Isn’t shopping online à la eBay, Craigslist or Kijiji a bit cheap? If I buy things at a discount/dollar/department store, won’t people consider it (*gasp*) tacky?

 
Offbeat Bride posted a great article on this very topic. The short and simple answer is: for pretty much anything you can insert into that sentence, the answer is YES.
 

Tacky
Pronunciation: \tak-ee\
Function: adjective, tack-i-er, tack-i-est.
Etymology: Americanism; appar. identical with earlier tack(e)y small horse, pony, poor farmer; of obscure orig.
Date: 1880-85
1. not tasteful or fashionable; dowdy.
2. shabby in appearance; shoddy: a tacky, jerry-built housing development.
3. crass; cheaply vulgar; tasteless; crude.
4. gaudy; flashy; showy.

What most people fail to realize is that you can spend all the money in the world on a wedding… and it can still be the tackiest event ever staged. Allow me to rest my case with the following link.

 
Money and taste do not always go hand in hand. The thing is – the T word gets bandied around far too often, when what’s really meant (for the most part… and, clearly, there WILL be exceptions) is clichéd.
 
Well, of COURSE your wedding is going to be clichéd. You’re planning to stand in a big white (or pink, or red, or whatever colour suits your fancy) dress in front of all your friends and family, surrounded by flowers & tulle, fairy lights and glitter (see? The road to Tacky can often be quite short), to promise to devote the rest of your life to another human being in a ceremony that’s already been done millions of times by millions of people. So originality isn’t really something that’s easy to come by. And why should you kill yourself trying to have the most unique wedding of all time. There’s nothing wrong with taking the basics and adding a few of your own flourishes. And the fact is: it will be the only wedding ever to star You & Your Leading Man/Woman… that alone will make your wedding an original. And that, in and of itself, precludes it from being clichéd and/or tacky. Hopefully.
 
But there are no rules that say you MUST buy your wedding favours/ decorations / shoes / jewelry (this really is a list that can continue on for days) at Le Fancy Pants Bridal Boutique Of Wedding Wankery. You’re welcome to, if you actually enjoy the idea of paying WAY more than you need to on items you’re going to use once.
 
It’s a wedding. It’s a ritual. Rituals by their very nature are done to death (yes, I do realize that can be taken quite literally). Something that’s done to death becomes a cliché… and from cliché it’s a quick jaunt to tacky. Much like beauty: tacky really is in the eye of the beholder.
 
As far as I’m concerned, the only truly heinous and unwavering moments deserving of the Tacky Scarlet Letter are the following: Including registry information in an invitation; Requesting, outright, to be given cash gifts only; and Dollar Dances (or any variation on that theme).
 
Everything beyond that is open for interpretation. Because, although, an idea itself might sound tacky – it’s the execution of said idea that really counts. And there is a point where the whole “is it tacky” question really becomes a case of good ‘ol unadulterated snobbery.
 
So if shopping on eBay or at your local Dollar Store (hey – they have some incredibly pretty trinkets for decorating… on which I’ll elaborate at another time) is what makes you (and, more importantly, your budget) comfortable,  I say have at it. Chances are, your guests will be none the wiser – unless you’ve got a foghorn in place of a voice box, like me, and like to share everything… with everyone. (What can I say? I have no shame. I’ve made my peace.)
 
And if anyone is tactless enough to have a problem with where you’ve purchased your table decorations or how much you’ve paid for your favours & invitations… screw ‘em. Seriously – do you honestly have time to waste caring about what someone with their head that far up their own arse really thinks? They likely spent 4 times as much as you did for their own wedding… and didn’t have nearly as much fun.
 
[Note: the author wishes to let it be known that she fully expects aspects of her own wedding to be brandished with the Tacky wand. She also wishes to let it be known that she’s totally cool with that.]

~ Both a jaunty guitar ballad from the early ’90s (thank you, Tracy Chapman) and an effective blog header ~
 
We’re fortunate in that we’re no longer (boy are we no longer!) in our 20s and just starting out in life. We do already have our careers established. And we’re lucky enough to both have parents who are happily willing to contribute to our wedding coffers. Having said that, we also just bought our beautiful Rockstar House – a cute little townhouse in downtown Toronto. Yes, we are mortgaged and our asses officially belong to the bank. 

Our/The Bank's Rooftop Patio.

We are not financially strapped. And we’d like to keep it that way. Now, don’t get me wrong – we are by no means livin’ large. We can’t drop coin on new furniture, a new car or a whirlwind vacation without serious number crunching, planning, discussion & saving. We’ve simply gotten over that hurdle of living paycheque to paycheque. Isn’t that what your 30s are for?
 
This is why I’m an eBay Bride. Living in downtown Toronto is not cheap. We are not wealthy. We’re like most folks I know who choose to live in an urban centre – we get by. Oh yeah… and, as I’ve already mentioned, I’m a Cheap Bitch (perhaps I should trademark that). I like to spend less than ‘the next guy’. I enjoy the thrill of a bargain. I totally get off on paying less than you do for something we both want and/or need.
 
So, again I reiterate my confession: I’m Lisa… and I’m an eBay Bride.

So how did this quest begin? Well, I’m about to be a bride (obviously). And I’m notoriously… erm… frugal? Cash conscious? Eff it – I’m a cheap bitch. Oh, I can spend the hell out of other people’s cash. But, when it comes to my own purse strings, let’s just say that Girl Guide badge in knot tying has come in quite handy.
 
But I digress.
 
I’m loathe to admit that I fall into that most stereotypical of clichés where women are concerned – I love to shop. I’ve also got a nerd streak in me a mile long that keeps me tethered to my computer for long stretches of time. So the concept of the two of these earthly delights combined as one had me giddy even before my first visit. I could shop AND still be sitting in front of my computer? Dear lord – this was better than man landing on the moon. Okay, not really, but it was really REALLY good.
 

A Boba Fett watch – one of my earliest eBay purchases; a birthday gift to my fiancé.

And, just to keep the clichés a-rollin’, my very first purchase via that bastion of treasure & wonder was a pair of shoes; a sassy-as-hell pair of black stilettos that have since wandered off (pun entirely intended) in to the wild blue yonder. Now, ordinarily, a pair of missing shoes (especially a really sexy pair) would be cause for some seriously colourful language and more than a little angst. But the fact that I paid a mere $8 for those beauties has kept me in off the ledge and I’ve since gone on to many more glorious purchases. I’ve discovered clothing, jewelry, shoes, tech, camera gear… everything you can imagine (and a few my imagination never would have conjured and I’d really rather I hadn’t discovered) right at your fingertips – literally.
 
Ah eBay – retail therapy in the comfort of your own home. Genius.