A Rant About the Wedding Industry

I'm weird. You're weird. Let's get married!

Since planning our wedding, I've been glued to sites like weddinggawker.com and shows like Say Yes to the Dress and Four Weddings.

These are fun to watch, but I can only handle them to a point. I can't help but notice the ridiculous expectations these shows and sites tend to put into bride's heads. Say Yes to the Dress makes brides think that they need to have several thousand dollars to find "the" wedding dress, which is completely not true. I found mine for $550 (which still isn't chump change, but certainly nowhere near what these gals spend)!

The only thing I was really super picky about for our wedding was the photography. While we're not done planning, it's the biggest expense of our wedding thus far. Having amazing pictures to look back on over and over again was really important to me. But everything else? Meh.

As we discussed this expense in particular, my fiance said, "You know, if we spend this amount for photography, we're going to have to sacrifice it somewhere else. Like catering."

I said, "I'm okay with that. I just want really nice photos of us eating corn dogs." I laughed. He didn't. Okay we're not really going to serve people corn dogs, but I was just trying to make a point.

The show Four Weddings is particularly heinous. It involves four brides, who attend each others weddings and judge everything from the ceremony, to the napkins at the reception. It takes away the entire point of a wedding, which to remind some of you Bridezillas (another show I can't watch), is about the union and celebration of the couple. These shows make weddings all about having the right centerpieces, stemware and the perfect cut of USDA Choice Prime Rib.

While I understand that your guests should have a good time, all of that stuff is pointless. And that's the stuff that people start stressing about the most.

I want my guests to have fun. And guess what? They're going to enjoy themselves whether they drink out of plastic cups or crystal stemware, whether they have to get up and grab their food from a buffet line, or if it's served to them. We've even mulled over the idea of having a food truck come to our wedding. If I was on Four Weddings, I'm sure they'd deem that trashy, but I call it fun and unique!

Both my parents and my fiance's have expressed how surprised they are at the way weddings have evolved since they tied the knot. My parents had a simple church wedding, with a cake and punch reception, and fiance's parents had something similar. Both of our parents have been married for more than 30 years and they didn't need a lavish celebration to kick off that kind of longevity.

Now? The average wedding costs upwards of $20,000. And most couples don't have that kind of money. So what do they do? They go into debt to have the right stemware, glassware and USDA Choice Prime Rib. On top of that, there's a 50 percent chance that in five years, the couple will be filing for divorce. What a waste.

Sorry friends and family, we love you to pieces, but not enough to go into to debt for you. Our budget is about half of the average and we're saving every dime.

I've been enjoying sites like greenweddingshoes.com and offbeatbride.com which have some great DIY ideas that look nice and cost a fraction of other wedding items out there. Regardless of our budget, our wedding is going to be uniquely us, and a load of fun. I'm excited to walk down the aisle, eat some corn dogs, have fun with friends and family, and shake my groove thang until I can't shake it no more.

And if that's not your idea of a good time, you probably shouldn't attend our wedding. It'll help us stay within our budget anyway.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but our wedding will not succumb to ridiculous industry expectations.