"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." ~ Benjamin Franklin

I always knew that weddings were expensive...But, HOLY COW! Weddings are expensive!!

We've only been engaged a week...And I really haven't slept much all week.

All I really do now is stress about wedding plans, and of course, about money.

See, I lived on Long Island for the first 18 years of my life...

My fiancé is from the country, and has no interest in ever visiting Long Island.

He does not understand where my over-the-top expensive taste comes from.

I cannot help it...I come from a place where it is common to think big and have extravagantly expensive parties and items, whether you can realistically afford them or not!

Might be dumb, but it's life as I knew it.

I am really not high maintenance...I just know what I like...And what I like usually ends up coming with a big price tag.

But no, I do not always get what I want...And for the most part, I am usually alright with that.

(See? I am really NOT your stereotypical snotty spoiled Long Island brat!)

With that being said, I always grew up dreaming of my huge elaborate perfect wedding.

And I always said that if I had to take out a $50,000 (or more) loan to ensure the wedding of my dreams, then so be it.

It was always a given that once you get engaged, you have a huge fancy engagement party. Nothing to outdo the wedding of course, but still a decent party.

As of late, I am really rethinking my views.

Especially with Jon and I shelling out all of this money by ourselves...And of course wanting to purchase our first home sometime in the nearish future, too...

Makes me think of all of the frivolous spending I was willing to do...And now realize how dumb it seems.

At first I was upset when Jon couldn't care less about having an engagement party...But now I have come to see how unimportant wasting money on one really probably is.

I think that there are a lot of my original plans for my dream wedding that I will be needing to cut out.

Some of which I am surprisingly fine with.

Some of which will take time for me to be fine with.

In the end, I will appreciate not ending up in the poor house, in order to fund my dream wedding.

I imagine with some creativity and careful planning, we will (hopefully) pull off a pretty nice wedding on our less than dream budget.