I may have a dress....it needs some work.

So I found this dream wedding place. It is a 25 acre compound on the water in Cambridge, MD. It has five homes- with a total of 22 bedrooms. If your wedding was the right size and your family was close enough and into the idea...you could lodge all of your guests.

You can rent it for a weekend- 3 nights. You get the whole place to yourself. Wouldn't that be so amazing and fun! You get to party and celebrate your wedding for three whole nights! At a beautiful vacation spot- all to yourselves. Did I mention three of the homes have their own docks and swimming pools? They do!

Now of course this dream place comes with a price....

The main house for three night stay- $6,000.
Then add the house next to it- an additional- $2,000.

If you want the whole compound it comes out to $13,000.


Now of course I find out these prices and DO NOT think Oh NO I could never afford to do this or OH NO- that's just crazy. What I start thinking is numbers. I start figuring out how much it is going to cost my guests to stay in a hotel. I wonder if this is a better deal. I could charge my guests to stay here instead- and then they would be helping me to cover the $13,000. I wonder how I can make it work and not feel guilty.

When I told BK about it and got to the $13,000 part he is flabergasted, "$13,000!!! There are people starving and dying in this world! In this country! People spend $13,000 on 25 acres!"

I chirp back, "There are 3 docks, AND THREE SWIMMING POOLS!"

(sidenote: the wedding is in September it will be too cold for swimming pools.)

BK of course then says to me, "I can't even believe you. Where do you come from."


Yeah. That's me. Trying to figure out how to justify 13,000 on a 25 acre compound for a weekend destination wedding.

I can't possibly ask my parents or any other family member for that kind of money. My parents and me are both in debt from college.

I'm not seriously considering this place, but I was struck by how much I wanted to try.

I think there is this conflict inside of me that has been making it hard for me to make a decision about anything involving the wedding. I am caught between a tiny informal inexpensive backyard BBQ and the typical american wedding putting couples into $25,000 debt.

I 'm trying to move more towards the backyard BBQ- and save starving children.

To close a funny Mom moment:

I was on the phone with my Mom discussing the timing of the wedding and pushing it up b/c of my job situation and also so the new apartment is not in a state of transition for an extra month. My Mom could tell I was getting a little sressed and frustrated trying to push up the wedding and coordinate everyone and everything at the last minute. So she says, "Well- you and Ben could always just go do a fun justice of the peace thing so you can live together and then do the wedding later on whenever." I was a little shocked and a little intrigued and then my Mom says, "Your sister Helen just shot me a disapproving look."

Perhaps that moment is only funny to me because I know my Mom and Sister, but I hope you understand the humor there too.

To be honest- the notion was tempting. I got a picture of us running away and getting married on some movie like romantic escapade....Then we happily return and plan the wedding while laying in bed together- naked- right after doing it.

I'll leave you with that image.