Hi Friends!  Today I wanted to talk about something that we all run across during the wedding planning process.

It is so easy to get caught up in the excitement and in the planning itself.  All of your family and friends have such great ideas for your special day.  Suddenly the guest list is growing.  You "just have to have" a 10 piece orchestra playing your favorite song during the cocktail hour.  A confetti cannon and fireworks, sure no problem...just add them.  24k gold flatware for the dinner tables becomes a "must have." 

Suddenly your wedding is a giant production.  People you don't know are being invited, your vision has been distorted. And you want to runaway and elope.  It's time to STEP AWAY from the planning.

Take a deep breath and re-evaluate.  Remember why you are getting married...Oh yeah, you are making a committment to one another.  You are celebrating your committment with your family and friends.

Stay true to who you are as invididuals and as a couple (ever notice that I repeat this one a lot?).  

Stay within your budget (a couple hundred here, a thousand there and next thing you know you are donating your plasma to help pay for the wedding).

Don't do something because Aunt Suzy offers to pay for it, if it is not what you want, or just for show, don't do it.

If you want fireworks and they are in your budget then go for it.  I am not saying don't have a luxury wedding with all the bells and whistles.

You can have the most gorgeous wedding in the world...but if you are doing it just to try to impress people or to show off, then all of the gorgeous-ness of the day is gone.  

The true-est beauty at every wedding is during those vows, when you promise to spend your life loving each other.

I know, it probably sounds weird for a wedding planner to say all of this.  But I am taking my own advice and speaking from the heart.  

Happy Planning!