FYI: The Wedding Industry Is Out Of Control

This is what has accumulated on my nightstand over the past week:

One of my sweet, older co-workers has been fueling my new wedding hobby with magazines, books, and guides.  Bless her heart.

As I flip through the pages of Brides and Real Simple Weddings, I am thankful that I’m a bit more money-wise than most young brides (not to toot my own horn or anything…but it’s true.  Some girls I know would drop hundreds of bones on toilet paper embossed with their future last name if given the chance.). 

It’s pretty obvious that the wedding industry has turned into this untamed beast that prays on weak brides who are just happy-go-lucky in love.  Sure, us brides want a perfect, special, memorable wedding day, but I think things have gotten a little out of hand.

In the magazines, there is page after page of advertisements for personalized guest books, engraved cake stands, invitations accented with shades of watermelon pink and seawater green (or any shade your heart could ever desire), silk ring bearer pillows, customized wedding garters, and adorable party favors.

I actually asked someone the other day if I could just avoid the ring bearer pillow all together and just have my ring bearer walk the aisle empty-handed.  They looked at me in complete shock and said “but where would the rings go?”  I mean…do ring bearers actually carry the rings?  I really had no idea.  I guess I just like watching the confused kids walk sheepishly down the aisle.  That’s where the real fun is, right?

Don’t forget about the suit and armor us brides have to purchase:

• gown
• white shoes
• garter
• fancy under armor
• tiara and/or other hair decor
• veil
• jewelry
• something blue
• make-up/hair

Yes, okay —  I want to be a bride for a day and wear the fabulous costume.  But after really listing out all the things I need to buy to pull off the part, it’s pretty overwhelming.

When did the wedding industry get so out of control?

The industry has become quite good at sucking you in and sweet-talking you into that $250 white gold cake cutter engraved with the date of your wedding day.

I think I’ll just use the cake cutter out of my mom’s kitchen drawer that we used for our birthday cakes as kids, thankyouverymuch. Looking at a cake cutter 20 years from now will not make me appreciate my wedding.  It will most likely just piss me off that I wasted that $250 because we’ll probably be trying to pay for little Lloyd’s college at that point.

In my parents’ wedding photos, things are completely different.  My mom wore a baby blue dress that looks nothing like a bridal gown for her wedding.  And she seems SO happy in the pictures.  I’m guessing she was probably so happy because she was marrying an awesome dude like my dad,  not because she was about to eat a heaping slice of sugar out of her $750 cake.

I’ve had to remind myself almost daily that all this wedding nonsense is just a bunch of BS.  I’m super excited for the big day, but I don’t want to forget the reason I’m here in the first place.  It’s so easy to forget that you’re vowing to love one person wholly and completely for the rest of your life instead of just planning some ridiculously expensive party.

I’m just trying to keep a healthy balance in the midst of this wedding madness.  I know I’ll be much happier in the end if I take a step back from all the tempting extras and just focus on marrying that super hot stud that proposed to me just over 4 weeks ago.

Carrie, CPA

I’m a CPA!

Woooohoooooooooo!

After all the hard work, long days, and sleepless nights, I FINALLY got a passing score for the last test this week!  (See more of my CPA journey here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.  The last one is my favorite.)

This is how it went down:

• BEC Test: May 2009 – 80 (Pass)
• AUD Test: August 2009 – 81 (Pass)
• REG Test: March 2010 – 90 (Pass)
• FAR Test: May 2010 – 80 (PASS and DONE!)

I honestly have no idea how I got that score on the FAR test.  All that praying really must have worked.  Yes, I worked my tail off, but that test was killer.  Oh well, who cares!  All that matters is that I passed!

FAQs:

So…are you done?  For the most part, yes.  I am done with the actual CPA Exam.  However, I still have to take an ethics exam (08/04/2010 update: Ethics exam, passed!) have a CPA vouch for my work experience, get my initial license form notarized, and send it off to the state board.  But, really, the hard part is O-V-E-R!

Was it worth it? Yes.

What now?  Losing the 8-10 pounds I put on during the CPA exam (actually only about 6 left to go until I’m back at my steady weight).  Enjoying my evenings and weekends.  Doing things I love that I had to put off during the year of the CPA.

Are you going to get a raise?  Not right away.  In my line of work, CPAs are few and far between so it should be …. helpful.

Can you call yourself a CPA?  Not technically.  To my friends and my blog readers, I can.  But I can’t use it professionally until all my admin stuff is completed.  This will take months.  I’ll probably be a full-fledged CPA with bells on sometime in October.

What did you learn?  Work your a$$ off.  When you think you’ve reached your limit, do more.

