Your real wedding vs your dream wedding. Describe your fantasy vs reality

Ok so I have to ask, what's stopping you from having the dream wedding? Budgetary I assume?!

Your dream wedding sounds a lot like mine. I would also want a big bonfire to roast hot dogs on and have s'mores as a late night snack lol I'm really sad my 3 dogs can't be at our wedding too. I'm going to include them with signature drinks named after them and maybe a locket around my bouquet with their pictures.

Our real wedding is in Hawaii. It will still be rustic style with farm tables and stuff, but no pooches

Can you class up a carnival??

Budget is a big factor MichiganGirl, especially for my carnival fantasy. The big sprawling rustic land fantasy is also limited by venue rules who own that land—some wouldn't allow dogs, some make you use their choice of caterers that I don't necessarily like, etc. I wish I had a relative or something that just owned a farm with a lot of land.

Dream wedding: on the beach in Cancun, just me, him, our dog, his kids, my son, my mother and 2 sisters and best friend. Tacos al Pastor at Taco Factory after ceremony. Real life: ~ 80-95 people at a country club, cocktail party reception but casual vibe. He wanted the "big party." Now he says we could've taken a three month vacation for what it costs. He's not complaining, but mentions it. I told him we should've just gone back to the homeland. Too late now.

The only difference between my dream wedding and my actual wedding is the venue and flowers. If money wasn't a thing, my dream venue is castle farms in charlevoix mi. The knight's castle to be specific. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my venue but the knight's castle at castle farms is perfect in every sense of the word. As for flowers; I have every kind I want but I'd have more. There would be flowers on every surface, in vases and buckets, barrels and crates and loose flowers everywhere. I'm paying $200 for flowers (and no I didn't miss a zero; just two hundred) and I'm getting a bunch of flowers, but I'd easily spend $5000 if I could.

I am not going to call it an original dream because honestly what I am doing is what I wanted - I was going to go the middle ground and do the "rustic barn thing" since FH"s family are farmers and make it really casual - yea well, they don't give a hoot about any of the wedding so I went all out and I am doing the woodsy theme I wanted.

Never really thought about weddings so I've got more of a "if money was no option" and our actual wedding.

Actual: SW Scotland, registrar, restaurant, just witnesses no WP, playing to the christmas decor that'll likely be around anyway. Full length, probably coloured, high-street dress. Restricted guest list of 30.

Fuck a budget: Edinburgh estate (Hopetoun), on site meal and ceilidh with proper piper etc band. Rent the whole house and host a weekend of lawn games, clay pigeon shooting and archery etc with family like a lil holiday. Lots of sparkles and soft lighting. Big/soft skirted alabaster dress with a corset back and sleeves, all family so about 50-60. Would probably have it slightly earlier in the year so the fishing is good.

A chic Mediterranean party. Now it's got a little bit of a rustic twist on the Mediterranean theme.

Dream wedding would have been out at a winery with the reception in either a gorgeous hall overlooking it, or a courtyard, and the ceremony out near the vineyard. Lots of flowers and candles and hanging lights.

Actual wedding will be at a golf course, ceremony will be near a gazebo under a willow, which is still nice enough. Reception just in their banquet hall, nothing special.

Boo for the reality of what things actually cost. At least I've got my dream dress!

FutureMrsDreF,

I got an amazing dress too, makes my figure look amazing, all for 150 bucks on etsy! I feel really really lucky.

I'm going to be very cheesy and say that I am having my dream wedding. A beautiful garden wedding on a river. I might have splashed out on a few more things if we'd had a bigger budget (like a slightly more elaborate meal), but that's about it.

Oh yeah, and in my dream wedding my Dad walks me down the aisle.

To be honest, I am really having a dream wedding. My parents have blessed me with nearly everything I have asked for to make my "vision" come to reality. Now, I have kept our budget in mind the whole time and stayed within it. So, in my fantasy wedding, I just would have top of the line everything!!! Just *tons* of food, lots of seafood, especially at cocktail hour, etc. - flowers over the top - grand exit - just really luxury everything!

