Re: Why has wedding planning become so obsessive
Ami, I think it is also due to the pressure one has to face from their peers/friends. Nowadays, people are so quick to judge and say, the stage was HORRIBLE, the dress was UGLY, the makeup was OTT, the centerpieces were too small, etc etc, you see it all the time (one example is bridal thread on gs) and you hear it all the time from friends/family/etc. Ofcourse people will talk and will always comment but how YOU take it is what's more important. Just because you hear a family member or friend making fun of someone's small centerpieces doesn't mean you go and get a bigger one for yours. That's why alot of brides feel the need to spend on decor and this and that because if they dont, they are afraid that others will pinpoint all the small things instead of looking at the bigger picture.. and it's true, people do. For instance, I had a small but fairly decent Nikkah where we hired a great photographer, lots of presents were exchanged between the families, money spent on jewelry/clothes but at the venue itself (Marriott), I had absolutely no decorations. The hotel people had put their sofas on stage for us to sit on, we had no backdrop instead of some plants on the sides, no centerpieces (Marriott used their standard candles/votives). I chose not to do any decorations because when I calculated how much amount was going into renting sofas or doing backdrops, etc, I was much better off paying that same amount to my photographer to cover my mehndi which was more important. Because even though my parents were willing to pay for everything, it was still very stressful for them and you have to draw the line somewhere. So we decided to spend on what was more important, and not on what came secondary. Even then while seeing pictures, a couple of people pointed out that oh how come the stage doesn't even look good? How come there are no flowers on tables? I really felt so glad at that point because even if I had gotten a nice stage, etc, same people would have pointed at something else because you just can't make everyone happy! It's the same thing with bridal dress and jewelry too- not everyone's taste can match and obviously I can't wear 5 outfits at once to make everyone happy, I am going to wear what I WANT to, whether someone likes it or not. So it's better to do what YOU want and what sort of a wedding YOU wish to have, keeping your budget in mind. Don't overspend just because you're afraid someone might ridicule your wedding- money doesn't grow on trees anyway.