Perfect Wedding Planning is a Myth

July 6, 2006

I did a search recently for the words “perfect wedding” and came up with approximately 55,000,000 search engine results.  That’s unbelievable!  There are scores of perfect wedding planning books, perfect wedding websites, perfect wedding photography, and perfect wedding planners to make it all happen for you for no less than $20,000.00.

Let me just say that there is no such thing as a perfect wedding.  We live in an imperfect world where unexpected events can occur during even the best-planned wedding.  We can’t plan our lives out, but the wedding business perpetuates this myth just to keep brides spending their hard-earned dollars to reach this unattainable goal.

Stuff happens, we’ve all heard it before.  Photographers get lost on the way to the reception site and show up well into the cocktail hour.  A bridesmaid tears her beautiful dress and the family searches high and low for a seamstress to fix the problem as quickly as possible.  No matter what happens, there is no amount of money that can ensure an absolutely perfect wedding.  Trust me.

When my husband and I were planning our wedding, we wanted to have flamenco guitarists lead us and our guests in a procession from the ceremony to the reception site around the corner.  Well, the world had different plans and decided to rain all day long.  After the ceremony everyone left us at the church, so we had to fit myself and my large dress in our car so that we could drive 1/2 block to the reception.  It wasn’t in the original plan, but oh well.  Life moves on…

Then, as the result of the rain and the mud, I had several brown smudges lining the hem of my beautiful dress.  Luckily, my photographer - Kris Brailey of Chicks that Click - ran to her photography bag and pulled out some “Shout” to get rid of the spots.  Problem solved.

Later, one of my straps broke on my dress and the site coordinator - Alicia from Salvatore’s Ristorante - sewed it back up.  Problem solved.

These were all such small occurences and didn’t have a lasting effect on our wedding because they just weren’t important.  My husband and I got to exchange vows in front of our friends and family and celebrate our day surrounded by people that we love.  It doesn’t get much better than that! 

People still tell me how much they loved our weddding.  We didn’t have the money to have towering floral displays or fancy menu cards, but we had each other and that’s all that matters.

So, if something goes wrong during your wedding, I encourage you to take it all with a grain of salt.  It doesn’t matter.  You’re starting a new life with another human being and it’s time to treasure that moment.  Everything will work out just fine.

That’s my thought for the day.  Take care!

Alison

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