Colors: Chocolate Brown and Royal Blue
Theme: Autumn/Nature/Vintage
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I told people I was born to get married. I am an avid list maker and I am frugal and now how to fish out the best deals. I was able to get just about everything I wanted with the total amount being under $2,000. I really love that I didn't have to compromise my vision and or give up on all the things I truly wanted.
We got the location for a steal. It was already really low priced when we first wanted it, but since we had booked it a year in advance and everyone on the staff had changed in that year, for some reason the event manager decided that we should let them keep the deposit, a whopping $150, and we wouldn't have to pay more. It turns out that our DJ was the most expensive thing we paid for and even that was at a discount since I was using someone who was sort of starting out, but she had been a radio personality for a long time and had an extensive music library. We also shared a similar taste in music, which helped a lot since she already had a lot of stuff I liked.
The cake was made by a friend of mine that has modeled for me in the past. An amazing artist that has a little cupcake biz and had never made a wedding cake before, but I was confident in her skills, as was she. And the end result was extremely delightful!
It was completely custom!
And this cake did not cost a $1,000. Not even close and it was just as good as something that expensive and extremely tasty. It was something like brownie cake with coffee filling. Are you kidding me?! I've never tasted anything like it! It was effing awesome.
My photographer & Caterer were friends of the family who wanted to do their services as gifts. One thing the book says is to always offer to pay for any service, even if it's a friend or family member and I will say that it's good advice. If they don't want money just give them a gift for helping out, like maybe a gift card. It helps avoid hard feelings afterward, just in case.
The food was exactly how I specified and turned out awesome. It was almost all made from scratch. I am very grateful for all the hard work it took to make the food happen!
The band... the best band... the most amazing band... was actually a second choice for me. It was serendipity really. Although the person I first chose, a year before the wedding, is awfully neat, I am actually glad that he wasn't able to do it after all, and instead I was able to ask Grand Falconer to play. They were absolutely perfect and embodied my style and musical taste. It was the lead singer, his acoustic guitar, and a girl with a cello. Beautiful voices, great harmony, and just plain luscious.
Here they are: http://www.facebook.com/grandfalconer
I asked them to play "First Day of My Life" by Bright Eyes for the processional at the ceremony. When I stood waiting to walk down the isle with my father, they began the song and tears came to my eyes because of how beautiful and perfect it sounded. I also asked them to play our song for our first dance - "Crack the Shutters" by Snow Patrol. Then they played a set of their own songs afterward. They are darling people and I am so happy that they played at my wedding. Their music was truly special and will always be a beautiful memory.
What I made for the wedding: Both the bouquets and the feather headpieces for myself and the bridesmaids, The feather boutonnieres for the guys, The table markers, and the invitations [that was a pain in the butt. worth it though!]. I didn't want to make too many things just because I would have too much on my plate and the things I did make were very intricate and took time. There were things I made or designed from using things already made, like the ring pillow, the center pieces, the floral arrangement, and some other things. Basically just about everything at my wedding was made or bought from thrift stores. My mom helped too by making the removable train on my dress for the ceremony, the jacket thing I wore, the flower dog's bandana, and the sash that I wore for the reception.
What I did to be Green for the wedding: All the invitations were printed on 100% recycled paper. It had that old fashioned, homemade look and really went well with the theme I was going for. I used very little paper products and any that I did use had been from recycled or sustainable material. And just so I could throw away all the food ware after use without worrying about ruining the environment and subtracting the effort to reduce waste, I ordered compostable vegware from this very cool site - greenhome.com. For those of you who live in an area that has composting sites, you can take it there instead of throwing it away, but either way, it's far better for the environment. I got the party pack which includes everything you need for 50 people. It's actually less than a dollar per person and the more you get the more you save. Perfect for a wedding! They are very sturdy and they worked really well at my wedding. They look a little more stylish then paper plates too. I also wanted to recycle cans and anything else I could and I did my best. The best thing to do is have recycling bins for everything you want to recycle and make sure someone is in charge with actually taking it to get recycled.
The biggest thing I did, that was very important to me, was to donate a dollar for every guest at the wedding to a place that would plant a tree for every dollar donated. So essentially, trees were my wedding favors. It was far better than buying favors people don't really know what to do with anyway. I think if you still want to give a favor you can do something edible or something small and fun and then still do the tree thing because it really is a great way to give back to the world and our environment! This is where I donated: The Natural Conservancy
And how can anyone have an absolutely dashing wedding without an amazing wedding party???
These people rock! And the girls above are very special to me and they helped in every way they could. They really did help to make my day as perfect as it could be and they also helped me get through stressful moments, and there will always be stressful moments. It's all about how you deal with them and how fast you can get over it and move on to the next moment.
And yes, I had a Flower Dog! She's the coolest!
My sister and maid of honor, Stephanie.
Coolest girl, Amy.
The guys. Those silly boys.
[Brian is the good looking one on the far right.]
Oh yeah...
And my dress... it was $7!
I spiffed it up with two embellishments and then added the sash and that's about it!
Thanks for reading! Come back again!
- MaryAnne
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