.the cost of being in the know.

8.06.2009

It is no secret that being in a wedding is both an honor and expense! That was one of the reasons why it took me so long to finalize and ask my bridal party. I actually knew who I wanted to ask long before I asked them; however, knowing the costs of being in a wedding, I hesitated. As a recent bridesmaid, I know how much they cost and how much I am asking of that person to stand with me on one of the biggest days of my life. Let’s be honest—I would spend anything to be there for a friend.

In my first bridal experience, I knew that it would be “expensive” but was never quite sure until the plans started to finalize. The wedding was out of town for me and there was NO WAY that I was missing the shower. So there is one plane ticket. Then, obviously, I am going to the wedding along with my significant other (who was still my boyfriend at the time of asking, not yet my fiancĂ©). At the time of asking, Flo and I had only been dating about six months, so I assumed that I would be paying for his trip to go as my guest. Luckily (whew!) by the time the wedding came around, we were engaged and my money is now our money. When A-Zilla had asked me to be in the wedding, the first thing that she said was that she understands how costly they could be (speaking from her experience) and if anyone can’t be in it, she understood. And she meant it; however, there is no way, no how I personally would miss this for a BFF of mine. So I buckled down and started to budget. I never kept record of my costs, but I can give you my estimate between travel, hotel, gifts, attire, spending money it was about $1500. However, the money was spread out over time so it was not one big, huge hit at one time.

With all of this in mind, I am doing my darndest to cut back on expenses for the Zillaz. I will be forever grateful for A-Zilla to let Flo and I crash at the fabu Hoboken pad before the wedding and while they were on their honeymoon! Don’t worry, we cleaned up and left them some wine for their post honeymoon return! Their kindness saved us like $500 in additional hotel nites! Sweet.

It has become my goal to alleviate as much of the Zillaz cost as possible, from dress to hair & makeup to bachelorette party to showers…. I am trying to be easy on their wallets during this “economic time”.

On Bridelines, they posted this great article told through the minds of Zillaz (not my Zillaz…yet!) and I keep this information top of mind when making any wedding decisions. Heck, it will probably cost ME more to have Zillaz IN the wedding than it will for the Zillaz TO be a part of the wedding! To view the whole article, click here.

Dollars aside, I would never trade the experience of being a part of something so special for a friend and would do whatever I can to have my Zillaz be a part of our wedding.

I hope that they still lurve me after the wedding!

1 comments:

Jenny Georgio-who said...

First of all, I love that you are updating this blog almost daily. I love reading your writing.

Second, it IS expensive to be in weddings and its great that you are trying to keep the costs to a minimum (oh and picking BM dresses they can wear again!)

Since I had 5 JBM (all under 15 years old) and 2FG (3 years old) I had to foot the bill of their dresses. I thought that getting them made by a seamstress would have been cheaper than buying them at a store...dead wrong! Add the cost of my sisters MOH dress and the dresses cost me over 3K. I don't regret it because I love their dresses, they fit perfectly, and everyone looked great BUT because of that cost I couldn't pay for their hair, shoes, or makeup. I informed the parents that those costs were up to them.

With the way the economy is I'm sure that your Zilla's love the fact that you are making an effort to help them save money. You are a great friend!

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