my grievances with the wedding industry

let me just say this.  i know that weddings are expensive.  i was prepared for that.  it is the AMOUNT of expensive-ness for which i was unprepared.  i have, on several occasions, had to refrain from laughing in people's faces when we came to the portion of the appointment when they tell you how much they plan to charge you for providing their services.

now let me also say... there are certain wedding services in which i understand the necessity for a higher price.  one would expect to pay a lot for food, for instance.  food costs money.  and anyone who has been to the grocery store or eaten at a restaurant knows that you should be prepared to pay a little more for food.  wedding dresses, are another fine example.  they're awesome, and should be priced according to the amount of their awesomeness.  i had no problem with the price of my wedding dress, as it is the most awesome wedding dress ever.  you'll see.

that being said... there are certain wedding services in which those providing them, obviously have some sort of plan to force the general public to begin taking out 30 year fixed-rate mortgages in order to pay for them.  allow me to highlight a few which i found to be the most obnoxiously over-priced.  

flowers.  they LITERALLY grow right out of the ground.  the only portion of the flower industry which i might understand charging for, would be the time it takes to grab a pair of flower scissors, or whatever it is they use, and snip them off the ground.  if you really plan on charging me so much for them, why don't you just give ME a pair of scissors and point me in the direction of the nearest field of peonies and i'll do it myself.  survey says? overpriced.

for my next example, i'd like to talk about cakes.  if i were running the cake industry, here's how i would determine how much a wedding cake should cost.  i would drive to my local grocery store, buy 3 or 4, maybe 5 of those $15 cakes, and then go home, take them out of their boxes, and stack them on top of each other. voila... a wedding cake.   so according to the standard set by the grocery stores of america, a wedding cake should cost... at the most... 75 bucks.  for those of you who are right now wondering to yourselves "how much more expensive than that are they?"... here is the answer. a lot.

so if three or so months from now, you find yourself sitting at our wedding reception... i hope to God that you are thinking to yourself "this is the best (censored) wedding cake i've ever had".  it certainly ought to be.