighting and table size again to get some centrepiece ideas. It is so beautiful at night! I absolutely cannot wait!