WEDDING SERENREN

Raise your hands and gather together for a selfie if your childhood fantasies about your wedding usually started and ended like mine; a glamorous, fully stoned ball gown, and silver shimmery stiletto princess shoes that helped my ministry as I stood on my pointed toes to give my prince charming the kiss of his life. Whether there were guests around, food to eat, or bills to pick after that, my childish brain could not be bothered. That was my ideal wedding... se finis. No thanks to  Cinderella and other Disney fairy tales. 

Now, my fellow selfie people, there is absolutely nothing wrong with our dreams and desires, in fact they are very healthy. The unhealthy part will be where we fail to understand that the real deal, I mean, real life waits for us just outside the door of the ceremony. The marriage proper is way bigger than our attires and the entire show put together. It's a huge step, a new phase, an entirely different world  that needs to be prepared for.

Lemme share a lil' of my woes and my  joys.

Thanks to premarital counseling where we were made to understand that even if you do not hammer from gifts and monetary contributions during the wedding, you should at least have some savings to jump-start married life. So my focus from the the beginning of the preparations was to have an easy financial start in marriage. That helped our budget a lot. Meanwhile is it just me or is it really a thing but people hardly go for weddings with gifts anymore?

I just realized (thanks to Google photos) that about this time three years ago, I was combing the entire nook and cranny of Abuja, looking for a suitable and affordable wedding gown. I had a faint idea of what I was looking for but I was too sure of what I wasn't looking for. One other thing for me was sure ab initio - I was not about to buy a wedding gown. LOL, somebody just went back to check if the read properly. Yahhaaaa, you did! I saw my mom's wedding gown occupy a very big box in the house as she hoped one of us would wear it when we were marrying...error... that was not happening! Lol! That helped me demystify the whole paparazi about owning wedding gowns, so I rented one and was the first to launch it (for a higher price of course).

Unlike my childish Cinderella-dream-silver-stiletto shoe, my grown self longed for something unique, so I opted for a toquoise blue shoe. With the benefit of hind sight, I'll highlight two sad things about my choice. First, the one I picked was way too pricey, a lot more expensive than even my gown, and guess what? nobody saw it on the wedding day because the gown covered it. Secondly, because of the the style and color of the shoe, I have not worn it more than once in the last three years. Now the irony is that every time I wear my very very cheap wedding jewelry I get a lot of compliments and have to direct people to where I bought them.

The moral of my story is not to be a cheapiro and ruin all you have ever dreamt of concerning your wedding day. In fact to the contrary, ensure you have your Cinderella wedding all the way. However, always remember that;

a) You are not in competition with anybody neither are you out to impress people because half the time they do not notice your efforts. I doubt anyone still remembers the detail of my wedding hall or the taste of the food they ate.

b) You will need as much funds as possible once the wedding ceremony is over. I can neither over emphasize nor underestimate this point. So try not to major on the minors and minor on the major.

And 

c) It is very possible to eat your cake and still have it  i.e have yourself a wedding blast and still lounge thereafter...it's called sticking to the budget.

I honestly hope someone feels lighter and hopeful about that coming wedding. God bless you and all your plans. 

On a lighter mood, if these were your only options, which would you choose to wear on your BIG DAY or buy for bae?

Don't spoil the fun, keep the comments coming! 

Cheers!

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