How a $50,000 Wedding ‘Ruined’ This Bride’s Life

A new bride says her expensive wedding "ruined" her life.

According to People, Lucinda Rose's wedding left her "broken" and "burnt out."

After her now-husband Ian Brown popped the question in January 2023, their wedding "took over [her] life from the second [they] booked the venue."

"We paid this massive deposit, so there was a lot of pressure to get it right. It was a massive mental and financial load and it just kept snowballing," the 39-year-old woman told People, noting the guest list quickly grew to 120 people which brought the cost of the entire event to around $50,000.

Hoping to plan the perfect day, she booked a fireworks display, string quartet and even an ice cream van.

With their budget ballooning, Rose tried some DIY projects to keep costs down.

"The month before the wedding, I was so consumed with doing, making, finding and buying wedding things that I barely slept and hardly saw Ian," she recalled.

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The stress from planning the event resulted in the bride not even enjoying her wedding day.

"I started to feel a sense of dread about it — and on the actual day, I could hardly focus. For months after the wedding, my memory of the day was completely gone ... I felt ashamed that I felt that way," Rose shared.

Although the wedding ultimately went off without a hitch, it "ruined [her] life for three months."

"It's this whole societal thing. As women, we're taught to want the day to be perfect — but at the end of the day, life isn't a Disney movie," she said, noting she "couldn't wait for the wedding to be over" and felt too "burnt out to do anything" afterward.

After the nuptials, Rose felt "guilty and ashamed" about her experience, which is why she decided to speak out to warn other brides-to-be.