Unnecessary Wedding Purchases

We're all guilty of it--giving in to the constant barrage of Western culture telling us that our biggest, most special day ever is the perfect time to spend oodles of money on silly, unnecessary things. American consumerism at it's finest! All those fancy wedding blogs only make things worse. Well of course I absolutely must have fun sunglasses at my wedding. And let's not forget a new, special perfume just for the big day! Did someone say paper parasols? Those would look amazing in our wedding photos. I'm ordering nine of them!

Image source via: lazygamer.net

And that's how you end up spending all of your hard earned cash on silly, unnecessary things. Right now I feel like I could just take my paycheck, turn it into a paper airplane and just sail it off the top of a skyscraper. Poof! Gone forever.

So why all this unnecessary spending? I think that part of me is terrified that I will look back on my wedding with regret. I will lie awake at night sweating over the sparkler exit that we skipped because I didn't feel like spending $65 on sparklers. I hate feeling regret. What a silly emotion because of course, we can never go back and fix things so it's best to just accept things as they are and move on. Unfortunately my brain does not often listen to reason and I assure you that I will still lie awake at night regretting stupid, irrelevant things. So in a frantic attempt to bypass future regret I have plowed full speed ahead into unnecessary wedding details. Right now I have 100% control over what will and will not be purchased for our wedding and I feel like it's now or never for these little special splurges. We are only weeks away and my checking account has been feeling it hard lately!

And so without further ado, I bring you the insanity that is an American wedding:

1) A Signature Scent 

Image source via: Sephora

I'm a sucker for sentimental things and I loved the idea of having a wedding day signature scent. The idea is that you wear a unique perfume on your wedding day and honeymoon which you then save for special occasions in the future. When you wear it, you and your spouse will always remember your wedding day! Memory is heavily tied to scent, so I felt that this was a justified splurge, but a splurge nonetheless 

I think the concept of a wedding day scent has been well-covered here on Weddingbee (from Mrs. Armadillo, Mrs. Wallaby, Mrs. Ladyfingers, Mrs. Treasure, and Mrs. Beanstalk, to name a few) so I don't think this splurge was too unusual. A lot of Weddingbee bloggers seemed to have preferred Miss Dior Cherie, but unfortunately it is already my go-to daily perfume. After a trip to Sephora it didn't take me long to pick the ever-popular Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb. I started off with some samples and after mulling over the decision for a few weeks I decided to buy the smaller 0.68oz size which only ran me around $50. Okay, and I might have bought the tiny travel size version as well for the honeymoon. YOLO.

2) Glow Sticks

Image source via: Oriental Trading

Look, I wish I had a good explanation for this, but I don't. My thinking behind the glow stick purchase was that it would be really cool and really fun to be at a wedding with glow sticks. Who wouldn't want to throw on some fun glow sticks and dance the night away? And look at what a hit they were at Mrs. Pain au Chocolat's wedding! Those fun photos totally influenced this decision, by the way. I spent $35 on 50 glow necklaces in assorted colors, and if the guests enjoy them and I get photos half as fun as Mrs. PAC's then it was money well spent!

3) Sunglasses

Image source via: Oriental Trading

These sunglasses fall under the glow stick category of "just because." We plan to have them out on a table with the glow sticks after the dance party gets started. Guys, you have to know that I love a fun dance party, and these just screamed "AWESOME TIME" to me! They were totally affordable too, at $10 for one dozen plastic sunglasses. I bought two dozen. Plus, I can put them out with a cute sign like this:

Image source via: Braedon Photography

4) Sparklers

Image source via: Jonathan Hoffner Photography

Does every bride dream of a dramatic, heart-felt sparkler exit? Thanks to advice from Mrs. Airplane and Mrs. Unicycle I plan to make sure our guests know that we will be having a sparkler exit through a message on the programs. Unfortunately, we are having an open bar so maybe Mrs. Unicycle's theory on the sad combination of open bar and sparkler exit will still be true. Not one to be deterred from some overly optimistic vision of an amazing sparkler exit, I bought 150 20" sparklers for $65.99 from I Love Sparklers (as recommended by Mrs. Wallaby).


5) Parasols

Image source via: Style Me Pretty / Photography by: Amanda Hein Photography

I have six bridesmaids who are wearing mix-matched dresses in our wedding colors. I bought each one a paper parasol from Luna Bazaar that matches her dress color (blue, sherbet, pale pink). I also bought three gray parasols for my groomsladies who are wearing mix-matched gray dresses to match the groomsmen suits and I bought myself a white parasol to tie it all together. I think they will look so beautiful in photos. We are getting married outside in a field beneath some pecan tress and I can already imagine the warm summer sun streaming through the parasols. Again, this was a sort of silly purchase, but I hope my ladies are able to get these back home as a little souvenir of our Marie Antoinette-themed wedding.

6) Plum Pretty Sugar Robe 

Image source via: Lane Dittoe Photography

Ah, Plum Pretty Sugar, what marketing genius did you employ to ensure your wild success? $65 for a cotton robe?  But it's been in like every wedding blog post ever? Where do I sign up!? I would have loved to buy one for each of my girls, but with nine ladies total (six bridesmaids and three groomsladies) it was just way, way too much money to spend. I did manage to splurge on myself though, so at least I will have some nice getting dressed photos. I went with the classic knee length kimono robe in the "Beckoning Creatures" pattern as shown on the bride above. It should be here at the beginning of May and I can't wait to try it on (and take it on our honeymoon!)

Well, I guess that's about it. I'm sure there are plenty of other ridiculous things I've spent money on lately, but  this seems like a nice laundry list of indulgences. What silly and unnecessary things have you splurged on for your wedding?