Wedding Wants and Needs

[WebLady]

How do you decide what you "need" and have to have for the wedding verses what you really "want" but may not be in the budget?

Is there something that you really wanted that you are willing to (or went over) go over budget for? Or something you wish you could have but just can't/didn't?

Is there something you are doing (or did) but weren't really happy about it? Maybe some lesser version of what you really wanted; or maybe something to please the family.

Share your stories ...

[KMS]

I think that I have a hard time drawing the line between want and need. It is rather blurry for me! I wanted a full meal, but I didn't really need it. It just didn't make sense because in general our guests don't like the same food as us so making it all work out would just have been too difficult. Therefore that want became a small buffet that I do feel that we needed. I thought that we needed atleast a little bit of food, ya know. I wanted, but definitely didn't need a chocolate fountain. I'm making room in my budget for that particular want. I might be going a little over budget because I feel that we need a videographer.

[Doglover]

I kinda wish our wedding could've been in the evening, with more food and maybe more decor inside the barn like hanging lights and stuff. I mean i can think of tons of stuff I would've wanted but could'nt bare to spend that much on.

[tinkerjew]

Larry and I actually made a list of things we need (or at least were very important to us!) and then from there, we decided if we had enough room in the budget for the things we wanted. Here's our list.


Needs

Ceremony site
Reception site
Wedding attire (wedding gown, tuxes, bridesmaids dresses, etc.)
Food and Beverages
Cake
DJ
Flowers for bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages
InvitationsA list of things we want includes...

Alcoholic beverages (well, that's what Larry wants, anyway)
Decorative flowers
Ceterpieces
Favors
Hair and nails professionally done (well, for me anyways)
Photographer
Dance lessons (which we're taking)
Other decorationsI feel like I'm missing something on both lists... hmmm...

All I know is, on that day, I'll look at everything I have, whether it's something I needed or wanted, and be happy with what I've got, especially my husband. That will be the day when I will be thankful for what I've got, not looking around and saying, "I wish we had that."

[Danielle9608]

Our real only need was to have our feet in the sand while getting married. Living in MA (most of the state is land locked), I didn't realize how hard this actually was. We looked at about 20 places before finding what we were looking for. If I could have changed my budget to have something I want, that would be to have more flowers. We are only have flowers for the wedding party, and are doing non floral centerpieces.

[TangoWedding]

The only things we NEEDED were a unique ceremony/reception site that was all in one place (it couldn't be in a church because I hate 'reception halls') and an amazing photographer.

We really, really WANTED the photobooth...so when we found out the great photog we had our eye on actually OWNED the photobooth business, we were sold.

We stayed in budget with the site, but went over budget on the photog.

The rest was just details that evolved as they came along. We are just spending money as we go and aren't trying to keep in a specific budget, per se. (Though we are DIYing a ton of stuff just to keep costs down.)

[Nekochanpurr]

All i need is a place to get married, the reception hall, and the officant. Everything else is spurging, imo =D But we are going to get the wedding gear and flowers, plus favors.. O.o; i think that'll be crazy expensive enough, lol.

[kevinsbride2B]

Well this has been a pretty big argument between Kevin and I. Apparently our wants and needs are VERY different.
I've gone and budgeted everythign that is mandatory for a wedding as well as the things that I believe are important. Setting a budget say for flowers because they're a need, but having the most elegant and expensive bouquet would be a want for example.
One of the big arguments for Kevin and I right now is a videographer. The way I see it after spending all this cash I really would liek a video of the day. Kevin doesn't see this. Havign the most expensive DVD that could win an academy award deffinetly isn't in the budget I realize.
I think this is oen of the hardest areas for plannign a wedding. There are somany things you want but the price adds up :bbeek:

[miranda]

I'm having a VERY hard time drawing the line between want and need for this wedding. Just like the invitations. Really, all we NEEDED were a piece of paper telling guests where to be when. But I felt like I NEEDED pocket fold invites. So I did them myself. Actually, it only cost me about $200 total, so I was pretty proud of myself for that.

It seems like most of the wedding isn't actually a need. I just make it a need :)