In today's day and age, it will be hard for you to find someone who is NOT affected by the downturn of our economy. Everyone is affected by it. Even big corporations and city municipalities. I am affected by this downturn. I work for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. DWP is an agency of the City of Los Angeles. With the recent credit rating given to the City, the word layoffs have been swirling every City department and office in Los Angeles. You can read about the credit rating change here.
Situations like these can be daunting to the newly engaged and those well into their wedding planning. What can you do? Well Mr. Teddybear and I had a nice talk about it ourselves. What would we do with our wedding plans if I was laid off from my job? After much discussion, we found that we have several options when it comes to our wedding:
1. The quickest and most efficient cost-cutting step would be to cut the guest list down. The cost of the food should be almost 50% of your wedding budget, so if you cut the guest list down, this step could be a significant savings.
2. Do more DIY projects on top of the DIY projects I am already planning and have done. The one caveat I have about DIY projects for weddings is to do the projects your comfortable with and ask for lots of help! Now with that being said, I have always been a crafty, thinking outside the box kinda gal and doing DIY projects is just right up my alley. Mr. Teddybear and I discussed the possibility of doing our own flowers and decorations. There are a plethora of how-to videos online to show you how to create your own bouquets, floral wedding arch decoration, and centerpieces. If you are not comfortable or are not as crafty, find out if you have a friend or family member who is and enlist their help. Just remember to allow enough time to complete the work and that you don't have to do it all yourselves. The next option goes hand-in-hand with this one as well.
3. Another option for Mr. Teddybear and I would be to cancel our contract with the reception venue (yes we would more than likey lose our deposit but we are hopeful that they would have a heart) and have the smaller wedding and reception at our house. We decided how and where we would put our furniture, where we would have our ceremony, where we would eat, and where we might dance.
4. The last all, end all option for Mr. Teddybear and I would be to postpone our wedding to when we are back on our feet. For me personally, I don't consider this an option. I love this man in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer. I want to marry him whether we are poor or not.
These are the options that me and Mr. Teddybear came up with yesterday. If I am laid off we would definately do option 1 & 2. We would only consider option 3 if there were certain circumstances involved and if all else fails, then we would go with option 4. I hope these options are helpful for those out there who are in the same boat as I am. Can you think of anything we missed? Let me know and post a comment.
Have a blessed day!
