35 Affordable Wedding Decoration Ideas (That Don't Look Cheap)

wedding table centerpiece ideas on a budget

wedding table centerpiece ideas on a budget - win

Best Wedding Table Centerpieces Ideas On A Budget

Best Wedding Table Centerpieces Ideas On A Budget submitted by andreasconner to wedding [link] [comments]

Thoughts on charcuterie board centerpieces?

We have considered doing a charcuterie board as a centerpiece at each table surrounded by a little bit of greenery, maybe some candles. We will have a pretty extensive cocktail hour and a half so I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this idea. Would you (as a wedding guest) enjoy having additional appetizers on your table when you’re seated?
Since charcuterie could potentially be as expensive as flowers, we could easily reallocate that money to our florist budget. We thought the cutting boards used for the charcuterie could be taken home by someone at the table — similar to giving away flower centerpieces at the end of the night. General thoughts?
Disclaimer: if we go with this idea, the venue staff would wash the cutting boards before the end of the reception. Guests wouldn’t be taking home dirty dishes lol
submitted by haneyme to weddingplanning [link] [comments]

Help? How could I make this hoop centerpiece happen?

So I am NOT a crafty person at all (and have very limited space in my apartment for either crafting or storage, no outdoor space or garage at all, no car). My original plan was to rent fake flowers for centerpieces...everyone hated the idea lol.
My FMIL is craftier and thinks she can make the centerpieces herself as a gift (I would purchase, she would do the labor). She thinks we can do these centerpieces for under 30 per table, but I'm just lost on how we could possibly do it. Would love ANY tips or experience if anyone's done them!
The centerpieces I like look this:
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
I've found a relatively affordable hoop on amazon here...I'm not sure if it's possible to find cheaper but would love resources if anyone has them? I am also really unsure HOW we would actually attatch these to a base securely without having to nail them in or something complicated....And then for flowers I've been looking at ling's moment, a box costs between 24 - 30 dollars but it looks like we'd need a box per centerpiece...so already the budget is kind of blown....
A lot of tutorials seem to use hula hoops but I'm a little wary...first, I can't find cheap hula hoops (like 5 or under per hoop?) anywhere online. Secondly I'm concerned it's too labor intensive for FMIL (stripping them, repainting, etc). And thirdly I'm concerned they are too light and will topple over...
So basically I'm just lost. Would love to hear from some expert DIYers on this whole idea.
submitted by flirtandflutter to DIYweddings [link] [comments]

Budget and Recap! 10/10/2020 West Point, NY downsized but glad we still had a celebration!

First of all Weddit thanks for all the input and help and ideas. It was great to have a place of sanity to go while we were planning this day for the last 2.5 years! Our wedding was incredible and while it wasn't the day we had originally wanted, it was perfect. I am so grateful that we were able to have our closest friends and closest family there. As we navigated our options with postponing we realized that it wasn't really an option for us. Due to my husband's job if we didn't have our celebration in October, it wasn't going to happen until at least fall 2022. We'd already been engaged for 2 years and we were both ready to move on. While postponing is the right option for some couples, we realized that there are a million reasons to celebrate so we wanted to do something this year and we can throw a huge party with everyone we love for an anniversary, birthday, big life celebration, or just because we want to.
I know that having a wedding at all right now is a controversial topic. I really don't want to have the conversation with anyone about the precautions we took. Among other things, every single person that attended had to have a negative test within 24 hrs. We did not invite friends/family that would have to travel and the one bridesmaid (bff) that did travel came in with us 3 weeks early so that we could all quarantine and test multiple times. We also had ample mask wearing, sanitizer, distancing of all seating, and everything was outside. Post wedding everyone tested again and everyone was negative. I do not want to engage with anyone on if it was the right thing to do.
THE BASICS
Date: October 10, 2020
Guests: originally planning for 225, ended up with about 50 once we cut the list down. There were a lot of family and friends that weren't invited to our smaller celebration.
Venue: The Historic Thayer Hotel at West Point
Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/DpcLVeX
What went not so right:
What went right:
BUDGET BREAKDOWN
I am doing my best to break down the budget as detailed as possible. We got married in a HCOL area and our original budget reflects the plan for a more traditional Jewish wedding, where parents were allowed to invite friends. It was important to us that everyone was there with us, our whole proverbial community and we knew there would be a premium paid for that. Once we downsized and added streaming I know there were ways to do it for less, but the quality of the virtual experience was important to us. I don't regret for one second what we spent on things, and we could've easily spent more.
I am putting this budget breakdown in because the two in my budget range that I saw when I was planning made me feel more sane. I really do not appreciate the budget shaming that often happens on this sub. It was hard planning in such a HCOL area where the national averages are not representative, so I do hope this can help anyone who is looking for what things really cost for a wedding of this size in and around NYC
One thing to note is that we got engaged in June 2018 and while we spent a lot of money, a lot of it was spread out over nearly 2.5 years. Day to day, the amount spent on the wedding didn't impact our budget and we did not go into any debt.
My parents contributed a set amount to the wedding and my fiancé's parents covered the rehearsal dinner. I am not including my engagement ring or the honeymoon in this because I have a rough idea of how much my husband spent on my ring, but I've never asked for sure and our honeymoon is not going to happen until the world opens up. We are planning on taking 2 big trips to double celebrate our honeymoon (and because since we're waiting, why not?) to Japan and then to South Africa and Namibia.
totals:
all totals include gratuities
initial budget: 80k
planned budget pre-covid: 100k
Total spent (including things that were not really in the budget) ~50k
Breakdown:
****Ceremony and Reception: ****
​
****Appearances ****
​
****Gifts and things people kept****
​
****Misc****
​
****Not counted in this budget ****
Dance Lessons: ~$600 This money would've been super well spent if I hadn't hurt myself. we still did dance a bit but it wasn't what we planned. One day we can use those skills. I actually had a great time at the dance lessons and I'd 100% do it again.
Pre Marital Counseling: ~$500 very much money well spent. We did 4 sessions with a counselor online in the weeks before the wedding. We both felt like we got some great tools and it was a fantastic outlet for conversations we needed to have. I liked that it was virtual which made it accessible and I feel like we could go back to that counselor if we ever needed it.
Ketubah: ~400, this was a Hanukkah gift in 2019
Smashing Glasses: ~200 this was a gift from my aunt who officiated the wedding.
Engagement Ring
Honeymoon
Post-Wedding Brunch - My parents paid for this, it was casual
Wedding Shoes: ~$400, I bought these incredible something bleu shoes Navy kitten heels and then glitter keds for the party. I ended up in a boot and a sneaker so womp. But luckily both pairs of these shoes aren't very "bridal" and i'm definitely planning on wearing the glitter keds to the next tech conference I go to. I don't consider these "wedding budget" things because I'll wear them other times as well.
Rehearsal dinner - MIL paid for this
I'm glad I can post this and happy to talk to any other brides/grooms who are in the midst of planning!
submitted by westpointwedding to weddingplanning [link] [comments]

Help from DIY-ers? How can I make these hoop centerpieces happen?

(cross posted to DIY weddings) So I am NOT a crafty person at all (and have very limited space in my apartment for either crafting or storage, no outdoor space or garage at all, no car). My original plan was to rent fake flowers for centerpieces...everyone hated the idea lol.
My FMIL is craftier and thinks she can make the centerpieces herself as a gift (I would purchase, she would do the labor). She thinks we can do these centerpieces for under 30 per table, but I'm just lost on how we could possibly do it. Would love ANY tips or experience if anyone's done them!
The centerpieces I like look this:
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
I've found a relatively affordable hoop on amazon here...I'm not sure if it's possible to find cheaper but would love resources if anyone has them? I am also really unsure HOW we would actually attack these to a base securely without having to nail them in or something complicated....And then for flowers I've been looking at ling's moment, a box costs between 24 - 30 dollars but it looks like we'd need a box per centerpiece...so already the budget is kind of blown....
A lot of tutorials seem to use hula hoops but I'm a little wary...first, I can't find cheap hula hoops (like 5 or under per hoop?) anywhere online. Secondly I'm concerned it's too labor intensive for FMIL (stripping them, repainting, etc). And thirdly I'm concerned they are too light and will topple over...
So basically I'm just lost. Would love to hear from some expert DIYers on this whole idea.
submitted by flirtandflutter to weddingplanning [link] [comments]

Wedding Recap: Microwedding in Southern California (Los Angeles County), 13 guests, $23K

This is a long one, so for those only interested in the numbers, scroll down to the table below. The subsequent paragraphs will be the more detailed breakdown of each of those line items on the table. I will also do my best to include the approximate cost based on our original estimate of 85 guests since I know larger weddings will eventually return and it’s good to know what the cost of that might look like.
Our original wedding was supposed to take place in June 2020, but like many other couples here, we had to postpone. Before we dive into the breakdown, here is how we handled the postponement based on our own payment schedule:
We went all in with our microwedding. We still wanted to have the wedding of our dreams regardless of our guest count. We also decided that after all we’ve been through, we currently do not want to plan a larger celebration. I realize that our spending may be considered somewhat excessive though we do live in a HCOL. I will try to point out where some of the more extreme expenses are so if you are evaluating your own budget, you can see where you don’t need to spend nearly as much as we did.

