Image by Cotton Bud

A link to a very interesting article was posted recently on a thread over at the forums on Wedding Wire, that discusses the many tiers of a bride – based on her budget.  Naturally, I landed on the bottom rung, which didn’t surprise me.  What did was the seeming lack of respect the author had for brides on such a small budget.

Here’s a direct quote:

“DIY Bride: (Budget: under $5000) Someone who probably doesn’t have the resources to get married just yet and is likely to turn most of her wedding into an Arts and Crafts project.”

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I found a great “dressy clothes accessory” on Saturday that I just had to share with the garden.  Drum roll please…

JOCKEY Hi Waist Mini Shaper - No Panty Line Promise®

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I’m a photograph junky.  I’ve always loved taking photos when I’ve traveled and have even worked as a studio photographer in the past.  So when it came to photographs at our wedding…  the more the merrier.  We hired a lovely trio of photographers, whom I’ve got all the faith in the world in to capture those “wedding moments”, but I wanted more.

I began scouring the endless wedding websites out there and discovered a couple of great options:
♥Encourage guests to share their photographs
♥Photo Booths

The first option, encouraging guests to share their photos is easy.  Set up accounts on Picasa and Flikr, print out some cards with the passwords on them, add a tutorial to our wedsite and Shazam!  Photo sharing made easy.

Our Photo Sharing Cards
Images by Cotton Bud

A photo booth, however much it is a fun idea, is also quite pricy to rent.  We’re talking in the $1000 range, in the northeast.  Yikes!  Sorry, but $1000 isn’t anywhere near in my budget for something fun, that is far from a requirement for a reception.  Hmph. But I don’t give up that easily.  I could always have a faux-to booth, right?  I’ve seen some stunning ideas with macbooks and printers and remote controlled shooting.  Ugh, that still seemed like too much more work (and money) for us to commit to such an unnecessary extra.

But wait, there’s more!

I seem to always find some sort of alternative to a project, if I want it bad enough. I don’t mind if things aren’t high tech or if they blend a few different ideas together.  My solution to this photo booth that I desperately wanted, was such a blending of ideas.

Remember those disposable cameras that were such a hot item in the ‘90s at weddings?  They have those pretty silver bells or golden rings embossed on them, with the couples name and date and are sitting at every table for guests to snap candids of each other? Well, I thought, “Why can’t I use those in our photo booth?”  Surely, there are enough people at a wedding that guests could snap each others’ photos in the “booth”.  But those silver bells and golden rings didn’t quite fit into our style.  A bit of surfing on the web produced a wonderful website with a large variety of options – www.customcameracollection.com.  We opted for their Camp Bugs style, and naturally personalized them with our wedding info.  The best part of this website is that you can include developing expenses up front.  After the wedding, we can pop the cameras in their included pre-paid envelopes and toss them in the mailbox.  When we return home after our mini-moon, they’ll be all developed waiting for us!

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But what’s a photo booth without props?  I’ve adored photos (like the one below) of friends and family framing themselves for the photo op.  I had to include a pretty wooden frame I had in our photo booth, but didn’t think it would be enough.  After a trip to Dollar Tree and our local party store, I came up with a bag full of silly props for only $20.  I can’t wait to take a picture in our booth with the fez hat on!

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Our Props!
Photo by Cotton Bud

I’d say, for the less than $50 total I’ve spent, we will be just as happy with the results from our booth, as we would have been spending a thousand dollars on the real thing.

How are you capturing all of your special wedding moments?  Will you be having a photo booth or some other quirky activity at your reception?

Wedding flowers are insanely expensive.  But you knew that already.  I love flowers.  I love when CC brings home a bouquet of fresh flowers for me.  I love trying to grow flowers in our tiny front garden (I say try because my green thumb is not so green.).  However, I don’t love the idea of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on flowers for our wedding.  I know it’s our special day, but it is – Just. One. Day.

What’s a thrifty girl to do?

Well, let’s stop and take a look at my inspiration and the bouquets that I adore.

Lavender. I remember about ten years ago, my best friend Anne wore lavender all of the time.  She had lavender scented everything.  I, uh, hated it.  To me, it smelled like little old ladies.  In fact, I teased her all of the time because she smelled like little old ladies.  ~::Time Warp 8 Years Forward::~ I rediscovered lavender a couple years ago and, you guessed it, I love the smell!  I am now that person who has lavender hand soap in the loo, lavender laundry soap and dryer sheets, lavender hand lotion, lavender medicinal balm –  You name it, it is scented lavender in my home.  Naturally then, I gravitated towards lavender for an option as a bridal bouquet.