To make my wedding my dream Wedding, i would add 2 more hours, upgraded entrees, mini individual milk containers to go with the cookie buffet, more flowers, beautiful detailed cake, videographer all day and a top notch mua. But I'm really happy with what I have planned so far. Really the dream would be to have my wedding but someone else is paying

@MissGeek, haha, "fuck a budget", I love it.

In a perfect world where we were loaded, we'd be having a little under 50 people to a historic house, or the Grand Island Mansion, or something. I'd still want to keep very tight control of the music we played, so I'd probably just hire an MC and have them push 'play' as appropriate and announce the first dance during the reception. For 50 people I'd probably also hire a florist, but we'd still only want chuppah decorations and centerpieces, no bouquets. We'd hire the caterer we're probably hiring now, and we'd have a dessert bar, and who knows, we might hire a professional wedding livestreaming service. Otherwise, though, there's really not much I would change except what had to change to accommodate a larger guest list.

Our actual wedding is likely going to be held at the restaurant of a caterer we've run into a couple of times and really liked -- we went to a tasting with them the other day and they were able to just whip up really good food that was all completely safe for me, just with what they had lying around, no fuss made or anything. We've cut the guest list to 18, and we're DIYing flowers, yarmulkes, decor, FI's veil and skirt, the livestream, and the music. FI's dad's wife offered to knit the chuppah canopy for us, so of course we took her up on that -- she's an amazing knitter. A friend of ours who's a photographer and graphic designer offered to do our photos as a wedding gift, and later we commissioned our ketubah from her, too. It's gonna be awesome.

Ours was pretty much perfect. We had everyone we wanted there and amazing food, great music and a ton of laughs. Truthfully, if I had the time and budget, I would have decorated the church pews for the ceremony and I would have had a plan for the leftover food so that it went to a charity. No one told me that was a decision that had to be made, until I had several cocktails in me and the night was over.

My dream one would be a small 50-people event on a top floor of a building so we could see the entire city. It would be either appetizers only, or little food stations, and the appetizers/stations would have to include Mexican, Italian, French, Japanese, Spanish, and to honour FH some Canadian fare and Eastern European (he's not EE but cuisine is EE where he comes from). Just food coming out all evening long. A string quartet in the corner playing both classical and modern pieces. FH's favourite NHL players would attend. And, the most important part, my parents would be able to come

Actual one: 110 guests in Winnipeg at a country club (mostly FH's family), plated dinner, DJ, fun decoration with maps, my parents can't attend due to health issues.

ETA: I just realized I sound like an ungrateful bitch. I'm really happy and immensely grateful that we get to have this wedding I love our venue, and it was so much fun making the decoration. I just really regret my parents won't attend. And, well, I kind of wish we had a million appetizers, lol.

My real wedding is exceeding my expectations to my 'dream' wedding. And I am sure that sounds cliche, but it really is. Everything has fallen into place as we have planned it. I was able to secure the vendors I and researched and wanted, the dress is more beautiful than I imaged. Its small, less than 40 of my nearest and dearest.

We will see how it goes in 6 weeks!

In our dream wedding we were able to get married at the greylock historical site, which is important to my family. Actually? It's closed for restoration, and was out of budget AND couldn't fit the number of people my family wanted to invite. Our dream wedding was on a mountain top with just us, our bridal party and families. Actually - we're in a historic barn with 100 invites out and 40 accepts in. I'm super lucky so many people want to celebrate with us, and I do love our venue, and we are keeping to what is MOST important to me (the sustainability elements of the wedding regarding the food and decor) but it wasn't the original dream we saw when we pictured our wedding. It's a new dream I guess!

I think I was very lucky-- I had no 'vision' other than a ballgown dress (easy enough!) and DH. So when it ended up me in a big white dress with DH, family and friends at a country club-- no centerpieces-- didn't even cross my mind-- I was perfectly content.