My Pretty Chair Dilemma

I often wish I was a bit more decisive, especially when my indecisiveness costs me money! When we decided to have an outdoor ceremony, I had visions of beautiful white, padded, wood chairs with flowers hanging along the aisle and a path of flower petals leading to the alter. But then I found out how much those pretty white chairs cost, and I mean to rent! A local rental company had plain white folding chairs for $1.25 each, and the pretty padded chairs were twice the price at $2.50 each. If I had been smart, I would have reserved the pretty ones right then and there.

But I didn't; I mulled over it, for two whole months! I searched other rental companies, wishfully thinking I could find them cheaper elsewhere, only to realize that they were more expensive everywhere else. Most companies charged upwards of $3.00 per chair! However, I was still having a hard time justifying spending twice as much for something that people were just going to sit on and cover up anyway! But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if I didn't get the "pretty" chairs, I would look back at our wedding photos and regret not spending the extra $250. So that was it; I'd finally made a decision! Time to call the rental company and pay my deposit...

Well, to my dismay, all the pretty chairs were already spoken for. I was just crushed! The next best price was $2.95 per chair. Now my pretty chairs were going to cost me almost $350 more, and on top of that I would have to pay delivery and pick-up charges, because this company was not immediately local.

The strange part is that this time, I didn't have a hard time making a decision. I now have 200 pretty white chairs reserved in my name, with a 30% deposit paid. Lesson learned? If it is something you've always dreamed of, what are you going to look back and remember? The extra couple hundred dollars you had to spend to get it? Nope, you're going to look back at the pictures and think, wow, what a beautiful wedding.

Any other stories of lessons learned the hard way?