We Americans are a funny bunch. We are the richest nation in the world, and yet most of us are up to our ears in debt. It sometimes feels like debt is a milestone tradition. Most of us go into debt to attend college, and then pile on that debt to fund a wedding. Later, we go into debt to buy our first homes and take out mortgages we can’t afford, hoping that the richest nation in the world will float our normal rates for as long as it takes to imagine a new, must-have thing out of our financial reach.
College seems to be the new high school, and everyone needs somewhere to live. However the Wedding Industrial Complex is something we might want to look at more critically, especially us Millennials permanently struggling to make ends meet as we fight our biological clocks and attempt to marry sometime-anytime, during our fertile years. Luckily, we are also the generation of iconoclasts. The generation that has been forced to sit back and say “maybe I don’t need this-maybe I can curate the memory within my budget and still make it beautiful.”
A backyard wedding is the perfect way to streamline both cost and planning. Planning any party involves organizing hundreds of details, from invitations to decorations, food and activities-but if you keep the reception and ceremony small and in a green space that you already have access to, you’ve taken care of venue for almost no cost. What’s more, a backyard party affords you an unprecedented amount of control. Everyone wants the details of their wedding to be absolutely perfect, and if it’s at your home, you’re the boss. You can direct your own program, rent rather than buy your party equipment, and make the guest list intimate and exclusive.
At first, planning your own wedding from the grassy ground up may seem overwhelming. Luckily, we live in the information age. Fully 93% of brides use the internet to plan their wedding, and our consumer culture makes identifying a respectable party equipment rental company a snap. These party equipment companies have loads of experience, and deal in everything from tent rentals to table renting and chair cover rentals as part of package deals.
The average cost of a wedding in 2012 was $26,951. That’s an entire year’s worth of college tuition, room, and board at a New York state school. Don’t fall into the debt trap out of some sense of social obligation. There is a beautiful, romantic simplicity to a backyard wedding that won’t be lost on the people who care for you. Love is the only ingredient necessary for the perfect wedding, and you will have that in abundance. For more, read this link.
