Hola! Today we’re looking at flowers, catering, and decorations.

FIVE:

Flowers.

There are a lot of options here. If you’re only using flowers for your bridal party, including parents, it can be pretty cheap, depending on how creative you get. Use vintage flower brooches for your bouquet and boutonnieres, make them out of doorknobs, use buttons and floral wire. If you’re really strapped for cash, or just want to save, don’t give the parents corsages or boutonnieres or just skimp on the grandparents. Research online flower shops and order a week to two weeks before your wedding to ensure freshness. Buying bulk that way will save you some dough!
TIP* If you’re using silk, go for high quality on things that will be consistently photographed like bouquets and boutonnieres.

In our case, we again scoured Etsy and found the miracle that is Milkpod Studios. All of her flowers are made from fabric scraps that she’s collected over the years. Bonus! They last forever. No worries about dried petals withering away or paying someone to preserve it!

For decorations around the altar, on the tables, or down the aisle, make paper flowers! If you’re willing to get your hands moving there are some great tutorials out there. (YouTube, hello!) If you’re getting married outdoors, there’s really no need to pump it up and take away from nature’s beauty. Use cattail, feathers, long grass, ribbon, paper, anything to save you money. Flowers can get pricey when you’re decorating a big space so get creative and don’t be afraid to DIY some things! Have a party! Woo! DIY doesn’t mean skimping!

SIX:

Foooooood!

This, too, will take a big hunk of your budget. If you’re having a morning wedding or early afternoon don’t serve a big meal. Light hors d’oeuvres and, of course, cake!, will suffice! However, for a wedding after 5 PM guests will expect a meal. This is where it can get pricey! Most catering businesses charge $9-20 a head. Fortunately for us, my mom runs a cake business and is an AMAZING cook and has catered several weddings and events and did it deliciously for us. If you have someone like this in your family, ask politely if they’d be willing to help. Paying them a little something would be sweet, too.

TIP* When asking your family for help, if they’re doing something pretty difficult and substantial, like catering, consider giving them something for compensation. i.e.: gift cards, gas cards if they’re traveling out of town, or cash! It’s a good idea to thank those helping you out of the goodness of their hearts anyway! PS: Martha Stewart’s website has great tips on how to tip those helping with your wedding, like your officiator!

When planning a menu think about what time of year your wedding is. Ours was in the fall so we opted for hearty stews, winter salads, and cheeses. If yours is a spring wedding opt for bright foods with big flavor like fruit kabobs and grilled chicken! Summer wedding? Watermelon, lemonades, and fish tacos.

SEVEN:

Decorations!

My favorite. Again. Tons of options here. Like the flowers and all those before, get creative. If you’re using round tables, think about using patterned tablecloths and conservative centerpieces instead of white tablecloths that can make the table look blank. Using long rectangular tables? Use a light patterned tablecloth, or a white one, with a skinny colored runner all the way down with small flower arrangements down the way.

Our venue offered white or ivory tablecloths with different overlays. We decided on the ivory, to match my dress, and bought burlap coffee bean sacks. We cut the seams down the sides and used them as runners on our round tables. For our centerpieces we took all of our old books and borrowed old frames from my aunt’s antique shop. We laid the frame in the middle of the table and stacked the books in the middle and set our collection of small vases on top. (Our venue provided the greenery and we bought the cotton and wheat stalks in bulk online for cheap!) TIP* Use what you already have. Don’t start collecting tons of vases if you already have a small collection of your own! We had 70% of the books we needed already in the house! (We used about 3 per table.)

Welcome to Part Deux! Today I’ll be focusing on clothing…

FOUR:

Clothing!

Start looking for your dress! There are literally a million options out there but from your personal style you should already have an idea of what you like. If not, research. Don’t immerse yourself in a boutique without having at least somewhat of an idea of what you love. Don’t let them sell you something unless you absolutely love it. Don’t sacrifice your own style for your wedding. Class and modesty never go out of style.

-Try things on. (If you can.) This is something I didn’t necessarily do. I visited a couple of shops in my area but my taste was so drastically different than what shops carried I hated trying them on. (If this is the case for you, don’t get discouraged! This just means you’ll have to work a little harder for what you want.) Therefore, I had to really get crafty and clever with my search. I bought a J. Crew dress online, but it ended up not working out so we returned it. TIP* (When buying online, check their return policy. If you don’t like it or it’s not what you thought it’d be, be sure you can return it for full value.)

