My mom and I just got back from our consultation with our caterer. My mom asked for an average price for wedding services and they said $8000 - double what I was hoping for. When I told the girl that I was going to do all of the decorating myself, her and my mom told me that I don't want to worry about all that because it's too much, and that I should just show up and have them take care of everything else. I have a feeling that this is why their estimate was so high - they plan on charging me for all of the decor, the flowers, and for them setting everything up. I feel like this is too much money, even though my parents are paying for it. I really wanted to keep the budget right around $10K, but my mom seems to think that this is reasonable (we just got back, so I don't know my dad's take yet).
So here's my question: Do any of you former brides wish you could have done things differently if you had the opportunity? Would you have rather spent less money and done more work, or (if you were a budget bride and money wasn't as much of an object) would you have rather done less work and spent more money to have other people take care of the legwork for you? I'm trying to decide if my controlling, do-it-myself side is nuts, or just practical.