Budget Breakdown

Category Amount (includes all taxes & fees, rounded up to the nearest US dollar)
Ceremony Venue $2018
Dinner Venue $3508
Partial Planner $1500
Photographer $3150
Videographer $1050
String Trio $795
Florals $1510
Cake $228
Makeup $590
Hair $410
DJ $675
Gratuities $710
Stationary $137
Decor $298
Marriage License $61
Bride Wedding Band $1339
Groom Wedding Band $132
Parent & Family Gifts $710
Hotel $165
Bride Attire $2666
Groom Attire $955
Miscellaneous Expenses $779
Grand Total $23,386
Below is the more detailed breakdown of each line item. For privacy reasons, we will not be sharing the names of our venues or vendors in this post, but we are more than happy to share this information via DM or chat.

Ceremony Venue - $2018

This was a completely new expense for us. The beauty of a microwedding is what was once impossible suddenly becomes possible. This was our original first choice venue because it is a gorgeous waterfront property, but we never even toured it. After receiving the brochure with the minimum costs...this venue would have blown our entire budget and then some. Sometime in the last few months, California allowed wedding ceremonies to continue provided they are outdoors only. This venue created a minimony package that included the following:
We also asked for some additional items such as a table on the gazebo, umbrellas for our musicians, and an easel for our welcome sign. We also asked for some additional set up time because the 2 hours for the ceremony space included the set up and tear down time. They were able to give us an additional 90 minutes which was great. Normally that might cost extra. The original ceremony fee for this venue on a Saturday was $5000 based on the 2019 brochure we received. We got married at our dream venue at less than half the normal cost. I have zero complaints about this venue. They delivered everything as promised on our agreement with no issues whatsoever.

Dinner Venue - $3508 (Original Cost: Approx 15K)

This was our original ceremony and reception venue. Our initial deposit was $1500 and then we had to pay an additional $1500 to meet the room minimum which in my opinion was very reasonable since this was an all inclusive venue. We even moved to their main outdoor terrace since our original space wasn’t available on the 24th and we are only allowed to use outdoor spaces. This space was even more beautiful than our original space. The remaining amount was the production fees and the gratuity for all the event staff and wait staff. I am forever grateful to the staff I worked with for close to 18 months planning, postponing, and re-planning. They never once gave me a hard time, always answered my emails promptly, and absolutely delivered. I thought they were going to murder me when I asked to reduce my guest list from 85 to 13. They didn’t. This is what was included in our package:
The food was excellent! We were able to pack up all our leftover food and cake for some incredible leftovers the next day. They delivered everything as promised on our agreement with no issues whatsoever.

Partial Planner - $1500 + $150 gratuity

We originally hired our planner as a day of coordinator, but because of COVID she became more of a partial planner and truly went above and beyond. What she charged us for her services was extremely reasonable for our area and we lucked out in hiring her. She was a referral from our photographer and they had done many weddings together. Here is what her package included (taken directly from her website and was also included in our contract):
On the day of, our planner + an assistant were on site at the ceremony and one of her more senior assistants set up at our dinner site. I cannot express how valuable this expense was. I interviewed a couple of other planners, but this planner stood out in terms of professionalism and attention to details. The biggest thing she did for us was our timeline. She used a tool called Timeline Genius that we could view and edit. Once we finalized our timeline, she distributed it to all of our vendors. Her and all of her staff also followed up with each of our vendors, ensured they received the timeline, and made it clear exactly where they needed to be and at what time. I know certain circumstances are unavoidable and you can’t guarantee a perfect timeline no matter how much planning you do, but we actually kept a perfect schedule. No one ran late and everything went so smoothly. If you are on the fence about this expense, we highly recommend it.

Photographer - $3150 + $100 gratuity (Original Cost: $3748)

Our photographer did not have to do this for us, but she amended our contract since our wedding was much smaller and only needed one shooter. This is what our package included:
Her work is amazing. We were expecting like 3 sneak peek photos after our wedding. She stayed up all night and sent us over 40 photos around 1am. Overall, we clicked with her from the get go and that is so important when choosing a photographer. We never felt weird or awkward being in front of her camera even though husband and I despise taking photos.

Videographer - $900 + $150 for extended edit + $50 gratuity (Original Cost: $3000)

Because we downsized our wedding, we weren’t sure if we still wanted to have a videographer. We originally had a package with 10 hours of coverage, two cameras, a drone...the works. We were fully prepared to just eat the cost of our deposit on this one because we couldn’t justify spending $3000 on only a couple hours of coverage.
When we reached out to our videographer and told him our new plans, he came through for us much like our other vendors. He did not hold us to our original contract and we amended the contract to do live streaming and a file download of the recording. We had already put down $900 for our deposit and he agreed to do the recording and live streaming without any additional charges. The live stream was AMAZING. Our videographer had a microphone on my husband so our family and friends that joined us virtually were able to hear everything clearly. Plus our videographer came with two cameras plus an additional camera man which was completely unexpected. They captured the ceremony beautifully on the stream from all different angles and we now have a copy to relive the day over and over with
The $150 is for an extended polished edit that we requested that is still being worked on. Our videographer does amazing cinematic quality video so we knew we still wanted to have that after we settled all our other wedding expenses. My husband and I totally did not think we would re-watch our video but we already love the copy we do have. There were moments that happened during our ceremony such as my mom stepping on my veil and a squirrel coming to the gazebo during the moment of silence we had for our departed loved ones. You can only relive those moments through video and that really solidified the fact that we made the right decision with keeping our videographer. If you’re on the fence about this expense, there is a lot you can do here to still have one without blowing your budget. We highly recommend having one for at least the ceremony.

String Trio - $795 + $60 gratuity (Original Cost: $1100)

We almost opted to get a refund on this deposit, but we are so glad we didn’t. We had originally hired them for 30 minutes of pre-ceremony music, 30 minutes of ceremony music, and 1 hour for cocktail hour (2 hours total). When we changed plans, we cut out the cocktail hour. I know this is an expense that not everyone needs to have, but it made our ceremony absolutely beautiful. When we sent out our live stream link, we told everyone to tune in at 4pm which was 30 minutes before the ceremony. During that time our trio played everything from Beauty and the Beast to Coldplay and even Rhianna. Our guests, both present and virtual, loved the trio and we got so many compliments. They also played background music during our unity ceremony which was a nice added touch.

Florals - $1510 + $50 gratuity (Original Cost: $2247)

We went with a local old school florist who did the florals for my cousin's wedding several years ago. She doesn’t have an actual shop and works out of her home which is what makes the cost more reasonable than other florists in our area. The reason the amounts changed is because 1) We changed ceremony venues and 2) We no longer needed 10 centerpieces and some of the other things you have with a larger wedding. My floral order with this florist was hand written to give you an idea how old school she operates. Regardless, she was very easy to work with and had no problem creating a completely brand new order. When we changed ceremony venues, I asked my planner to work directly with her to coordinate what florals were needed for the new space. This was one area I didn’t have a specific vision for or care too much about besides the colors of the flowers. They copied me on all their back and forth emails and delivered florals beyond my imagination. Here is what our order included:

Cake - $228 (Original Cost: Approx $600)

We had already put down a $100 deposit for our cake so we just modified our cake order. With the reduced guest count, we removed an entire tier from our cake, but still opted to purchase a two tier cake for approximately 30-40 guests so our vendors and wait staff could have some and we could still have some cake left over. My husband LOVES cake so we could not give this expense up. Our top tier was both white cake and chocolate cake with dulce de leche filling. Our bottom tier was a white cake with blueberry Bavarian filling. The cake was absolutely beautiful and delicious.

Makeup - $590 + $100 gratuity

Found a great makeup artist who did bride makeup in another wedding my sister was in. I had a 1 person bridal party, but made sure my family members who wanted makeup done for the day were taken care of. I took care of this expense. My makeup artist even went the extra mile and made touch up kits for everyone even though she normally only does it for the bride. Breakdown as follows:

Hair - $510 + $100 gratuity

My hair person was my regular stylist who has cut and colored my hair for years. The pricing I have below is probably much more generous than going with someone I did not know. Breakdown is as follows:

DJ - $675 (Original Cost: $1200)

We ate the deposit here, but fortunately this was the only deposit we forfeited. Here is the breakdown of our original package:
Our package really wasn’t bad for the price, but unfortunately we didn’t need any of it any more. We asked our DJ if we could carry over our deposit for different services later on such as a party or vow renewal. He said that we would have to sign a new contract AND pay a new deposit. No thanks. He also would not let us transfer or donate the original deposit to another couple. To be fair, he was not contractually obligated to do anything for us, but he also never wrote us a new contract for our December wedding date so who knows if he would have shown up if we proceeded with that date. My husband and I were of course upset to lose that money, but we were more upset that he had zero empathy at all about what COVID did to disrupt our plans. I completely understand that COVID eviscerated the businesses of many wedding vendors and times are tough all around, but his attitude made it easy for us to just say “thanks bye” instead of finding some way to keep him and give him our business.

