Wedding rant. Bear with me.

I've been reading the message boards on a very popular wedding website, and the people on there are nuts.

Well, not "nuts." That might be a bit harsh. But they're just... ugh. I don't know. I just hate the fact that so many of them seem so crazed and fanatical about their weddings. They have signatures that say, "Only eight months till I'm Mrs. ____!" Or "Can I walk down the fucking aisle already??"

It's this mentality (the idea that one's wedding day is the be all and end all of everything) that makes the wedding industry such highway robbery. Why do faux crystal tiaras cost $300? Because women gladly pay that. They go all out to make their "special day" perfect in every way, and hang the cost.

Vendors in the industry prey on this sentiment and have thought of many new and exciting ways to strip the money out of their customers' pockets. Plain votive candle holders? Psh! So unoriginal! Don't you want your wedding to be unique? You should have everything personalized with your wedding monogram! Looking through the wedding websites, everything is all about a "unique" and "personalized" wedding, and paying more to do so.

It's just weird and depressing, and I think it's a shame that so many women buy into this bizarre form of conspicuous consuption.

Here are the ways I tried to avoid becoming the wedding industry's bitch:

1. D. and I are getting married at a venue that is part of the L.A. County Park System, so we saved money there. I also purposefully chose an outdoor location so that I wouldn't have to buy many flowers from a florist. (We did pay a bit more for the reception venue, but only because we thought we'd have more fun at this particular place.)

2. I brought my dress off the rack, because I couldn't care less about designer names. Also, I'm not having alterations done at the bridal shop, because it's cheaper to have it done by a seamstress.

3. My one bridesmaid is ordering her dress online.

5. Instead of a DJ, we're making an iPod playlist.

6. A friend is designing our wedding program.

7. I created my own save-the-dates for the out-of-towners.

8. The favors will also be DIY by me.

9. I can and will address my own invitations, thank you very much. I don't need to hire a friggin' calligrapher, as so many women do.

The sucky thing is, even with all of these cost-cutting measures, the wedding is still going to cost a lot more than we wanted to spend. I suppose we could have saved a lot more money just by having a simple ceremony in someone's backyard, or just a quickie ceremony at a public park with a cake and champagne reception, but honestly, the pressure of having so many guests from out of town (especially from D's family) made us feel like we had to make the expense of traveling somewhat "worth it" for them.

I guess that's the end of my rant.

I will try not to post too much about wedding stuff here. It's boring to read about, I know.