great thread! thanks suga for reinvigorating it.

i never dreamed or planned on getting married. my DH is a romantic and wanted to get married but he respected my view and was very happy that we would forever be life partners.

then one day i changed my mind. my friends reminded me that i hadn't given them an opportunity to celebrate in our love and then DH went away on a holiday and i unexpectedly blurted out on his return "i missed you so much i could marry you" and he jumped on the idea!

i wouldn't change a thing about the actual day except i had lost my voice which i would have liked to have had so people could hear my vows and i could talk to them . it ended up being about $15K but we had the most sustainable wedding we could. had it in a public garden, locally made dress that i wear now as a ball gown, home grown produce for the food (including all the meat), local wines at a locally owned country hotel, hired buses to and from venue for guests, local flowers. local band, made our own invitations etc. we have even offset the carbon emissions of our guests that flew from overseas and interstate.

i could have done it a lot cheaper but we were unexpectedly given some money and we really wanted to give everyone a party to remember that was also very ''us".

dusty