What’s your new project?  Setting up my new blog, wedding planning, leading a healthy/fit life, and enjoying my favorite peeps.

Wedding Budget

Drum roll please…. I present to you:

Draft Carrie & Lloyd Wedding Budget!

Disclaimer:  Most of these are estimates…but estimates I’ve researched.  I’ve estimated very high in most places.

Leave your thoughts, reactions, complaints, and/or praises in the comments.   I’ll explain in more detail in a later post.  (This is the cliffhanger version of a blog post; is it working?)

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Wedding Talk: I Promise Not To Turn Into Bridezilla

I, Carrie, do hereby solemnly swear not to become a full-fledged Bridezilla blogger.  I promise not to focus solely on my upcoming nuptials and forget about all the other little things that this wonderful world has to offer.

That being said…I will be blogging about the weddin’.  Yep, I’m getting married, we’re having a traditional Catholic wedding complete with a full bar, an huge guest list, and cheesy wedding music.  Aw yeah.

So, where am I in this lovely wedding planning process?  Glad you asked.  Let me fill you in on all the details:

Church: Booked and SO happy!

Wedding Party:  5 bridesmaids; 5 groomsmen; 1 adorbs flower girl and ring bearer

Colors: hot pink (thank you Stacking Pennies for selling me with THIS flower photo) & yellow accents

DRESS:  I present you….with my perfect dress (disregard the first 10 seconds of Samantha’s antics):

So yeah…if someone could find me that dress at a more Carrie…On The Cheap than Carrie Bradshaw price, I would love love LOVE you! 😉

Money:  We’re on a budget of about $15,000 – give or take a few Gs.

Guests:  I’ve put a limit of 300 on the guest list. (08/05/2010 Update: The guest list has reached 350 and I think we’ll top out at 400…)  We made a draft list of 225 that grows slowly every day (we forgot about people, etc.).  Our parents haven’t seen it and I expect them each to add a fair share of people.  I want to invite EVERYONE I know, but I want to be able to TALK to everyone that day, too.

Honeymoon: Lloyd and I are going to splurge on this fo sho.  We want to go away for 2 weeks.  We’ll probably spend at least 1 of those weeks at an all inclusive resort (I want Sandals…I just have to convince Lloyd) and another week just at different location in the USA.  I would love to honeymoon in Europe, but I just don’t see that happening.

What’s Next?  I have a lot of wedding posts floating around in my head, so I’ll probably be really dishing it out over the next week or so.  I’m SO excited! I have found the love of my life and I get to celebrate that wonderful joy in front of all my friends and family!  I am so, SO thankful for this.  I feel so lucky and only hope every person in the world can feel such joy in their life.  Whoa.  Sorry.  Got deep there.

Next post:  Wedding budget!

A New Blog?

As I mentioned several times before, I want to move this blog to a self-hosted site this year.  I’ve been blogging on wordpress for well over a year now and I don’t see myself quitting the blogosphere anytime soon.

However, I’ve been debating over names & blog focuses for months.

First… I like writing about personal finance, but I’d love to drop my anonymity at some point while continuing to write about finances.  Translation:  no more personal information about net worth, salary, spending, etc.

Second… I don’t want to back myself into a one topic corner on my blog.  So, in addition to finances, I’d like to just write about life and general self improvement, etc.  I love working to better myself.  I’ve always got some sort of goal that I’m working towards.  So, I’d like to write a blog both about finances and livin’ a better life in general.

Third… I was planning to branch out into two different blogs:  one about finances/personal improvement and one about healthy living/exercise.  But…is there any way I could combine the two?  A sort of health meets finances meets personal betterment blog?  I read a lot of health & fitness blogs (like this one, this one, and this one), and I’m not sure I’m cut out for all the work it entails.  And what in the world would I call such a blog?  I am AWFUL at naming blogs (see current blog name, heh).

Fourth…  This blog is NOT about buying things “on the cheap” anymore.  It started that way, but my blog is now mostly about the ins and outs of personal finance.  I don’t blog about how to make a roll of toilet paper last a day longer or how to use 5 coupons for one item (although, I would be pretty stoked if I actually could do either of those things).  Basically this means that I can’t and don’t want to use my current blog name.

So, these are my current conundrums.  I’m debating over all of the above almost daily.  I want to move forward with a new blogging path, but I’m just not sure which path I want to take just yet.

I’d love to hear all your advice, preferences, and ideas for names in the comments!

————

Sidebar: I got Consumeristed today!  And wow, did the readers let me have it.  Apparently, I am not allowed to accuse McDonald’s of making me sick on MY blog since I never got proof from my doctor that their breakfast is what caused my sickness…

I thought a lot about what everyone had to say in the comments on the Consumerist and on my blog (which by the way, started to get a little mean, so I turned off commenting).  At first, I was pissed at how rude people were acting.  However, maybe they were a bit right (just mean about it)? 

