We’re not big on dates, but nine years ago on this day, I met the man who would eventually become my husband! Yes, it has been a rough ride (we didn’t spend all those nine years together, after all), but today the love is stronger than it’s ever been. I’ve actually never seen a house where “I love you!” is yelled out as often as it is in ours. We laugh every single day and we probably have a better sex life than most other couples with young kids (isn’t this part of what preschool is for?). We are also the most badass couple in our neighborhood. I love this man!
So we are officially celebrating our anniversary today instead of on the day we actually got married, October 2, mostly because our wedding anniversary falls smack in between our birthdays, so we just assume it’ll be a two week long celebration. We both have the day off, and we have dinner reservations at Fogo de Chao, for which I probably should’ve stopped eating two days ago in preparation.
Anyway, even though we aren’t celebrating our wedding anniversary, Consumerist posted a story on avoiding the wedding industrial complex, and I thought it’d be as good a day as any to talk about how we did it. I’ve written about it before, but I never really got into the logistics.
Neither of us are into big ceremonies, really, and I already knew that if I ever got married, a big, expensive to-do would just piss me off. I’m just not good at event planning or project managing and I was actually really against the idea of having guests, mainly because I don’t truly don’t know anybody who doesn’t talk shit about the weddings they go to. I don’t like it, but it’s just what people do, and I didn’t want to plan my wedding under the pressure of having to please all these people.
Still, we both wanted more than a courthouse wedding — I had never seen pictures of my parents’ wedding (it was arranged and in the Philippines and my mom didn’t even want to marry my dad) so it was important for me to just do a lil something special and have pictures for Hugga to see. So it took us about a month to put together, and we left Hugga with my mom for the weekend to fly to Vegas.
Altogether, our ditty cost under $5K, including plane tickets, hotel, ceremony and chapel, limo, attire, rings, and photography. We got married at Chapel of the Flowers and I wore a little $200 dress from Jessica McClintock that obviously made my legs look amazing. I love everything we did, and I’d do it all again exactly the same way in a heartbeat. The only other thing I really would’ve loved was to have Hugga and our moms there (but money and scheduling were an issue).
We didn’t announce it until we got back, and my mom just planned a little surprise brunch with some family, which was nice and stress-free.
For me, eloping was absolutely the way to go and I have no regrets about it. Maybe one day we’ll have a party for a vow-renewal, but it’d only be an excuse for me to either go to Hawaii or wear a flowy pink and purple cupcake gown.