Stationary - $137

This expense was for our Save the Dates only. They turned out super cute, but of course the original wedding never happened and we have a ton leftover. Will probably plaster them all over our fridge. I probably wouldn’t have any regrets about this expense if our wedding happened as scheduled, but this is probably the one thing that was a waste of money. When we made our wedding cancellation notice and sent our invitations for our virtual wedding I created all of those using the Canva app. Totally free and amazing. Breakdown is as follows:

Decor - $298

Breakdown:
*NOTE: We also had a bunch of those tall glass cylinder vases that you fill with water and place floating candles in, but our planner has these in her wedding decor stockpile so we didn’t have to purchase our own which was a big win. She reuses them for every wedding.

Marriage License - $61

We did the online application through Orange County and picked up at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
*NOTE: Marriage certificates are an additional $15 per copy which we have not paid yet. We just mailed our license this past Monday and it takes 5-10 business days after our license is received for them to record our marriage into their records so we can order the certificates. Will likely get two copies as one needs to be mailed to the SSN office for my name change and I want a spare copy just in case.

Bride Wedding Band - $1339 & Groom Wedding Band - $132

My husband and I picked our wedding bands together and included them as part of our wedding expenses. Both were purchased at Jared.

Parent & Family Gifts - $710

Since we only had 13 guests and one of those guests was our cousin who also served as our officiant, we didn’t do favors and instead gifted them with some items they could actually use and enjoy. We definitely splurged here, but it was worth it to say thank you to those family members who helped make this wedding happen for us during a pandemic. We will also be creating photo albums and printing photos for them as part of our gifts once our photos are finished editing.

Hotel - $165

This was for a 1 night stay at the hotel that was right next door to our dinner venue. We did receive a 1 night complimentary stay at our ceremony venue which we could have used, but that would require us to drive back to the venue which we did not want to do. The coordinator from our ceremony venue mailed us a gift certificate for the 1 night complimentary stay and breakfast for two the next morning so we plan to use it on our 1 year anniversary. So excited about this.
The remaining 3 items my husband and I paid out of our own pockets. I know these expenses might still be considered shared expenses with other couples so we wanted to include them in our budget breakdown.

Bride Attire - $2666

Groom Attire - $955

All items were purchased from Men’s Warehouse
Custom 3 piece suit - $686 (completely custom measured and husband got to select all fabrics and details like the cut and color of the pieces; any additional alterations were included at no charge)

Miscellaneous Expenses - $779

You’re probably wondering what the heck this expense is. These were mainly my own expenses for all the hair and makeup trials I did as well as the attire purchased for our engagement session. I no longer have receipts for what husband spent on his engagement session attire so that amount is not included in this breakdown.

Final Thoughts

Planning for even a microwedding during COVID was so hard. Although we followed the state health orders, we were fully aware that nothing is ever 100% safe. Before we began planning for this microwedding, we had conversations with each family about their comfort level with attending such an event. Fortunately we were working with four households who are in constant communication on a regular basis. I say this to emphasize that we are all very close and transparent about following best practices during the pandemic such as distancing, mask wearing, and hand washing. Everyone in the four households works from home or is continuing school from home so it was easy for husband and I to cut our guest list there and stand firm since we trusted everyone we had present that day was doing what they needed to do to stay safe and keep each other safe.
Some other precautions we took:
Lastly, do husband and I have any regrets? None whatsoever. This wedding was beyond anything we could have ever imagined. I can honestly say there is nothing we could have done differently and as crazy as this sounds, we're glad our original plans got cancelled. There were things about the original plan that we weren't happy about and this was our chance to make those right. This day was truly a reflection of the both of us.
I hope some of you find this recap helpful. If there are any questions at all, please do not hesitate to reach out. I am happy to help. Thank you so much to this community for all your support the last 18 months. Could not have done it without you.
submitted by erinjg43 to weddingplanning [link] [comments]

Ideas Needed for a Picnic Wedding!

Oops, I’m a covid bride...
A picnic wedding reception wasn’t my original ~vision~ but I’m rolling with the punches. Postponing our wedding has made us realize how expensive our original plan was, so we’re rethinking everything as we try to find a celebration that will fit our budget.
Side note: We‘re not planning to do this until the pandemic has calmed down. My inner bridezilla hates all the waiting but I’m not willing to risk anyone’s health.
THE VIBE
I’m going for “garden party” as opposed to “rustic farmhouse chic,” but I also want things to feel laid-back and easy
THE LOCATION
A public park in the middle of my city
THE TIME
11:00 am following the 10:00 am ceremony at our church
THE DETAILS
• The menu consists of brunch-y finger foods like fruit skewers and bagels, mimosas, and cupcakes for dessert
• To save on a DJ, we’ll replace music/dancing with lawn games and other activities (croquet, hula hoops, a wedding cake piñata, a photo scavenger hunt with prizes)
• Seating will consist of picnic blankets, with chairs/tables provided for those who are physically unable to sit comfortably on the ground
• Flip-flop sandals as party favors will give people the option to change out of their heels
• A Selfie Spot instead of a photo booth will save so much money it’s actually OBSCENE
WHERE I NEED HELP
• A timeline. Will guests eat and immediately leave if there’s no dancing? I‘m hoping that if we schedule the scavenger hunt prizes and the piñata for an hour or so after brunch is served, there will be something keeping everyone here.
• Seating logistics. For the original wedding, I created a seating chart (which is suuuuper necessary for this group) that had 8 people per table—which, in this case, means 8 people per picnic blanket. How big should each blanket be to comfortably accommodate 8 guests? I’m also providing a pillow for each guest to sit on...anybody know where to get like 60 pillows for real cheap? My mom is sewing pillowcases to help everything match.
• Decorations. I’m keeping these to a minimum: a couple of signs with directions, props and a backdrop for the Selfie Spot, and centerpieces. I’m planning to buy small wooden boxes I can put in the middle of each picnic blanket to hold table numbers and centerpieces; any ideas on where to get boxes like that? Suggestions for decorations I haven’t thought of?
• Set-up logistics. Someone needs to go set everything up the morning of the event and babysit everything while the ceremony is going on—it’s a public park, and while we’re allowed to reserve it for the wedding, the park doesn’t provide security to keep people away from our stuff. Has anyone done this before? I can’t ask my MOH because whoever is in charge of this will have to miss the wedding itself.
Sorry this post got so long. I love love love this stage of the planning process and now that I’m over the initial disappointment of postponing, I’m excited to start it all over again. Let me know if you have ideas/critiques/suggestions—I’m super open to brainstorming, I love to DIY, and my Pinterest app is OPEN!
submitted by bridezilla5320 to Weddingsunder10k [link] [comments]

Food for Thought to all COVID Brides.

