Cheap Cate A Penny Pinching Fiance

It's inevitable. Unavoidable. Blatantly obvious, yet naively forgotten. Instills nausea, rash, shaking, uncontrollable outbursts of 'Oh My God!'

The Wedding Budget.

After the ring, the romance, the presenting of the left hand at all functions, after a bit of the excitment dies down, the actuality of the big event settles in. This huge romantic gesture that has just transpired, the asking of the most beautiful question to the one person you see yourself with, by your side, for the remainder of your days, all of that takes a back seat to the next step in the story. Rapid fire questions follow, from those who were just gushing about how, 'You have to remember every moment of this exciting time!' It's only natural to ask certain things in the hubbub...

When are you getting married?

During our time in Ireland, no wedding talk had been allowed, being as I didn't want that to overshadow our amazing journey. Live in the moment, enjoy this beautiful country and plan only the roads we'll travel that day. A marvelous way to live, while we could. Flying home from Ireland, after the first (of what we'll spend the rest of our lives making many) international vacation, we started discussing, just for fun, the wedding list. This will determine a lot in the overall scheme of wedding shennanigans. So, we allowed ourselves to drink from the wedding goblet, to see how easily we swallowed. But, having never been exposed to such an elixir, I was soon woozy, as I had been drinking the meade at Bunratty Castle.

Needless to say, I've learned quite a bit about the whole engagement process, how to handle the finances of being engaged, and what to do when the spreadsheet that lays before you has many line items on it. What exactly have I learned? To keep it simple, like most financial decisions I make.

Being betrothed to a financial minded man, a man who works with numbers and figures, a man who has done my taxes the past two years and who manages my small, but wildly optimistic portfolio, well, this man and I see eye to eye on most financial situations. Experiencing joy has never been as sweet as when someone else shares your hobby of penny pinching.

Put a sweater on if you're cold. Is the restaurant byo? What's on sale this week at the groccery store? Happy Hour speacials at Baggataways. Oh, I can feel the love.

So, as I sat next to this wonderfully, fiscally responsible man, with a budget inbetween us I had hopes that he too would share my passion to hang onto those dollar signs, to slash and edit the numbers to a total that did not make me dizzy. Were his palms as sweaty? Was he kidding when he agreed to use construction paper to make our own invitations? Did he also want to serve hamburgers and hot dogs, while an ipod shuffled in the background?

Well, what he did when all of my money neurosis came bubbling to the surface exceeds all bars I may have set. He patiently shut down the laptop that held that horrid number, looked me right in the eye and uttered music to my ears...

"Let's party."

All the questions, concerns, figures, venues, head counts, all the other 'stuff' that weasels its way into the equation doesn't matter. There's no rush, no deadline, no clock ticking. Life continues without plans and sometimes, makes more sense that way. I took a deep breathe, grabbed my goblet of wine and cheersed the man who knew what I needed.

As a little girl, I never dreamed of my wedding....maybe I knew the real thing was worth waiting for.

Let's party, indeed!