Tonight's season finale of the Real Housewives of Atlanta showed castmate Cynthia Bailey wedding Peter amidst a serious lack of money and family doubt. I am someone that has previously blogged about my thoughts on weddings and their outrageous costs (here and here) so seeing her struggle to scrape together pennies to put on the wedding of her dreams was hard.
Viewers watched as Cynthia broke down multiple times leading up to her nuptials and proclaimed that they didn't even have the $3k to pay for the beverages, amongst other things. Now her mother came in for the last minute save, but I would love to ask them if it was really worth it? I'm not a party pooper - - If you have the $ to spend by all means spend it! I just don't believe in overextending yourself... not even for a wedding.
Financial honesty is a concept most of us learned when we were young, but recently financial guru Suze Orman has made popular again: "Financial honesty means you don't buy it if you don't have the money for it."
It's tempting to keep up with the Jones', but there's nothing wrong with being honest about your financial situation and knowing when to forgo certain things. A "budget" isn't a bad word and financial honesty won't ruin your day. As Orman always says, we should strive to "live below our means, but within our needs."
When is the last time you analyzed what your needs truly are? Do you know someone that went broke planning a wedding?