Hey guys, I know I've posted on a number of posts, but I wanted to hopefully help give you some ideas.
1) When will it be safe to have a wedding? Both Moderna and Oxford trials conclude this month, with their release of their findings to be announced in September. That means next month, we could very well have a date as to when the vaccines will be released to the general public around the world. If I were you, use this as a time to assess the situation and decide what to do from there. If earlier statements of a December vaccine release date are correct, and the vaccines take 1-2 months to build antibodies and T-cells in the body, you're looking at around a February or March for this to start lifting. But Disclaimer: I ain't a doctor, please read credible news sources and be informed of your own volition.
2) How can I prepare if I need to move the date again? Build your Plan B, C, D or X if need be. Communicate to your vendors. Be flexible, and be safe. But you don't need to "start all over": first ask the venue for the next date that works, as well as the rest of your vendors. Same wedding, different date - just don't print your date all over the place and you'll be fine. If anyone gives you crap, start putting everything in writing with delivery confirmation (or email). No more verbal communication - just in case you need to lawyer up.
3) I really want to try on wedding dresses, but, pandemic? There's SEVERAL try-on dress shops that ship to your home. Even better? There's a lot of out-of-work seamstresses, tailors, and costume designers right now. Ever wanted a dress that's ACTUALLY custom made? No, I mean for real, and ACTUAL custom dress? Well, here's your chance. Contact your local tailors and seamstresses. Contact your local film commission branch to see if they have any recommendations. If you're in NYC or LA pretty sure calling the Garment/Fashion district stores will lead you to some wonderful recommendations. As always, make sure you see a portfolio of your designer's work, you communicate your budget clearly, and ask them what a whip stitch is. If they don't know, hire someone else. Even a costume design graduate can do a "thrift flip" aka, take a dress base and tweak it to your style at a much lower cost with some great results.
4) This is horrible! I have more time to wait I don't know what to do with myself! Yah, I feel you. I live in Florida, and I wanted it to be cold (aka, not feeling the makeup melt off my face). The date we had in mind was important to us but, oh well that's how the cookie crumbles and it turns out our new date will be even cuter, so it all worked out. My December wedding is now a March wedding* (pending COVID), so now I have extra time to... oh god..
PLAN MORE SHINY THINGS! :D
-I decided to learn how to use epoxy resin to make badass escort cards for really cheap.
-I decided to put more energy and effort into the table settings, which I wouldn't have done before.
-I decided I'll DIY my signs using a new technique for fun, which I wouldn't have been able to do.
-The fiance and I are taking more time to plan our honeymoon for whenever we can do it.
-We're making all of our centerpieces with silk flowers. Then it doesn't really matter what time of the year it is, silk flowers don't die and don't have "seasons". You don't even have to water them! :D
​
So I encourage you to embrace the weird. Embrace the crazy that is these times. Think outside of the box. Throw away the "normal" and just go with the times. Don't settle for your dream wedding: push beyond it to surpass your expectations by stepping beyond the comfort zone of normlacy coz this ain't normal. At the end of the day it's going to be ok. Take advantage of this extra time to exchange ideas to make our weddings even more badassical and fabulous, everyone. Use the extra time to make your wedding even more incredible while you protect the lives of those you love.
​
As a final note, to those who absolutely have to get married now for reasons (immigration, army, etc hopefully you get what I mean): My heart goes out to you and I'm sending you ALL the virtual hugs. I really hope some of my suggestions might help some of y'all. Be safe, and hang in there. <3 Let me know what you think, or if you ave any tips as well for those navigating these times!
submitted by NotUnidan to wedding [link] [comments]

[RECAP] SoCal | 250 Guests | $33k | Feb 08, 2020

Hello! I hope other brides find this helpful!
But first... PICTURES!
Location: San Gabriel, Pasadena & Westminister, CA
Guests: 250
Budgeted: $35,000
Spent: $32,959
Our wedding was a Chinese/Vietnamese-American Catholic wedding. My husband and I paid for the wedding out of our own pockets. It took us about 2 years to plan and save for the wedding. There were a lot of DIYs to cut costs and help from family and friends setting everything up.
Now onto the details!
Florals: $294
Ceremony (Catholic Church): $700
Tea Ceremony: $479
Reception: $18,253
Photography + Videography: $9,161
Attire: $2,228
Makeup + Hair: $1,235
Misc: $609
​
Thank you if you've made it this far! Feel free to ask questions, if any :)
submitted by tinaul to weddingplanning [link] [comments]

Budget Wedding Advice & Tips

I (25 F) got married in March and wanted to share some advice, tips, and things that worked out really well for our rustic wedding and that fit our 10k total budget!

1 All Inclusive Venue: We booked an all inclusive venue for our ceremony and reception. This included the ceremony set up with wood chairs and a wood arch and our reception set up. Finding an all inclusive venue is amazing because you don’t get nickeled and dimed on chairs, linens, silverware, and glassware. It was all included with a day of coordinator and they even set it all up for us. We figured it was worth it to spend a good amount of our budget on the venue because of everything it included! In one fee we took care of the ceremony, dinner, and the reception! When we first started looking at venues we thought it would be cheaper to book a ranch style venue but the costs to bring in all of the rentals and food was crazy.

2 Sit Down Dinner Option: For some reason, our venue was cheaper for the sit down dinner option versus the buffet option. They said it was because they had to prepare more food for the buffet. We went with the sit down option and even though it was more planning for guest’s meal choice and seating arrangements, it saved us money and was easier for our guests!

3 Hobby Lobby Deals: Hobby Lobby became my go to place for wedding supplies. They have a wedding section that would be discounted 50% every few weeks. If items were not on sale that week, I could purchase one item at a time with a 40% off coupon that can be found online. They have so many things from signs, decor, guest books, unity candle ceremony candle holders, etc. Most of the wood signs I bought for our welcome table & guest book were only a few dollars and cheaper to buy than to make!

4 Amazon: Amazon was another great place to get wedding supplies. We had a rustic theme, so I purchased our table numbers and holders, greenery, and a special tablecloth for our sweetheart table off of Amazon. Compare pricing with other stores because sometimes sellers jack up the prices, but there are very good deals and an array of wedding supplies!

5 Wedding Favors: This is my favorite tip to share with you all!!! We got married on Pi Day (3-14) and decided to have mini pies as our wedding favors. They were not only rustic looking but also were a play on Pi Day. We purchased mini pies from Walmart and rewrapped them a day before the wedding in clear plastic treat bags, with rustic twine, and a thank you tag that I purchased from Hobby Lobby! The pies are 2 for $1, so 50 cents each!! This made our wedding favors so cute and so inexpensive! Everyone loved them!

6 Simple Details: To be honest, I stressed out about so many little things for my wedding. From the centerpieces to the welcome table, I wanted everything to be perfect. No one even remembers what was or wasn’t on their table. As long as you have good food, drinks, and music everyone is happy!!! Our guests were so ecstatic to celebrate our love and our union. It didn’t matter what kind of candles and flowers were on the table. Of course you want it to be beautiful, but my suggestion after looking back is to keep it simple!!! We went with white hydrangeas with eucalyptus greenery in mason jars for our flowers. They turned out so beautiful in their simplicity!

7 Wedding Traditions: My husband and I decided early on that we wanted our wedding to feel like “us” and we didn’t want to be pressured into decisions based on Traditions. We decided not to do the garter & bouquet toss. We also entered to our first dance song and only danced to it for a short time. No one even cared!!! My advice is to use the Traditions that feel right for you and don’t worry about the others! This is your day!

8 Schedule: I had our day of timeline to the minute and on the day of, my schedule completely went out the window! My advice is to have a general idea and schedule of events, but understand that the timeframe will change!

9 Dress & Change of Clothes: My dress had a petticoat underneath and I cannot express how hot I was from it! The skirt of my dress did not breathe and I had sweat dripping down my legs. I became so overheated that I had to go to the restroom to pick my gown up and air out my legs with cool towels. My biggest regret is not having a change of clothes for exiting the wedding. My feet hurt like hell from my heels and even though I brought a pair of ballet flats, I never had time to change shoes. I was so hot that I could only dance for a few songs and then we planned our grand exit. I was so bummed about this and didn’t even realize how hot my dress would be when I tried it on at the store and for fittings. If you have a large dress, I would suggest bringing a change of clothes for the end of the evening. I was so uncomfortable during the car ride to our hotel and was overheated. I asked my husband to take off my dress as soon as we walked into our hotel room and took a shower to cool down. I never wanted to be one of those girls who had a dress change for the reception, but I completely understand why now. My advice is to spend some time in your dress and see how comfortable you are in it after some time. This is something I didn’t do and looking back I definitely would have changed out of it in order to dance and enjoy myself!

I know this list is all over the place, but I hope this helps you with planning your special day!
submitted by TheLovelyUnicorn to Weddingsunder10k [link] [comments]

