My wedding was one of those small-budget productions. You know, like a B movie, complete with bad camera angles and lighting. Not that I dont cherish my day; theres just a lot of things I would have changed to make my memories more fond and vivid.

With a budget of $5,000, we had to skimp on a few things so that we could have certain aspects that were important to either my husband or me. Our ceremony was simple, short, and on the beach. It cost us the marriage license, the rental fee for twelve chairs, and some tulle. My gown was a repurposed prom dress, and my husband wore a shirt and tie. We were on the beach, after all, and a tuxedo and oversized gown felt out of place. The minister was a friend of the family, and did the ceremony for free.

Where we skimped on the ceremony, we splurged on the reception. We spent hundreds of dollars on a fancy cake. While we kept the catering simple, with sandwiches and salads, it still cost us nearly $1,500 to feed 250 people. We spent somewhere around $250 on the reception hall, not including the bartenders fees, the single keg or the unlimited soda that we supplied our guests.

Of all of the money we spent, our keepsakes from the event were photos taken by friends and family. While their photos catch most of the important moments, and some in stunning detail, we lack the mementoes that a professional would have been able to provide. There are no posed shots of my husband and me cutting the cake, nor are there any good videos that captured our first dance together.

While none of this seemed important to him or me at the time, we now look back with regret that those memories are lost to us forever. All of the details, that we spent months and months planning, wont matter when we forget them years down the road. The extra money that we would have spent would have captured the effort and funds that we invested into one of the most important days of our lives. Instead of looking at photos and videos taken by friends and family, complete with bad lighting, bad camera angles, and overexposure from developing, we would have professional memories taken with quality equipment.

Looking back on it now, I think that instead of spending $800 on our cake, I should have split that money in half. A $400 cake that I can remember and see in quality photos is worth more than an $800 cake that I only remember through my minds eye. After all, my wedding was one of the most important days of my life, and photographs can tell stories of that event for a lifetime. The cake only lasted as long as the last bite.