Mom Hated Her $30K Wedding so She Had a Perfect Redo & Shelled Out Just $1,000

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If you’re not careful, what many regard as the “best day of their lives” can get snatched away from you. It can be difficult to strike a balance between honoring the nature and wishes of a couple and making sure your wedding guests attend an event they will enjoy.

If you lean too far one way or the other, someone will likely leave dissatisfied. After one $30,000 wedding, that person was the bride. Thankfully, after five years of marriage, she got the wedding redo of her dreams.

Two hundred people attended Alexandrea and Michael Acevedo's first wedding.

Alexandrea Acevedo, an event designer, married her husband Michael in September 2018, People reported. The event was a giant 200-person affair. But instead of being the wedding of her dreams, Acevedo, then 22, recalls being “anxious” and “stressed” on her big day.

Today, at 27, Acevedo realizes she made the classic mistake of giving in to what everyone else wanted instead of doing what she and Michael envisioned for their wedding.

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'I don't know why we ever did that,' Acevedo said of her first wedding.

In addition to not getting the wedding she wanted, now Acevedo regards the shindig as a “waste.” “It was a little over $30,000 – that was such a waste of money. We could have put that towards a house deposit,” she told SWNS. “We were so young. I don’t know why we ever did that.”

With maturity now, Acevedo is a bit confused about some of the decisions she and Michael made. “We put all this energy and stress for a big, shiny event. Why did I go through all of that for a few hours?”

Fewer than 10 people attended her second wedding.

Five years later, the couple, who now have four children, did things exactly as they wanted, renewing their vows in a very different ceremony on September 2023. They drove with their children to Fred W. Symmes Chapel, an open-air church that sits atop Stone Mountain in Cleveland, South Carolina.

“We had a moment between us, the kids and God,” Acevedo said of the intimate ceremony. “It was completely stress-free,” she added. “It was just about us not pleasing anybody else.”

Acevedo wants to be an example to other couples.

After the vow renewal, the family ate a simple lunch and hiked the nearby waterfalls. Acevedo said the whole day cost less than $1,000.

She is sharing her story as a word of warning for other couples. “When it comes to your marriage, it should be what you want, not what everyone else wants,” she said. “It should be about you as a couple, not trying to please extended family.”