Cheap-o is Bonkers

The wedding industry can be scummy. People count on brides to have their head in the clouds and not on their money; as a result, I've been presented with a lot of low-quality, high-price items that promise to "make my wedding the day of my dreams".

The favors are the worst. I've seen little plastic everything, worthless junk no wedding guest would want to take home anyhow, that I can have our names stamped on. Budget shoes, costume jewelry, and throw-away wedding dresses made from flimsy fabric are actually the norm (don't get me started on David's Bridal). Workmanship is absent, replaced by tacky sequins. Then there are the huge companies that do photography, and will stick you with any old photographer, wedding bands that pump out music without soul, and crusty officiants who don't care about you, and will charge a steep fee to dryly pronounce you man and wife.

I hate this trend in cheap weddings for two main reasons. The first is that I don't buy anything stamped "Made in China" because I'm a hippie - Democrat - hipster - Libertarian - green kind of girl (the Libertarian part means I'm not going to knock you for disagreeing with me). I feel in the minority when I look at a "cute" wedding favor and all I see is "child labor" or "poor working conditions".

The second reason I hate this cheap trend is that I hate low-quality anything. I'll take nothing at all over the cheap version. I'm not snobby about it. These cubic zirconium earrings by Roberta Chiarella "prove you don't need to spend to sparkle" (I took that from my InStyle Brides magazine). They're fake diamonds, sure, but they're not cheap-0, and they don't look cheap-o.

We've used boutique operations for some of our wedding: our florists don't even have a store; they're a married couple that works out of their upstate NY house; our photographer is 29 and works out of his apartment with one part-time graphic designer. Other things we've done ourselves, like the invitations that we designed, rather than dropping a few thou on a professional Brooklyn designer (for some reason, they all live in Brooklyn...), or going with a "wedding factory" invitation from a catalog (that someone else is bound to have, too). These invites are bad, with names like "hearts of love" or "wedding doves". They feature embossed, raised printing, not real engraving. I can tell the difference!

We're heading to a bridal show this afternoon (Rob just asked if we can go) and I'm gearing up for some icky presentations. We need monkey suits for the guys, and I'm veil shopping, although I'm not optimistic I'll find a high quality one made from real lace.

Nothing less than the best!

Post bridal-show: AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!