Many people assume that planning a wedding is a massive endeavor. There's an intense number of months filled with arguments over painstaking details that no one will ever notice, divvying up gargantuan and seemingly endless expenses and justifying a ton of awesome add ons you don't completely need.
Well, they're right. You gain so much during this long, but quick moving process. You get a second family through your significant other, a registry to help you start to build a home together and — not to mention — the amazing rock on your finger.
Most significantly, you gain anticipation for what will hopefully be the most amazing celebration of the union of your love. However, in the midst of this pre-wedding planning vortex filled with floral arrangements, fittings, cake testing, venue visits and more, here are five pleasures of life that get pushed to the wayside:
1. Expensive Social Outings
Say goodbye to pricey date nights at trendy European style restaurants, weekend music festivals, theater tickets and any museum that is not donation-based. On the waitlist for “Hamilton?" That's probably for the best.
A night out can no longer consist of multiple $16 cocktails at your local speakeasy (or maybe just one). Instead, it's happy hour house wine and dollar beer night. Now our date nights consist of Seamless and Netflix or matinee movie tickets. Otherwise, all other funds are generally going toward that crazy party we're hosting at $130 a head.
2. Fun Seasonal Activities
There is just no time. There was a time you might have schlepped massive pumpkins home so you could spend five hours stenciling and carving those babies up for Halloween. Or maybe, you took the time to buy individualized holiday gifts and cards for friends and relatives.
Perhaps you bought tickets to "The Nutcracker," tried to perfect the family Thanksgiving recipe for apple pie or thought of creative Halloween costumes. Yeah, you don't have the time or moolah for that this year. Sorry, friends and family. We don't mean to skip out on the holiday cheer, but we are going to have to go on autopilot this year.
3. Traveling Almost Anywhere
A lot of people pop the question while on an amazing trip to a tropical paradise or a romantic European city. Well, enjoy it because unless Mom and Dad are covering the wedding costs, that will probably be the last place you travel to until the honeymoon.
Yes, you will sign on to social media and see other people vacationing, going to friends' destination weddings and basically doing everything you're dying to do. But, you will just have to grit your teeth and bear it. Remind yourself of the kickass wedding you're about to have and that one day, you will be able to travel again (once you've covered the remaining thousands of dollars you owe all of the vendors you've hired). Sigh.
4. Personal Shopping
All the fashion trends of this season will have to wait. It's not easy to justify new clothing or a new handbag when you spent $3,000 on a Monique Lhuillier dress you bought 10 percent off at a trunk show.
Personal shopping is trimmed to the absolute necessities, and even those might not do. Somehow, whatever spending money you have is going toward the $4,000 photographer and videographer you hired, among many, many other things.
5. Hobbies
While it's definitely important to find time for hobbies and other things we enjoy, the truth is, there just isn't a ton of extra time to be had. Before I got engaged, I enjoyed trying my hand at cooking, writing and trying to keep the plants in our backyard city-garden alive for a few weeks. This year, if I'm not at work or wedding planning, I'm probably passed out by 8:30 pm.
In sum, you and your fiancé will probably get caught up in the craziness of planning what is the kick-off party for the rest of your lives. However, despite all the aforementioned sacrifices that might be made during this time, you should try to make ways to fit in a splurge here or there. Take some time to do whatever things you enjoy that brought you so close together to begin with.
The time spent getting ready for your wedding is a whirlwind. But, it is also a special and unique time in your life that, hopefully, will only happen once. So, just embrace the madness while you're on the road to wedded bliss.
