How much did they say?

So, in my previous post I mentioned I'm planning a wedding. It's a lot of work and a lot of decision making. I have been collecting ideas for decorating the reception hall and dresses and all that kind of stuff for a lot longer than I've been engaged...I think a lot of girls do this. Recently, I have discovered that many of those ideas I've been dreaming about incorpating into my wedding day are just too expensive. We're paying for most of the wedding ourselves and we're on a mission to buy a house (with some kind of down payment) so it's not as though we can just reach into our wallets and have access to an endless cash source. I'll give you an example:

I have long loved the idea of spheres covered in carnations as my centerpieces. Possibly, you can't really envision this being beautiful but I know, in my heart, it would be wonderful. The sphere is completely covered in carnation heads and the effect is a never-ending and seamless ripple of flowers. Very beautiful, trust me. So, first I decide it might be the kind of project worthy of DIY. I experimented this weekend with the process and, frankly, it's not a DIY project. Yes, it's simple and the act of constructing the centerpieces is not difficult but the time it takes is unbelievable. It took me 15 minutes to arrange 15 flowers in the sphere and 15 flowers only covered about 25% of the sphere! Conclusion? Even if I had a really good system and a few friends to help we're looking at about 45 min. per centerpiece. In addition, we're talking 60 carnations per sphere. This can get pricey, I think, and I'm not going to have time to construct centerpieces with live flowers a few days before the wedding. My wedding is the week of final, enough said. Next, I decide it may be worth it to contact the florist my reception venue uses (centerpieces are included in our package but I don't think they're that great which is why I'm exloring alternate options) and inquire about how much it may cost through them. (SIGH) Basically, the florist said I could expect to pay about $40 per centerpiece which equals $720 total. Now, this number is based on the assumption that every person we invite will come to our wedding and that's not realistic so it would be less but the high number is still $720! Wow. I guess that centerpiece idea just got thrown out the window. I'm sad but I'm a pretty practical person so I know I have to do what's best for the budget.

Speaking of budget, I already went way over in the music department because I really, really, really wanted to book my favorite live band and my fiance made sure I got my wish! Yea! I'm truely marrying the most wonderful man in the universe!