(Repost with update)

If you’re a bride on a budget, you can’t afford to become impulsive. Every booking must be carefully weighed. Every decision, final. Every choice must be THE ONE.

I knew all of these. And yet, I’ve committed one of the biggest crimes against planning for a budget wedding: CHANGING MY MIND! Not once, but THRICE FOUR TIMES!!!

Money-Wasted Scenario #1:

Rewind: I’ve blogged about these skirts. How beautiful is the embroidery. How perfect is the color. How wonderful they are because they can be worn again.

Fast-forward: I saw another dress which D and I thought is more suitable for our bridesmaids. As for the skirt, I took one and gave my mother the other. One more is left in my closet.

Money-Wasted Scenario #2:

Rewind: This dress is supposed to replace the skirt. Until I found out that 2 out of 3 dresses are ripped on the side. (Yes, we didn’t thoroughly check them when we bought them). I can have it sewn but then I doubted the quality of hems. So I decided to bring them back to where I bought them, and have them replaced.

Fast-forward: The store doesn’t have the same dress in stock anymore. Instead, they just asked me to choose from different styles to replace the damaged dresses. I chose another dress and a blouse. Now, I have 3 new clothes for myself and no dress for my bridesmaids yet.

Money-Wasted Scenario #3:

Rewind: I convinced D to pay to reserve a pair of wedding rings. The rings are exquisite and expensive. But I told D that we cannot compromise the rings because we’ll be wearing them for the rest of our lives as husband and wife. Besides, the agent told us that if we change our minds, we can just get a different item (price equivalent to the reservation fee) from their store. So, I felt it was ok to pay the reservation fee right away.

Fast-forward: We found a vendor who offered to customize our rings for a much lower price. We decided to get him instead of the former supplier. Since we were told that we can take something else for the fee that we paid the first vendor, I thought I’ll just get myself a pair of earrings that I can use for the wedding. But lo and behold!, their earrings are much much more expensive than I expected. So I just asked for the cheapest item on their display. And they gave me this:

It’s not the ugliest pendant ever, but I won’t purposely buy this even if I have the money.

(UPDATE) Money-Wasted Scenario #4:

Remember my 3-part Rumination on a Wedding gown post? And the succeeding posts (here and here) where I gave a hint that I want to buy another gown?

Well, I hate to admit it but yes, this (gown below) is already part of the I-bought-this-but-won’t-use-it-for-the-wedding-I’m-wasting-so-much-money list. And I really hope the list will stop here!

Rewind: Bought it because it is cheap. . .

Fast-forward: . . . And so is how I look and feel when I’m wearing it. Showed it to friends, they said it’s “ok” like “it’s beautiful for its price” but not “ok” like “it’s beautiful!!!” Even D admitted that he didn’t like it or like how I look on it.  So I decided to go a highly recommended designer and it’s just my luck that she’s offering a budget wedding gown promo for this month. Will have my 2nd gown tailor-made at a price that’s just right for the budget. But what about the 1st gown? It’s still in the store for resizing. I’m not yet sure if I’ll still use it or find someone to sell it to.

D, who’s been trying to dissuade me from making the purchase in all those 3 4 scenarios, can do nothing but shake his head everytime I change my mind. He said I keep professing that we’re on a budget, but I really don’t act the part. “Imagine if you’ve spent all those money on something that we can actually use for our wedding. Imagine how much we would’ve save.“

I had good intentions. But he was right.