Wedding Drama JNMom & JMMIL style

Once again my life drama is not your cash cow. Do not post outside this forum.
TL;DR: Mom & Mother in law played out every mother of the bride stereotype leading up to my wedding, FDH and JYDad had to step in.
So in my last post I talked about my first birth and the garbage that came out of my JNMom's mouth. This time I thought I'd dredge up my wedding, because 13 years later she still doesn't get it.
Alright so a little back story: my parents offered to pay for my wedding and any extra money saved from the $20,000 budget would pay for my honeymoon. There were no strings to be attached and my mother 100% respected my boundaries and couldn't have been happier to only offer opinions when asked..... HAHAHAHAHAHA.... Yeah if only.
Now for the play by play: my FDH and I had been talking about getting engaged for a couple years so we knew what we wanted long before he popped the question, so I didn't need to "shop around", I knew exactly what I wanted, where I wanted it and who I wanted to participate. So just for fun let's do this in boundary stomping point form (it should be noted that we were doing a medieval theme)
  1. I wanted a custom version the dress from the painting "The Accolade" complete with draped and lined sleeves. Nope I got the body of the dress, but she didn't want to pay for the extra embroidery on the belt and sleeves so those were trimmed down. Then I couldn't have the sleeves because I'm a slob and I'll be to hot (my wedding was in Nov in Canada). So instead I got fitted mesh sleeves. Now anyone who has worked with fine mesh they will tell you this is a bad idea, why? Because your arms move so much they shred. Any takers on how long my sleeves lasted after I put it on? We didn't even make it through photos and I spent the rest of the night holding my arms to my sides so it didn't show.
  2. Groomsmen: this one is all on my in-laws. My spouse has 2 brothers, and he asks one to be his best man, the other to be a groomsman. Nope the younger decides "they're joint best men" and they both give speeches making my sister feel awful because I specifically told her only the best man and maid of honor were giving speeches.
  3. Guest list: my mother decides that since they're paying I have to invite all this Faaaamily that I've met twice in my life (at reunions). My FDH and I had a strick rule that guests must either know and be close to us as a couple or have made a significant impact in our childhoods. So luckily my JYDad isn't a fan of my mom's side so he put is foot down.
  4. Then there was the bridal fair. This is a dual M & MIL one. As indicated above, and as you've probably guessed, I do not suffer from decision paralysis. So this one is at least kind of my fault. I didn't need the Moms' help, I didn't want their help, so they were feeling left out because on my side my mom figured she'd get to bully me into what she wanted because I'm the less confrontational daughter and my sister will not put up with her crap, and on my FDH side, it was unlikely either of his brothers were going to get married (they're still not and both have kids so not happening any time soon). So as a peace offering of sorts FDH and I offer to take them to the Bridal Fair in our town. A nice day out a nice lunch and they get to offer their opinion on the few things we haven't finalized. Can you say unmitigated disaster?!!! Within 20 min of being there they tried to gang up on FDH and banish him from the conversation because the wedding isn't for the groom. Yeah, I mentioned before that his spine is super shiny... They were reminded politely but abruptly that since he is also getting married if he wants an opinion he gets an opinion.
  5. Self-preservation kicks in: so after all this I am pretty upset and they are continuing (both sides) to come up with stuff we "should do". To let them feel involved we have each mom a task and a due date. My mom got centerpieces, his mom got guest table. The rule was simple. I don't want to know anything until the week prior to the wedding. If I don't like it we don't use it. I picked things I didn't care about/wasn't planning to do so if it was a disaster I could opt out.
  6. The big day: specifically the seating plan (or lack there of) we deliberately didn't have a seating plan because we always find them uncomfortable and didn't want to force people to sit together. You'd think I kicked a puppy with how they carries on. "How will people know where to sit?, How will they know who they're next to?, What will people think?". My dad's response: Are there chairs at the tables? Well, then they know where to sit. Do they have mouths? Good they can introduce themselves like normal people. What will they think? WHO THE F*#$ CARES?!
Ugh. I love my dad. My husband's pretty cool too!
Next time: the only thing my in laws are JN about, and boy is it a doozy!
Thanks for reading everyone, this is amazingly cathartic!
submitted by IceSeraphim to JUSTNOMIL [link] [comments]

Wedding Recap: 18k Afternoon Wedding in Albuquerque for 65 guests

First, Pictures!
This is a wedding I planned for my wife. She was the stereotypical bride that always dreamed of a big fancy wedding, but she had no interest in planning it. I was the stereotypical bride that did 99% of the planning, because I had no interest in a wedding for myself but I loved researching and planning and I wanted my wife to be happy. I know a lot of hetero couples have issues with this labor imbalance, but for us it worked perfectly.

Summary

Costs

Venue: $500

Our venue was a historic hotel downtown. We had the welcome evening, the ceremony and the reception here. A lot of our guests stayed at the hotel and commented on how convenient it was for them.
Ceremony Fee: $500 for the ceremony space. We picked the venue specifically for this ceremony space which isn’t available in the evenings, which forced us to have an afternoon ceremony. Worth it.
Reception Venue: fee was waived because we met the minimum spend!

Food & Drinks: $10.5k

$70 per adult, which included a buffet, beewine/soft drinks, and passed appetizers for 1 hour (this price doesn’t include taxes etc). The total for the food including taxes was $6,288.
We hosted a full bar for the whole night in addition to this package, which came out to $3,468.
Dessert: We brought in gelato from Frost for $810. Their standard package feeds 200 people, so at the end of the night there was a TON of leftovers. They packed it up into pint containers for us and held it at their local store for us to pick up the next day. We hosted a lovely post-wedding ice cream social and gave it all away to local friends.

Attire: $1.5k

My attire: $77 I wasn’t too particular about my dress, so I just kind of bought the first dress that I liked (Lulus Awaken My Love in Grey). After I bought it I got a little obsessed and made this pinterest board featuring this dress as a wedding dress.
My alterations: $80 I got it taken in to tea length and fixed the sleeves to fit better.
My accessories: $180 This includes a veil, barefoot sandals, hair vine, and gaffers tape I used as a bra. I also wore a gold locket that my mother gave me when I was a teenager.
Wife’s attire: $259 She ordered a dress from RenzRags which was kind of a hot mess. The bodice was too small and the skirt looked cheap so she ordered a tulle skirt to go over it and a shaper to squeeze her torso. It was a little stressful, but in the end it all worked out.
Wife’s alterations: $60 To alter the dress mentioned above.
Wife’s accessories: $180 She bought nice jewelry for all her body piercings and a crystal flower crown.
Rings: $612 Her ring is a dainty 14k white gold ring with a pink moissanite which I bought on etsy. My ring is a plain 14k gold band that I found while digging in the garden a few years back. They match our personalities pretty well.

Decor: $1.6k

Florals: $877 We went full DIY on the florals. This is a combination of plastic flowers from Michaels, foam roses from Amazon, Sola wood flowers, artificial boutonnieres and flower crowns from Etsy, and 200 feet of real green garlands from Sam’s Club. The garlands were $400 and well worth it; there was enough for all the tables in the reception and to decorate the chairs for the ceremony.
Non-florals at ceremony: $417 Most of this is from the $278 wagon we bought for our young son to ride down the aisle. We also bought bubbles and a round arch.
Non-florals at cocktail hour: $54 The hotel was pretty enough, we just put up a schedule sign so people would know what’s going on. We labeled it “The Gay Agenda” and everyone loved it.
Non-florals at reception: $279 We went with long farmhouse tables so the centerpieces had to be simple. I found some cheap geometric candle holders on amazon, put some flickering LED candles in them, and arranged them around the garlands on the table. There were also a lot of leftover sola wood flowers so we arranged them in the garlands too.

Stationery: $400

Save-the-dates/Programs./Menus: $0 we skipped all of these: save-the-dates because of our short engagement (we just sent out our invitations reallllly early), programs because we had a super short ceremony, and menus because we had a buffet. I don’t think anyone missed them.
Invitations + postage: $245 We just bought something off of Minted. We ended up with like 50 extra invitations somehow, so we probably could have spent a lot less here.
Thank you cards + postage: $100 Again, just something cute from Minted.
Escort cards: $82 Another DIY. We went with named tables, so I bought some nice tree illustrations from Etsy for table cards, made a seating chart spreadsheet that generated the escort cards for me, and printed out the escort cards on some nice cardstock. This seemed like a good idea until I was cutting out the escort cards at 1 AM two days before the wedding. I don’t recommend this unless you have a way to cut paper in bulk.

Other Vendors: 3.8k

Coordinator: $0 The venue includes a venue coordinator and I think that was all we needed. I wasn’t super stoked about the whole wedding thing, but I love planning things. I think if we had an event coordinator I would’ve enjoyed the day less.
Music: $1371 We hired a string duo for the ceremony and a DJ for the reception. I’m really glad we got the string musicians.
Photographer: $1882 This includes 7 hours of shooting, with a second shooter for about 5 of those hours.
Hair Stylist: $8 We didn’t want anything super fancy, so my sister-in-law did both of our hair. The only thing I had to buy was some hair wax (which I will probably never use again). She did a great job!
Make-up Artist (+ trial): 250 This includes two trials and one day-of face. My wife found a local mua who came out and did a trial for us both. I ended up hating it even though she did a great job, so I did my own makeup day-of along with our brides’ maids.
Officiant: $0 Our lovely friend of 10+ years did the ceremony for us as a wedding gift.
Tips: $300 I took out this much for tips and I’m sure it all went to that, but I couldn’t tell you who got what.

Gifts: $150

Wedding party gifts: $150 for bridesmaids boxes. Everyone also got sweet thank-you cards.

Additional Events: 3.7k

Rehearsal Lunch: $1000? I got a reservation at a cafe down the street from the venue and we just all walked over after the rehearsal. I wanted to pay for this, but my dad got to the check before me so I have no idea how much we spent.
Welcome Party: 2.7k Since everyone was coming from out of town, we had a little cocktail party at the venue the night before.

