CC and I know nothing about wedding planning, as neither of us have been married before, nor have we had anyone in our immediate families marry in the past decade. We didn’t know where to begin exactly, so we started with “The Big 5”.  The big 5 is different for everyone, some might have a big 10 list, others – a big 3.

For us, these are the most important aspects of a wedding:
♥Venue
♥Photography
♥Music
♥Food
♥Cake

VENUE – Choosing a venue turned out to be a very easy decision for us.  CC and I are very aware of our finances – or the lack there of.  We’re also conscious to the fact that all of our family and the majority of our friends live on the east coast, while we’re on the west.  These 2 factors and a quick recollection of my little sister’s first birthday party held at my parents’ hometown’s grange led to a quick decision.  For $100, we could rent a charming, rustic old grange and have access to a lovely field, with a new gazebo, too.  Done.  Even though CC has never been to New Hampshire and I haven’t been in the old grange for years, the price was right, it was on the east coast and it has personality.

Doesn’t this scream charming?
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Location of Ceremony (sans snow!)
Photo by Cotton Moms

Inside the Old Town Grange, Location of Reception
Don’t you just love that ceiling?!?!
Photo by Cotton Moms

PHOTOGRAPHY – As a former studio photographer, I was already well aware how expensive wedding photography can be.  If we were to hire the “dream photographer” to shoot our wedding, we wouldn’t  have been able to afford to have the wedding!  My solution was to do some elbow work on craigslist.org and find a budding photographer.  After several emails with several photographers with varying abilities, I found a trio with a decent eye and, more importantly, passion.  TK&J Lochmandy Photography is a husband/wife duo, with a sister added in the mix.  They’ve never shot a wedding, which normally would have sent me running in the other direction.  (I’ve shot a couple weddings in the past myself, so I know they’re not easy to do.)  However, their website displays their talents as Family and Senior photographers, but their communication displays their love and dedication to photography.  It truly was an easy decision for me to entrust the recording of “the most important day of our lives” to TK&J Lochmandy Photography .  For a quarter of what “pros” would have cost, CC and I have hired passionate people, with growing talent to photograph our first day as husband and wife. (A quick Thank You to MOH1 who has graciously offered to gift us our photographer for our wedding.)

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MUSIC – My approach to music was much the same as our photographer – craigslist.org.  CC and I had always intended on going the mp3 player route for the reception, but having live music for the ceremony just seems more romantic.  And who doesn’t want added romance on their wedding day?  I found Russ Marotta, via craigslist.org, for a bargain.  Russ is a professional dj who also plays acoustic guitar and sings.  His talents in music lean towards the folk/classic rock spectrum which suited our preferences for our ceremony.  We’ve hired him for 2 hours, to play acoustic guitar pre-ceremony, 4 songs during the ceremony and acoustic guitar/vocals until the beginning of the reception meal.  Russ has been easy to work with and was even willing to learn a couple new songs for our ceremony. (Thanks to Cotton Moms for their graciousness, as well, in covering our ceremony musician.)

Are you a budget bride looking to cut corners every way you can?    How have you kept your wedding budget under control?