Fun Chat Thread: What is the one thing you are glad you spent $$$ on?

I may have to officially answer after my wedding, but I am glad we decided to hire an outside photographer. I think we will be so much happier with our pictures.

Wow, there are several things.

 

My dress was inexpensive, but I love it.

 

Definitely photography. Tom never even bitched about that cost -- knowing it was truly the only thing that I really thought was non-negotiable.

 

Switching resorts -- whiole we loved our wedding resort and could have stayed there all week -- our honeymoon resort was more luxurious and it gave us a chance to see more areas of Punta Cana.

 

BD Book -- even though it was lost on the way home. I am getting another one (thank goodness) and I love it!

 

Details -- whether it's my Army garter, shoes, jewelry, centerpieces ... not necessarily lots of money -- but I wouldn't have done it any different!

 

Wedding Bands -- I am ssoo in love with both of our bands ... but again, they weren't crazy expensive anyway. :-) (I LOVE to find a good quality deal!!!)

OMG Jenny! I am dying to get my hands on those flutes! I saw them several years ago at a boutique in New Orleans for $125 a piece. At the time I thought it was insane to spend $250 on glasses but now I am kicking myself!

I'll have to answer this better after my wedding. Right now I'm going to say my OOT bags. They will be a surprise for my guests and hopefully, they will enjoy them.

I REALLY want to splurge on the decorated arch and live music for the ceremony, but it will be an additional $1000! With me being over-budget (for picking up slack for those who couldn't afford their whole trip) I really can't justify that much cash for 30 minutes of use.

We had originally planned on just having the ceremony/reception at our resort. I convinced DH to go to LC instead. I'm so glad we did! It was gorgeous and I just wasn't satisified planning with the hotel WC. I felt I kept getting ignored.

My dress.

 

I had originally planned on going with a less expensive one, but once I tried on the one I went with, I couldn't imagine wearing anything else. It was WAY over my orginal budget, but after showing my husband pictures of the first dress (both on a model and on me), he said I made the right choice, regardless of price.

So he saw the dress before?

My dress. It was like 3x's the budget, but I absolutely loved everything about it.

 

Once thing I wish I had done was hired a professional photographer for the wedding in JA. I didn't cuz I figured we are for the AHR and those photos would be enough. I thought that the guest in JA would get pictures and I wouldn't need the resort no-talent-photogs and couldn't justify spending twice on a professional photog. But now I wish I did.

No, he didn't see it before, but I showed him pictures after the wedding so he could see what else had been in the running. I had been having some silly paranoia that he would have liked the other dress better (I do this to myself all the time, work myself up over things that I really shouldn't worry about).

Luckily I was just being a spazz and had nothing to worry about.

We have stuck to our budget for the most part. The one thing we did go a bit over on was the photography. If we're spending the money and time to be married on a beautiful beach with ALL our family and close friends, it seems absolutely foolish to risk not having awesome pictures to come home with. So for us it was definetely photography.

I was pretty good about keeping within the general umbrella budget I set for our wedding.

 

The two things I am most thrilled about in hindsight are:

 

1. Welcome Dinner - it wasn't really that much extra money (maybe $1100), but it was a perfect way to get everyone in the mood & getting to know eachother. And I'm really glad I did it 2 nights before the actual wedding so we could all recover completely

 

2. Open bar @ reception - no worries about anything on this, cuz I probably would have worried if it were on consumption, I'm just that way.