Additional Info

Timeline

We fell in love with this ceremony space but it was only available before 2 PM, and my wife really wanted to have the standard dinner & dancing reception, so our timeline was a little non-traditional:
1:30 Ceremony (we put 1 on the invitations and one of her cousins still missed it, lol)
1:45 Receiving line into cocktail hour+
2-ish to 3:30 Cocktail Hour+
3:45 First dance and parent dances
4:00 Prayer and dinner (we had a buffet)
4:45 Speeches/Toasts, dance floor open
6:00 Dessert, more dancing
10:00 Late night Loteria to finish the night

What Went Well

Pretty much everything. I originally didn’t want a wedding, but in the end I’m glad my wife convinced me into it. I was worried about so much stuff not working out (like our last-minute welcome evening, wonky timeline, super-short ceremony, non-traditional dresses, the seating chart, the dance floor) but all of it turned out perfectly fine. I’m also really glad we played Loteria (mexican bingo) at the end of the night once the crowd had thinned out and everyone was very drunk. Her family plays it a lot at family gatherings so it was a nice way to bring the two sides of our family together!

Things I Would Have Changed

I definitely wouldn’t have DIY’ed the escort cards, it was so much work at the very last minute. We did have some trouble getting people to RSVP, but I think this was mainly cultural, so probably unavoidable (her family’s weddings are usually much more casual and folks just kind of show up).
submitted by weddingrecap02082020 to weddingplanning [link] [comments]

Budget/Breakdown: $30k MN July wedding, 100 guests, Long engagement

First of all, PHOTOS!
Background info
We live in Minnesota, were high school sweethearts, and are in our mid-20s. Of the 10 years we’ve dated, we’ve lived together for 5 years and were engaged for 2.5 years. I planned everything myself, and we paid for the wedding ourselves.
Pros of a long (2+ years) engagement:
Cons of a long engagement:
Budget and Gifts
Initial budget: $20k
Final cost: $29k
Our parents/grandparents gave us $17k in total, and gifts from guests totaled $3k.
Guest List
If I had to plan a wedding again, I might elope, only to avoid the guest-list drama.
My guest list: 80
Parents’ guest list: 200+
Guests invited: 125
Guests RSVP’d yes: 101
Guests invited late due to parents begging: 7
Guests who actually attended: 98 (2 of whom RSVD’d no)
Theme
My vague theme was "royal wedding in the park." My inspiration words were, "Colorful, elegant, simple, and classic."
Final Costs
Day-of Coordinator: $1175
If I could only give one piece of advice, it would be to hire a coordinator. Nothing major went wrong, thanks to our coordinator. Neither me nor my family had to lift a finger to set up or tear down. It was an entirely relaxing, wonderful day.
Attire: $4430
In my experience, buying my dress two years before the wedding was great. I recommend waiting to buy your accessories, though. I thought I needed this $500 belt, but by the wedding day, I liked my dress better without it. I only wore it for the reception.
3 bridesmaids skirts (DIY): $230
My dress: $1200
Accessories: $700
Alterations (hem, take in the bust, bustle, add straps): $550
Groom tux and attire (rented from The Black Tux): $200
My ring (excluding engagement ring): $900
His ring: $650
Hair and Makeup: $1200
I let everyone choose whether they got hair and makeup done and how they wanted to look. Everyone but my mom opted in. I disliked the hair stylist I was assigned. Even after after a second trial, my updo was frizzy, sloppy, and coming out before the ceremony. Bridesmaids hair also came out before the ceremony.
My hair and makeup (including a trial): $400
2nd hair trial: $65
3 Bridesmaids and MOG haimake up: $600
Tip: $150
Stationary: $328
I designed and printed our invitation suites myself, which was stupid. The paper I bought wasn’t made for printer ink, so although they looked beautiful at first, most of the ink rubbed off in the mail. In hindsight, I should have had them professionally printed on good paper. I spent hours on those invites--even doing calligraphy for every name and address--just to have them smudge.
STDs from Minted: $118
Invites (DIY): $100
Thank You Cards: $25
Postage: $85
Venue: $3480
Both the ceremony and reception were at a local park with a lovely indoor space.
Counseling: $160
In hindsight, we should have skipped pre-marital counseling. We have a fantastic relationship, but I thought we should try it. We did Prepare-Enrich, which reported we had no weaknesses, and had an hour of therapy. Afterward, the therapist said we could continue but didn’t think we needed to.
Dance Lessons: $80
This covered four dance classes. It was a group class designed for engaged couples practicing for their first dance. We had so much fun! The weekly lessons were like date nights. We had no prior dance experience and learned a ton.
Officiant and License: $515
Food for the drama llamas: Shortly after we got engaged, I asked my distant cousin (a pastor) to marry us and he agreed. Two years went by. I struggled to get him on the phone or talk about logistics. When we did finally talk, he wouldn’t let us get a word in and talked for two hours about how we needed more pre-marital counseling. Two months before the wedding, he said he didn’t feel comfortable marrying us because we live together and aren’t religious. I was annoyed but relieved, and we hired an officiant.
Officiant: $400
Marriage license: $115
Photo and Video: $4575
For videography, I wanted raw footage because I dislike modern wedding videos. Before hiring him, I told our videographer I didn’t want to see things the photographer was already capturing. I wanted him to film stuff I would miss. Candid moments. Family arriving, groomsmen goofing off, my sister carrying my train, my little cousins playing. But instead, he stuck to the traditonal script and filmed bridal party posing for pictures, the ceremony, speeches, and the dance floor. In hindsight, I should have just “hired” a friend to be the videographer. On the other end of the spectrum, our photographer was incredible!
Photography: $3800
Videography: $775
Food and drink: $5815
Many people doubted my decision to have tacos for dinner and donuts for dessert (no cake). (At least DH was super excited about the food I picked!) I defended my decisions, and it turned out great.
Appetizers and buffet dinner: $4155
Donuts: $220
Open bar (beer and wine only): $1440
DJ/entertainment: $1125
In addition to a DJ, we had ping pong and a retro arcade cabinet (both borrowed from DH’s uncle), which people enjoyed. I’m sad DH and I never got a chance to play.
Decor: $1370
I won’t go into the saga that was finding cylinder vases and pillar candles for a reasonable price. The lesson is to do all DIY as early as possible. Just do it now because it will not go as planned and you’ll have to resort to plan B (or C or D.)
Chair rental cost surprised me. We needed 100 basic chairs for 20 minutes, and most vendors quoted me $1k. My friend’s dad rents chairs for graduation parties but was willing to do weddings too, so I got a deal. If you’re looking for basic chairs, try searching for grad party rentals instead of wedding rentals.
Vases and candles: $50 and my sanity
Blue goblets from eBay: $540
Ring box: $40
Ceremony arch (DIY): $45
Place cards (DIY): $20
Paper cranes (DIY): $5
Fake greenery for headtable: $100
Chair rental for ceremony: $570
Floral: $2440
Flowers on ceremony arch: $400
Floral centerpieces: $100 each
Greenery centerpieces: $50 each
My bouquet: $300
Bridesmaids bouquets: $150 each
Boutonnieres: $15 each
Corsages for moms: $30 each
We had some random buds scattered on other tables too, which were $50 per table. The rest is taxes and delivery fee.
Gifts: $75
I gave my bridesmaids silk butterfly clips from Etsy to wear in their hair. DH gave his dad and groomsmen custom flasks. To each of the parents, I wrote heartfelt notes.
Bridesmaids gifts: $25
Groomsmen gifts: $50
Parent gifts: $0
Honeymoon: $2300
Four days in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We’ve been there several times before, which meant we didn’t have to plan or research anything. DH grandparents offered the use of their timeshare, so hotel was free. We waited too long to book flights, so they got expensive.
Hotel: $0
Flights: $1800
Food/activities: ~$500
What Went Well
When we started planning, DH and I had a conversation about expectations. I asked, “What makes it a wedding to you?” His answer surprised me, and it helped me prioritize things while planning.
Hiring a day-of coordinator was the best money spent.
I was worried about being sick with anxiety all day. My mom told me if I expected myself to be anxious, I would be. I took her advice and actively corrected my thinking. I pictured myself calm and happy as often as possible. In moments of stress, I focused on things I was excited about. In the weeks leading up, I told myself over and over I would be at ease and carefree. And it was so! I couldn’t believe it!
If it’s going to be hot and you’re doing photos outside, bring cooling towels. Our bridal party loved them in between pictures.
If you don’t want to do something, then don’t. No one will miss it. We skipped a lot of “traditions” and no one noticed. We had no guestbook, cake cutting, father-daughter dance, bouquet toss, garter toss, grand entrance, or grand exit.
We did a receiving line, and it was the best. It got the hugs and congrats done right away and ensured we greeted every guest. It only took about twenty minutes. Then, at the reception, we were free to mingle with whomever we wanted to talk to more. No one pulled us aside or interrupted us during the reception.
Instead of a father-daughter dance, my dad played accordion and guests participated in a group folk dance. It meant a lot of my dad. It was also a sneaky way to get a lot of people on the dance floor for when the DJ started.
I was surprised by how much power the bride has. I realized this when people on the dance floor mimicked my moves and responded to everything I did. If I clapped my hands to the beat, so did they. If I left the floor, they stopped dancing. If I pointed at someone across the floor, they pointed back and we sang lyrics together. As a shy person, I’ve never experienced anything like this. Once I realized my power, I used it for good. I made a point to dance with people who had no date or knew no one. I thanked and complimented people profusely. I visited more tables than I normally would have.
What Went Wrong
The list below is nitpicking for the sake of this post. I mean it when I say the day was absolutely perfect and nothing on the list below affected our happiness.
Finally, I just want to say thank you to this wonderful community. I got a lot of ideas and support from this fantastic group. This place is unique among subreddits and online communities. Please never change, Weddit!
submitted by mr-pockets to weddingplanning [link] [comments]