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As our wedding vibe – Rustic, Country, Folksy – began to unfold in my mind, I stumbled upon this photo:

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I was completely hooked.  Burlap with screen printed goodness.  Part of me loved it because it was classy, yet casual.  Part of me loved it because I knew I could get CC to customize them with his screen printing skills.  But the biggest part of me that loved them was because burlap is cheap, Cheap, CHEAP!

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Imagine surprise when I woke up from a long nap this afternoon ( I am still exhausted from the wedding weekend) and found the most beautiful Facebook posting via our photographer, Amy Sandoval, about our little details.  Most of our wedding was DIY and on a budget.  I love that everything at our wedding was my vision and design. Our colors were pink and lime green…and here they are -

Amy Sandoval Photography - http://amysandovalphotography.com/blog/

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CC and I are crafty folks.  I enjoy making things with my hands; he enjoys designing things on his computer.  It’s a perfect combo for creating a very DIY wedding.  We have even coined ourselves as “mutual muses”.  We feed off of each others’ creativity.  When he’s stuck designing something for work, he asks my opinion.  When I’m not sure which flower to include in the boutonnieres, he’s there to help.

I knew that we were going to create many of the elements of our wedding ourselves, but I hadn’t really considered how much time and planning that would take.  Fortunately, I didn’t enroll in summer classes and have had plenty of time to craft.  CC, being the night owl that he is, has also found time to tweak our wedding images at his computer.

So, what exactly are we DIY-ing for our wedding?

I hadn’t tried to make a list until last week (1 month before our wedding date) of all the things we are making…  and boy! was I surprised how big the list is!

♥Save the Date Postcards
♥Invitation Suite
♥Digital Photos Card
♥Well Wishing Cards – for Guest book
♥Thumbprint Wedding Tree
♥Table Runners (sewn and screen printed)
♥Centerpieces
♥Boutonnieres
♥Bouquets, Corsages
♥Flowers for Centerpieces
♥Cake Stands
♥Card Mailbox
♥Bolero
♥Hair Wreath (no veil)
♥Candy Dishes (Burlap Bird’s Nests)
♥Banner Flags for Ceremony and over Cake Table
♥Faux-to Booth
♥White Knots
♥Favors – Screen Printed Tote Bags
♥Screen Printed Pillow Covers for on ground seating at ceremony
♥Photograph Clothesline
♥Bathroom Baskets
♥Table Number Frames
♥Wood Signs for Directions to Venue
♥Wedding Map
♥Wedding Website
♥Ceremony Programs
♥Escort Cards

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Not only am I a first time bride to be, but I am a mother of a 10 1/2 year old as well.  To me I think weddings can be compared to giving birth…nobody ever tells you the truth about what it is really like.  I am sure some women have magical experiences during the weeks leading up the wedding, however I have not.  A co-worker is getting married the day before me, I’ve spoken to her a few times within the past week and it some how comforted me that she was having similar feelings….some tears herself.   Here are some of things I have been dealing with -

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So, like many others out there, I’m a budget bride. And, honestly, even if I had endless funds, I wouldn’t use them on this one day. I’m not saying that it wouldn’t be nice to have a little extra wiggle room, but I’m not one to spend tens of thousands of dollars on one day. Having said that, I thought that I would lay out my plans to save money on this wedding, and hopefully you guys would have even more ideas, tips, and/or advice.

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I know I’ve used this picture before, but it’s so darn cute!! Anyway…

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FOOD – With the first 3 “biggies” covered, CC and I were well on our way to planning a fantastic wedding.  Then there was food.  Catering, as I’m sure you’re already well aware, is a HUGE chunk of a wedding budget.  So huge, CC and I decided we didn’t need it.  What did you just say? Yup, when we started considering the cost of a wedding meal per person, even a simple hotdog and hamburger BBQ, we were shocked and said we didn’t need it – or rather, couldn’t afford it.  Besides, it wasn’t too long ago that guests didn’t expect to be fed a meal at a wedding.  It used to be perfectly normal to have a cake & punch reception.

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