I was quick to blame McDonald’s when I got sick, but I really have no proof that their food is why I was sick.  I still feel very, very certain that their food caused me to get sick (NO one else I’ve come into contact with has gotten sick and Lloyd and I ate the same things over the weekend), I can’t blame McDonald’s because I have no proof.  So, just as every person is innocent until proven guilty, technically so is McDonald’s in the case of the vicious stomach sickness that I endured last week.

But fo real, peeps on the internet are VICIOUS.  Unnecessary.  Seriously.

Swearing Off McDonald’s For Life!

If you follow me on twitter, you may have noticed my repeated tweets about how sick I was over the past couple days from eating McDonald’s breakfast.  Here is the offender in question:

Yeah, it may look appetizing in that pic, but it’s not so appetizing after what I’ve experienced over the past couple of days.

Here’s how things shook out after I ate the overpriced breakfast sandwich ($2.50 – really?) on Monday morning:

• Ate the sandwich but almost immediately knew something was off, as evidenced by this tweet.
• Felt generally disgusted and off for the rest of the morning.
• Around 12:30, was visited by the lovely nausea rollercoaster.
• Rode that ride for about 3 hours.
• After about 3 hours, I felt all the blood leave my face and knew it was go time.
• Getting sick at work is probably one of the top ten worst experiences that I’ve ever had in my life.
• High point of the day was when Lloyd was able to drive me home since I could barely function at that point.
• Arrived home where I spent the next 3 hours in the bathroom.  NOT primping.
• This is where it gets good: after the bathroom experience is over (thank you, Lord), something inhabits my muscles causing extreme pain from my back and shoulders to my calves and feet.  Yep, top to bottom extreme muscle pain.  WTF?  I’ve had aches with the flu before, but with this I felt liked I’d been drilled by an 18-wheeler semi about 10 times and lived to tell about it.
• Fever of 101.5.  Oh, joy.
• Unable to sleep due to extreme pain.  Unable to take Tylenol due to fear of spending more time in the bathroom.
• Even though I’ve clearly – very thoroughly – emptied my insides, my stomach insists on cramping like I’ve got 10 periods going on.  Trying to sip as much water/Gatorade as physically possible to prevent dehydration which I can feel creeping on due the dull ache coming from my kidneys.
• Everything starts to mysteriously subside around noon the day after.  What I’m left with is a weakness so bad it takes effort to just stand up and nausea that forces me to give up eating completely. 
• That brings us up to date and I’m still enjoying those last two side effects of nausea and weakness.
• I had some soup last night and rode the nausea rollercoaster for the rest of the night.  So, yep, still not eating.

PROS:

• I’ve lost 4 pounds.

CONS:

• See above.
• I’m out $2.50

What McDonald’s Has To Say:

I called up ‘ole McDonald’s today to inform them of this tragic incident.

The manager on duty took my name and information and repeatedly asked me if I had gone to the doctor.  I repeatedly told her “no”.  I am sure she was insinuating that her precious breakfast sandwiches were not the culprit of my sickness and instead I had some sort of summer stomach flu that goes around all too often.  Yes, the stomach flu could be an option.  But, I felt 100% fine before the damn Bacon, Egg, and Cheese biscuit.  In fact, I went for a 3 mile run that morning and was feeling fantastic after that.  Almost immediately after I ingested the bacteria-laced sandwich was when I started to feel like I was going to die.

So, back to the McDonald’s manager.  She tells me that she’s never dealt with this type of situation before (which is odd, because so many people I’ve talked to about mysituation have said they’ve experienced something similar from the restaurant) and told me to hold on while she consulted with her Mickey D’s posse.

Well, apparently, McDonald’s doesn’t have a” “Hold” button on their phone because I managed to hear a couple juicy sound bites from the posse’s infinite wisdom.

• “Did she go to the doctor?” (again, NO!)
• “Then, how does she know that she’s sick?” (Seriously?!!)

After the brilliant advice that the manager’s posse bestowed unto her, she returned back to me on the phone.

She told me that she’d have to send my information to the corporate office and that they’d call me back soon with some more questions (I’m assuming along the lines of “have you been to the doctor?”).

Lessons Learned:

• Never visit McDonald’s ever, ever, EVER again.  Or any fast food establishment for that matter.  (Chipotle does not count.)
• Since I’ve just cut my 1-2X per year visit to McDonald’s down to 0X per year, I just saved myself $5.  Which over the course of my lifetime might add up to about $350.  And if I invest that little nugget into high-yield savings accounts, well, then who knows what the future could hold for me!