Wedding Recap: October 12, 2019, Ventura, CA—Vintage Chicano theme

It’s been 6 months since my husband and I got married! I always loved reading through wedding recaps because it helped me establish budgets and I found so many cool items/ideas I was able to incorporate into my own wedding! I know this is a difficult time for those that have had to reschedule their wedding or are thinking about having to do that, but I hope it gives you more time to create the wedding you and your partner wants.
Here are some photos:
Blog from my wedding photographer Rodney Ty
My personal favorites: Us and the Details
Overview: My husband and I knew that we wanted to have a wedding that reflected our style as couple. Our goal was to have our guests think, “this is definitely Kat and Angel’s wedding!” We have a lot of friends who are talented artists or own their business so we asked for their help (if they were able to) instead of purchasing a gift for us. I put an * to signify items that these were made/created/discounted by friends and family because some of the prices may seem unrealistic.
Our theme: Us aka Vintage Chicano
Colors: Hunter green, orange, and yellow
Top 3 most important things for us:
Food—We love Mexican food and we’re Latinx. I’m vegan and he wanted to have the taco truck that he grew up eating.
Alcohol—Our family and friends love to party and we love to throw parties! We wanted to make sure we had most liquors available so we purchased a wide variety. We had craft beer and our friends brewed a beer in our honor—PS I love craft beer and weirdly my husband has never had a drink in his life!
Music—A common theme throughout our decor was music (records and boomboxes). We also needed a really good DJ because we love to dance and knew we wanted to spend most of the night doing that. We got that and spent the night having and awesome time!
(Photography was pretty high as well. We love taking photos together and have had some great ones over the years--wanted to add some to our collection.)
Favorite/Memorable Things
Support of Our Friends and Family: People were so excited for us to get married! Leading up the wedding people offered their physical labor, time, energy, or craft. This allowed us to have a high guest count, but not spend a ton of money. I’m forever grateful to these people and have the privilege of having special memories from our wedding.
Our Own Beer “Love on the Radio”: Strawberry Hazy IPA brewed by our best friends. I love hazy IPAs and he is from Oxnard (strawberry city) and loves boomboxes, which is how they came up with the concept. They created a label and made glasses for our family and close friends. They did a pouring at our rehearsal dinner since our wedding party would most likely not be able to try it during cocktail hour.
Signature drinks and Pouring Shots: We had fun creating these with our friends and personal tastes in mind. “La Ramona” is our cat who is a lil nutty. At one point towards the end of the night, the bartender allowed me to get behind the bar and pour shots for all my guests who wanted to participate. It was epic!
Dedication hour: We love Art Laboe and listen to his dedication show on the radio. We wanted to incorporate this into our wedding somehow. During cocktail hour, we had our friends and family write “dedications” that were read throughout the night. It was super fun to randomly hear our friends tell us how much they love us!
BUDGET BREAKDOWN
Initial Budget: $20,000
Total Spent: ~$30,000 (a little less, but I assumed we are missing some items)
Attendees: 196 guests
Venue/Rentals/Catering/Beverage: $12, 996
Photography: $2800 (including tip)
Rodney Ty Photography: He was my friend’s wedding photographer. I love his pictures and the mood he is able to set. He is great at candid shots and uses film and digital photography.
Florist*: ~$680
DJ/MC/Photobooth* ($2,300):
DecoMisc (~$2,941):
This is where we went a little crazy, but we wanted to ensure that the idea of Us came through. We wanted our family and friends to come to our wedding and recognize that it represented us to our core. Here are all the details we are super proud of!
Desserts ($853.50):
Bride’s Attire ($1,566, including alteration):
Groom’s Attire (~$655.00):
Wedding Bands ($2,500): • Vendor: Sueno Jewelry Studio
Miscellaneous Attire ($360):
3 flower girl dresses from Bhldn for our three nieces (one didn’t make it down the aisle because she was too nervous).
Makeup/Hair ($100/2 $50 gift certificates for my friends):
Paper Costs: Save the Dates, Invites, and Postage ($883)
Bridal Party Gifts (~$450)
Rehearsal Dinner ($634.28)
Please feel free to reach out if you want any further details on anything I purchased or general questions!
submitted by chingona_nerdo to weddingplanning [link] [comments]

