A friend told me about a wedding she was invited to at a park. She was asked to bring her own cutlery to the event. That made me cringe. Because no matter how low-budget or redneck your wedding is (and I say 'redneck' with all due respect. I love rednecks and may want to be one when I grow up), you should provide a way for your guests to get food into their mouths. Plastic cutlery is fine for an outdoor event. But "bring your own?" *GAG*
Everyone has their own 'line in the sand' when it comes to budgeting their weddings, I suppose.
Regarding the wedding rings, I just discovered that you can get $5 plain stainless steel wedding bands on Amazon. (OK, I cheated, the one I linked to is $6.)
To me, that is AWESOME.
I know someone will read this and want to puke. To some, the thought of a $5 ring is about as horrific as asking your guests to supply their own spork.
Let's just have it out, then. Some people are into jewelry and some are not. I may be in the minority of people who don't care about jewelry. (I also do not like lobster, or the beach. I guess I'm a weirdo.) The only piece of jewelry I wear is my engagement ring. OK, and maybe a pair of Target earrings. I will only buy cheap earrings because I lose them.
I have never been into jewelry because I was a tomboyish sort and I was into horseback riding and doing farm stuff. If you gave $1000 to 14-year old me, I would have bought a saddle with it. Jewelry has just never registered on my "want" list.
Also, I can't really tell the difference between expensive and cheap jewelry. It all looks shiny to me. You could be wearing cubic zirconia, I don't know and I don't give a shit, frankly.
My fiance gave me a nice engagement ring with a nice diamond. He surprised me with it and it was waaaaay too big so we had to go to the store to get it sized. I know it's a decent ring only because he bought it from a well known local jeweller. I like it a lot. I am proud of the fact that it is a nice ring and not some piece of crap, I really am. But that's enough for me. I don't need some fancy ring-of-bling to sit next to it.
I've been wearing this engagement ring for 5+ years and am still not totally used to it. When I go to sleep, my brain thinks it's a callous and I wake up to find myself picking at it. (Gross. But true.)
The last thing I need is another ring. I really don't know if I can stand to wear another, so the ring might really be for ceremonial purposes only.
My fiance wears zero jewelry and I'd already told him we should just get something cheap so that he doesn't have to worry about damaging it... or losing it, if he wants to take it off for some reason. Like music stuff, gardening, whatever. I'm a trusting sort, aren't I?
My original idea was to go to the Target "jewelry department" (the one in Holyoke, MA still has an actual counter) and buy cheap, plain bands there. Why not? I love Target and buy everything else there. I even subscribe to a Target Addict blog.
I figured on spending $100 on the rings.
Now that I discovered the five dollar stainless bands, I just found $90 in my budget to use elsewhere!