mysticjade

It’s been about a week since my destination Indian wedding at Royalton and oh man it was amazing! All the staff at the resort knew we were “the bride and groom” and we got automatic Diamond Club upgrade upon arrival including two personal butlers (who assisted big time in lugging stuff and planning events pre-wedding ceremony). We had the ceremony itself at the gazebo which had some of us worried because an Indian wedding requires a lit fire, and it is SUPER windy out on the gazebo. The resort managed to wrap the gazebo up with fabric to stop the wind from getting in, which helped out big time. The reception was poolside and perfect and magical, our DJ Barry was amazing (we just told him what genres we wanted and he surprised us with the perfect soundtrack for the night). We had the Mediterranean buffet (we had a quite a few vegetarians in our party of 25) and it was the best meal I had at the resort! After the reception we came back to our room to find complimentary champagne, chocolates, rose petals everywhere and a personal congratulations card from our butlers Eric and Omar. We even got breakfast in bed the next morning. The wedding turned out so well and I’m glad we chose Royalton! If anyone has any questions about my experience, I’d be happy to answer

I'm starting to stress about how Royalton wants to annihilate my wedding budget LOL. The DJ is extra cost, wedding cake is extra cost, dance floor is extra cost, extra guests are extra cost... I don't even want it to be a fancy ceremony/reception but even the little things add up, plus I'm Canadian so all the prices in USD add up even more for me. How are y'all handling the sticker shock?

I only wax my eyebrows and upper lip, both areas get really red after but thankfully no breakouts! But the upper lip is pretty painful when they rip the strip off, LOL. I'm thinking of geting a brazilian prior to the wedding, but if my upper lips hurt that bad, I'm not gonna survive it!

The entire Catholic ceremony we’re doing is for the benefit of my FH, since I’m not even Christian. So I’m bowing to tradition on this one and wearing a veil, because FH loves the traditional/classic bridal look. But even so I really love how a good veil completes my dress. That being said, I have no desire to pay a lot for one. I will probably end up buying something basic and inexpensive, then me and my FSIL will bling it out with crystals and detailing ourselves.

I dislike being the centre of attention and I’m not expecting any kind of shower (I’m more excited about having a bachelorette party), but I’m pretty sure my sister (MOH) and FSIL (bridesmaid) want to throw me one, so it might happen. But FH and I have already decided we don’t want to register, if anyone wants to give us a gift at the shower, money is fine (which is actually the preferred gift in our culture).

I love this, it is perfect and too cute! Might just have to steal the idea It's totally an Asian/Indian thing too... I'm Indian and we don't do registries, just piles of cash in cards, LOL.

I have a budget tracker set up and everything has been plugged in with estimated costs and... it gave me a minor heart attack LOL. We're so much over what we originally wanted to spend on our wedding, but like everyone else said we've got the "once in a lifetime" mentality". But I do think that even if I had my wedding at home, I STILL would have been shocked by the price tag. There are just too many complicating factors (family, tradition, religion, etc.) that are forcing me to have a bigger/fancier wedding than my wallet would like. So I'm just sucking it up and embracing my inner princess even as my inner feminist cringes haha.

DAMN, wish I had seen this sooner!

Neither me or my FH wanted an AHR but I'm the first sibling to get married in my Indian family and a 35 person DW just didn't cut it for my parents. So they are planning and paying for an AHR a month after our DW. Even though neither of us are planning or paying, FH was already opposed because he (correctly) realizes that we will be planned and partied out by that point, but like I told him, this was the only compromise that made my parents happy and made me not want to throw things. My parents are going all out, they even have a videographer + wedding coordinator, but me and FH don't! They've rented out a banquet hall, made separate invitations, selected the buffet course, picked the theme/decorations, bought me separate reception dress. Basically, they're putting a lot of energy into it and I know I'm going to be both exhausted and excited when it finally comes around.

They don't, but some people (like my in-laws) think they should... whatever, rules were meant to be broken haha.

Funny story, the moment I started working full time at 24, my mother told me to start saving for 1) a house and 2) my wedding. Which I did! I'm 32 now and while a lot of my savings did go towards buying a house last year, I still have a good $21K saved up because I am an aggressive saver. Which is also coming in handy because I've suddenly had a lot of expensive car problems/health problems in addition to the wedding costs... I'm totally thanking my past-self for creating this great buffer of savings! My FH and I are paying for the wedding ourselves, even though my parents and his offered to help us out. But the wedding is still almost a year away, so we'll have to wait and see how the finances play themselves out.

LOL I can't even view photos I post to my own comments! Driving me nuts LOL!

FH and I prefer to do something classic but we can't decide. My top picks so far are "At Last" by Etta James, or "The Way You Look Tonight" by Tony Bennett. There's a part of me that wants to use "Everything Has Changed" by Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran but I think FH would veto that immediately haha.

My shoes! I went to a bridal shop looking for dresses and they had a ton of shoes that the owner had got on discount from someone's shoe store that had gone bankrupt. They cost me only $20!

Since I'm having two wedding ceremonies (one Catholic, one Hindu) I had to split my budget between two dresses, didn't want to go above $1K for both. I bought my white dress for $700 and the Indian dress for $450, so I'll still be slightly over-budget but not as bad as I thought I would be. I know it's pretty standard pricing but the idea of spending $1000 or more on a wedding dress makes me cringe. The money I saved being frugal went straight to our $3K photographer!