On vacation my mom found an antique shop. We ended up buying a dress for $180. It was tea-length with beautiful stitching. After a couple of months I wasn’t sure I digged it as much as I did. Our wedding was in the fall and this dress was really more spring-y.

So I went on the hunt again. (It’s for sale, FYI! 🙂 Etsy was my friend this time. I searched and searched and searched. Mind you, our wedding was about 2 months away and I still had no dress. I finally found my dream. $130. SOLD and bought two weeks before the wedding. 🙂 Thank goodness my undergarments worked with this dress, too! I still die… it’s gorgeous.

TIP* If you’re a sewer, look for dresses you could rework. Cut the sleeves off of an ’80s dress or shorten it for a funky look. If you can’t sew, con a family member into helping you out if you can’t afford a tailor!

For the guys’ I bought their clothes all at Old Navy and thrift stores. I was digging the idea of a relaxed suit but knew we couldn’t afford what I was looking for and renting suits just seemed silly to me. Wasted money, essentially. So on a trip to Austin we snuck into Buffalo Exchange and bought all three of the guys’ vests! Their pants and shirts came straight from Old Navy and they wore their own brown shoes. I was pretty proud of that.

The flower girls’ dresses were on SUPER sale at Old Navy. Mom died them dark purple and we bought them adorable white cardigans. So cute. We borrowed their vintage bags from my aunt’s antique shop!

Hello!

As promised (a LOOOONG time ago), today I’m (finally) starting my series about planning a wedding and giving you specifics on how my wedding happened. (Get ready to read!) 🙂

Today I’ll be focusing on getting your plan together and what specifics you should put at the top of your priority list.

ONE:

MAKE A BUDGET! THE most crucial thing you could do to plan for a wedding. Make a specific budget down to who is paying for what. If your future in-laws are up for pitching in, see what they can contribute or if they’d like to pay for a specific thing. Here are some of the main things you should budget for:

-Venue
-Chairs and tables, if not included in your venue’s pricing
-Bride’s dress
-Groom’s clothing
-Catering, including cakes and drinks!

TWO:

FIND A VENUE! No matter what time of year you get married, wedding venues fill up fast. If you’re getting married somewhere a little more unique like an old abandoned warehouse or an open field, I don’t think you should worry about it too much. Just contact the current owners of that property and ask them if it’d be alright if you used that space on a specific day.

When I was looking for venues (ahem, before I was even engaged) I knew what I wanted.
-Somewhere outdoor
-Garden-y
-Vintage feel

I suggest you make a list of the specifics you want. Outdoor or indoor? Field or industrial? Do they have a plan B if weather doesn’t cooperate outdoors? Are chairs and tables for the reception included? What are their policies on catering? Are the owners helpful and nice? (SUPER important.) What’s the PRICE?

THREE:

Get a timeline/checklist together. Organization is crucial in planning something this big, unless you have a planner. How long do you have to plan your wedding? Ideally everything should be in order a few weeks or a month or two before the date. I had a little over a year to plan. Here’s a timeline I used: (there are a TON on the internet).

-For the first 6-8 months I gathered tons of bridal magazines and found some awesome blogs I read every single day. (oncewed.com, ruffledblog.com) I made a binder of a lot of inspiration. Pictures of dresses, cakes, decorations, groom’s attire, bridesmaids looks, invitations, hair ideas, ceremony decorations blah blah blah. TIP* The most important thing you can do when planning is to look outside the box. Don’t settle for what’s on the shelves at Wal-Mart or Hobby Lobby. Explore Etsy, browse blogs! Keep your eyes peeled wherever you are for inspiration. Your wedding DOES NOT have to look like the next girl’s. I really can’t stress this enough!

-Next, my mom and I started focusing on invitations. (These should ideally be mailed out 6-10 weeks before your date. If you send out save-the-dates they should be out before then and invites should go out several weeks later.) We scoured the internet from the beginning and looked at hundreds of designs. Only after the stress of all of this did I realize that my mom was a fantastic artist! (DUH. UTILIZE YOUR FAMILY!) I then came to her with about 5 or 6 looks and she combined them all and came up with this:

Next Posts: Clothing, Flowers, and Catering and beyoooooooooondddd….