It's All About The End Result

Yesterday, my wife and I went mattress shopping. Our current mattress has served its purpose and is ready to be put out to pasture. We visited a few stores, kicked off our shoes and spent most of the afternoon laying down in various beds. One salesman noticed we were making our rounds and came over to ask us a few questions. After giving him some information, he directed us to a mattress we had yet to try.

It was a Tempur-Pedic. And to be honest, we had purposefully avoided it because we had a budget and knowing what we knew about the brand, this mattress was way beyond what we were willing to spend.

The salesman said that with proper care, this would be the last mattress we would ever need to buy. Most mattresses last between 6-10 years ... this one would last AT LEAST 27 years.

It had a cooling gel built in that was eight degrees cooler than most. I liked that.

It had the most amazing massage unit built in. A gentle vibration worked its way from our heads to our feet and then back again to start all over. With the touch of a button we could raise our heads or feet, making the bed even more comfortable. We were reminded that we would be spending 1/3 of the rest of our lives in this bed.

I was sold. I had not had this awesome of an experience in a bed since our honeymoon. So after listening to all the benefits this bed could make to our lives, I braced myself and asked for the price. Thankfully, we were already laying down when he told us or else we would have hit our heads on the floor after fainting.

It was a lot. Wayyy more than we were looking to spend. My wife bolted off of the bed like he was going to charge us for just laying on it.

But I thought about it. I thought about the cost of buying a new mattress every 6-10 years and how mediocre those can be sometimes. The health benefits this provided. The sheer comfort and the way it made us feel both while sleeping and while awake. I thought about getting older and eventually needing the benefits it would provide that we would probably need someday.

I told the man we'd have to talk about it and sleep on it. I don't think he got the "sleep on it" pun.

We left and that bed was all we could talk about. We went home and started doing research into the bed. We began looking at our budget and crunching numbers. We shifted a few priorities. We decided we didn't really need that trip to Montana we had been looking forward to.

And today I'm going by the store and purchasing the mattress.

We could have bought a much cheaper mattress and suffered through some sleepless nights , sore muscles, and then turned around to do it all over again in six years.

Or we could have the peace of mind KNOWING we had made the best decision on an important decision and that in the end, it would pay off in spades.

The same goes for your wedding vendors. You can hire a DJ based on their cheap price, save some money and then spend your wedding day watching your guests sigh instead of dance. Stare at their watches rather than laugh and sing. And you can run around, nervous and frantic, trying to think of something to keep your guests happy and involved.

Like mattresses, there are different levels of DJs. The more expensive ones are more expensive for a reason. They offer more than the cheaper DJs. They provide you with a better end result. They leave you happier and in a better state of mind than a cheaper one who can't even bother to commit your name to memory and simply refer to you as "the bride" all night. Or take the time to gather your ideas, dreams and musical selections and build on them, giving you much more than you ever dreamed of.

Sure. You can buy a cheap mattress and still get sleep.

The sad part is ... a cheap DJ will put you to sleep too.