Cold Hard Cash Can Change Everything

Once upon a time there was a girl, a wild and crazy girl that never planned to settle down. Then she met a boy who turned her world upside down, nothing would ever be the same.

A year later she was engaged, 5 years after that, she was ready to start planning the wedding. It’s crazy how life surprises you sometimes.

Okay, so I was that girl and I didn’t know how in the world to plan a wedding…the only wedding I ever went to was in pigtails as the flower girl. Thank goodness for the internet, I searched, ordered catalogs for this and that, read about etiquette and drooled over gorgeous wedding dresses.

Finally I found the perfect place for the wedding and reception, I knew exactly what wedding dress I wanted and all the little details fell into place. I had a budget of $10,000, which was a wedding gift from my parents and I was certain that everything would be covered.

Ready to reserve the date for the gorgeous chapel, my mom handed me an envelope full of $100 bills (100 of them) in the parking lot before going inside. She told me to take it out and see how $10,000 feels in my hands. Once I did, I was floored—it was amazing holding that much money. Then she asked, “now do you really want to give all this money away?”

Crap! Now I wasn’t so sure. Maybe I could find a way to do the wedding for less, maybe there was somewhere even better that wouldn’t be so expensive. After ten minutes of holding all that money, I told her we should leave.

Spending $10,000 on one day that would pass by so quickly seemed silly now. Sure people spend way more than that all the time, but for us $10,000 was a ton of money. So I put it in the bank and tried to find another way to have the perfect wedding for us, but for much less.

And I did, but that’s another post for another day.

 

Have you ever changed your mind about something after holding the cash in your hands?

About Jen Perkins

Likes: saving money, being debt free (aside from our house), zombies, travel, getting money, blogging and dogs. Dislikes: debt, being broke, bunnies, wasting money, not having enough money to travel the world and paying interest. Facebook  ♥  Twitter  ♥  Google+  ♥  RSS

Comments

Cold Hard Cash Can Change Everything — 14 Comments

  1. I always feel like it hurts more when you physically see the money. Swiping your card is not the same. Good job on keeping the wedding costs low, how wise of your mum to do that and make you realize that as long as your dear ones are around you can have the same amount of fun with less.
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  2. $10k is a lot for a wedding in my opinion, but it’s worth it if the experience is something you’ll cherish for the rest of your life without regrets. I’d do the same as you, though. I’ll have to do this before making the next big purchase.
    femmefrugality recently posted..All the Money in the WorldMy Profile

  3. I can’t remember doing anything like this but then I always saw big white weddings as a bit of a waste of money, really. So well done for changing tour plans. Me? I got married in a lovely suit (sound severe but it had lace back ;)), we had a great lunch for our families and even someone sang opera (we didn’t have to pay for the singing or for him to stop doing it) and then had a big, wild party in the evening. The most expensive item I believe were my pearls.
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