Originally Posted by abaya

I saw mine as being a Very Big Deal, but real life circumstances made it a little more complicated than that. Had I married an American, and we weren't going to be moving to another country within a few months of our wedding, and we weren't in any rush whatsoever--it would have been a Much Bigger Deal. As it was, we had a whole bunch of complications, and in the end I had to make my Inner North American Girl (despite being raised as a tomboy, I still wanted a really special wedding day) satisfied with the Modest Deal that we ended up with.

And really, that was okay. I am watching one couple (friends of ours in Iceland, but the girl is Canadian) spend about $50,000 on their wedding, which is next weekend. They had over a year to plan it. It's absurd, if you ask me, but I guess she will be very happy. I came to realize that the engagement (very short, 5 weeks) for us and the wedding were just what we wanted, nothing more, nothing less... and we were very happy with it, and yes, I cried during my vows.