~$55k NYC "South Beach meets Brooklyn", black tie, 100-person wedding recap

OK team *cracks knuckles*.
I've been itching to do a recap since the wedding because they were SO helpful to me in the planning process, so I'm hoping I can offer some folks similar help.
10/13/19 was the best day ever and super balmy weather in the city. If any of my other NYC brides are gambling on a mid-October wedding, may our good juju be with you!
First: PHOTO TAX, DUH.
Second: Obligatory BEST DAY EVER. I was prepared for so much to go wrong, and it was end to end a total dream. Bless!
Third: Getting married in NYC is absolutely NO JOKE, so despite the hefty price tag we saved absolutely everywhere we could, and also wanted to make sure the wedding represented our values.
Which is why we:
OK here we go!
Original budget: $40k (we could've swung this, but my dad came in with an extra financial assist at the last minute, so we were able to include a few more trimmings!)
Actual budget: ~$52,000
Not included in this total: my dress, incidentals, groom's gift, etc. So I'll include those details further down.
Invited: 112 (including a number of family members we knew wouldn't be able to attend)
Attended: 100 on the nose, I believe.
What went right: Uhhh pretty much everything.
I was having wedding nightmares for MONTHS leading up to the big day so I was ready for anything, but it all went so smoothly! Even the weather cooperated, and we had a beautiful harvest moon on the night of.
What went wrong: Two slight snafu's.
One was the speeches, and this wasn't really anyone's fault - my sister went MIA due to my nephew getting sick and so the order of speeches went completely haywire.
The other was with returning one of our rentals. I felt TERRIBLE about this, but The Box House ended up sorting it out and paying extra to have them picked up, as no one had sent them back. We were on our honeymoon through most of this so I'm not sure what went wrong or where wires got crossed, but it is what it is. All's well that ends well, I hope.
Budget breakdown:
Venue, The Box House Hotel: $35,322 + $550 additional tip
This was obviously our #1 expense, but ah, The Box House Hotel, they were a god damn dream and worth every penny.
Aside from the beautiful hotel itself and the gorgeous roof and views, their all-inclusive rate was what sold us.
For the uninitiated, in NYC there's this whole thing about renting venues as "raw spaces" and then bringing in eeeverything. This can be budget-friendly for some folks but for us with our schedules, it would've meant hiring a planner, DOC, and all the things to do the heavy lifting for us.
The Box House provided all the food, top shelf bar, wait staff and furniture, DOC, set up, break down, etc. All we had to do was roll up, party, and roll out. The food and drink was AMAZING and the set the space up beautifully. Krista our DOC was incredible and had everything taken care of for us, I still shed a slight tear just thinking about it!
Also the sommelier was VERY patient with my wino dad, who also wound up bringing 10 bottles of "birth year wines" aka wines he's saved from 1989, the year I was born. He's done this with all the sibs. It was SO GOOD.
I should also add that we got married mid-October on a Sunday over a 3-day weekend, which was still technically off-season and they honored the Sunday rate. We also very much got on the "ground floor" with TBH, which is another reason why the rate was comparably still so good. They'd only been open a year when we found them, and only had a few reviews on The Knot and Wedding Wire, but this is often the key in NYC - do the research to find somewhere relatively new or in an up and coming neighborhood, and jump on it when you find it. We did this with our apartment too, hahaha!
Florals, VZ designs (@veezeyfloraldesign) + Foliage Garden: $3,058
So Kelly is a one-woman show who only does small events, and is FABULOUS at what she does. I came to her with a super modest budget ($1,500) that she was able to work with, and was willing to do things like reuse bridesmaid bouquets for centerpieces, all that stuff.
Due to my dad's help, we were able to avoid that happening and up the budget at the last minute.
SHE DID SUCH AN AMAZING JOB ON EVERYTHING, especially my bouquet. I was so-so about most wedding florals so I wanted my bouquet to represent my life (calla lilies because my MIL carried them, small white blooms that looked like orange blossoms to represent the state I was raised, and white roses to mimic my mother's wedding bouquet). Because my dress was form-fitting I also didn't want a giant circle to be covering my waistline, so they worked beautifully cradled in one arm.
We also ended up re-using the bridesmaid bouquets on the sweetheart table and it worked out beautifully.
To save some money and add a bit more lushness, we also rented ferns for the aisle/additional decor! We rented 10 plants, two 5-foot and eight 3-foot, for just over $500. They really added to the space and didn't create a ton of waste, which we loved! Foliage Garden was fabulous to work with, they dropped 'em off and picked 'em up, no problem.
Decor (custom signage, flamingo neons, etc.): $3,000
Our custom neon sign + rentals from NameGlo ate up a lot of this, but we also picked up the neon flamingos for about $16/pop on Amazon and they worked BEAUTIFULLY. The only problem was, they were basically out only wedding favors and were gifted to one person at each table - and people got drunk and kept stealing them from one another, hahaha. Whoops!
Also, bonus: our cats Ham and Eva featured as our signature cocktails!
Image capture*:* $3,750
We got REALLY LUCKY to have photographers (@earthmarkphotography) and wedding videographers (don't have the video yet, will link when I do) who were willing to work with us on price in exchange for some of my own professional services. Turned out to be a HUGE win/win, and they did a beautiful job.
Dana and Vince - photographers - were BEYOND fabulous. We wanna be their best friends. They hail from Gettysburg, PA and made us feel so comfortable. They were worth every penny and so much more!
Bridal Suite: $1,970
We wanted to be on-site for the day and The Box House Hotel has a huge penthouse with two bedrooms, two wrap around balconies, an on-site kitchen, etc. Was perfect for all of us getting ready, both bridesmaids and groomsmen!
It was so, so nice to be on-site the entire day, no one was ever rushed or panicked. If you're getting married at/near a hotel, can I just say: location, location, location.
Wedding DJ, Stylus DJ Entertainment: $1,125
Big ups DJ Karin! We found her via Stylus DJ Entertainment (women owned and operated!) and we absolutely loved her. She did a fantastic job with our eclectic taste, and we boogeyed all night.
Cake, Lucky Bird Bakes: $800
LUCKY BIRD BAKES I CAN'T EVEN HANDLE IT. I used to live around the corner from Amy's shop so working with her was a no brainer. We did one big 3-tier that was lemon vanilla creme fraiche with raspberries in the center, with two satellite cakes of fig and dark chocolate. So yummy. Would eat it every day if I could.
AV guys: $1,458
These were required vendors with The Box House Hotel, and did a great job!
Invitations, Minted: $312
We did realllly simple ones with cut-away RSVP postcards from Minted, I think? They looked so great and classy, and didn't break the bank!
Additional expenses:
(This is stuff paid for by myself or other family members that weren't part of the budget)
Dress + alterations**:** ~$1,600
The dress was a Maggie Sottero and I picked it up from RK Bridal in the city for around $900.
My experience there was so-so, but I actually found the dress itself at a boutique in Florida where it was $1,400. Weird to find something LESS expensive in NYC compared to FL, but I count ma blessings.
Alterations were from Tailors Atelier who were WONDERFUL. I went down two dress sizes during the planning process and they made it fit too the skin, and added wonderful removable sleeves. 10/10 would use again.
Jewelry: $300
After scrolling Etsy for WEEKS I wound up going with an amazing Indian designer named Reena, of Reemat Designs, who just happened to my my MoH's mom's best friend. She's pretty famous with the Indian wedding and Bollywood set - which I didn't know! - and is so so so so sweet to a lil' white girl like me.
She hooked me up with some seriously show-stopping jewels that I full intend to wear again. Local girls - she's got a showroom in NJ, hit her up!
Reena did my necklaces and earrings, my cousin Tracey lent me the bracelet and the tiny fancy clutch.
Wedding rings: $1100 together
Mine is vintage and cost about $700 courtesy of Alison from Reverie NYC who we also sourced my engagement ring from! His is solid silver from a jewelry spot in Manhattan that I forget the name of, but was $400.
Hair and makeup**:** ~$700 plus tip
I paid for myself, my mom, and my sister who was my Matron of Honor. Tatiana Li was our HMUA (https://www.instagram.com/tatianalimua/) and was SO AMAZING OMG. So sweet, such a wonderful team, and so efficient. We were actually done EARLY. Insane.
Bridesmaids paid for their own glam!
Bridesmaid gifts**:** ~$400
I had a Matron of Honor (sister), Maid of Honor (bestie), and 4 bridesmaids. They were gifted with robes and monogram clutches on the day of, courtesy of Etsy!
Groom's gift: ~$1,000
Since my husband got me such an amazing ring I wanted to return the favor with a "commitment gift" of sorts. My ring is vintage so I wanted to get him something vintage as well. I wound up settling on a vintage Omega watch in the Emerald line which was only made from 1971-1973.
It's fully restored (though fun fact, in the watch collection world, having all original parts fetches the highest price) and just stunning. Since most Omega watches are 3x as much, I felt great about my choice. Purchase was made through the Connoisseur of Time store on Etsy.
Polaroid table + flamingo centerpieces + guestbook + table numbers + various sundries: ~$400
We couldn't afford a photo booth, but a polaroid table ended up working even better than expected!
We already had a polaroid camera of our own and borrowed a couple more from friends, and thew down on on enough film for ~120 shots. Didn't end up using them all, but people took snaps and glued them in the guest book!
Flamingo centerpieces were something like $16 each for 10 tables, we ordered around 14 just in case.
Guestbook was $40 on Amazon.
Table numbers were $6 each on Etsy.
Rehearsal dinner @ Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club: N/A
Had to add this one even though the in-laws paid because it was GENIUS.
Husband suggested we all go somewhere that's not just a dinner but a group activity, so we headed to Royal palms Shuffleboard Club in Gowanus to play a little shuffleboard with the parents, grandparents, and wedding party. They catered with food truck food and it was F A B U L O U S. Such a great way for everyone to meet and bond.
Also we set up an Uber code so people could charge their rides to us. Not too many folks too advantage but the ones who did loved it too.
OK. I think that's it?
Any questions - get at me y'all!
I now have so much useless wedding knowledge that can be put to good use, hahahaha.
THANKS FOR READING MY RECAP. AND THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP ALONG THE WAY, REDDIT!
Edit: Some details!
Edit edit: MOAR DETAILS. + then some MOAR.
submitted by brooklynbride19 to weddingplanning [link] [comments]

Twin Cities historic mansion wedding recap and budget breakdown

Twin Cities historic mansion wedding recap and budget breakdown
​
https://preview.redd.it/954omvhha0641.jpg?width=4556&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f019b0c2875805af32b7c23f939d6ad4784d76a7
TL;DR our wedding was awesome, here's an Imgur post: https://imgur.com/a/xu3GYJb
I've been meaning to do a recap of my April (😳) wedding for about seven months now! Weddit was an amazing resource during our 17 months of wedding planning, so hopefully this helps someone else. I apologize for the epic novel :)
We were originally hoping to spend $15-20k total on the wedding and ended up at just over $27k, including Friday night festivities (and just about every other wedding-related cost, as you’ll see below) but excluding my engagement ring and the honeymoon. We invited 150 and had 90 attend.
Venue and Catering - $10,800
I'm from the Twin Cities, but my husband and I live in Oklahoma, so we planned the whole thing from out of state, and had a large number of out-of-state guests (he's from Pittsburgh, and we have friends from all over). It would have been SO much more stressful without my mom and my sister--they were amazingly helpful in visiting venues for us in the early stages, so we only made one special weekend visit 14 months before the wedding to check out the top three venues ourselves.
We had a few venue priorities:
  1. Making it easy and "worth it" to attend for our many out-of-state guests--so we really wanted to do a full dinner on a Saturday, and be in St. Paul or Minneapolis to maximize the vacation aspect for people (didn’t want them stranded in the suburbs)
  2. A venue where we could bring our own alcohol--both to save money, and because we're beer nerds and had a **vision** for our beverage menu that beverage caterers couldn't deliver
After extensive research I ended up with a list of BYOB venues in St. Paul and Minneapolis, if anyone wants that. Our venue ended up being a great choice--the fact that it was such a full-service venue (they also handle the catering, some coordination, and most decor) made long-distance planning much easier. Their pricing was also really a la carte, so we were able to tailor it to our budget. Staff were great to work with, the food was great, the venue was gorgeous and it has a really good "fancy house party" vibe that was perfect for us! We were hoping it would be warm enough to have the ceremony outside by April 27th, but even if it hadn't been a forecast of wintry mix that day (!!) the yard was still pretty bedraggled by then. We had the ceremony in the living room instead and it was beautiful. The room flip afterwards was so perfectly executed I don’t even know when and how it happened—it was as if by elves 😊
Dessert - $300
I was all about mass-produced pies (Bakers Square, if you're familiar), but apparently my mom and husband had strong feelings about cake 🤷‍♀️ I'm glad they took over most of the decision-making on this! My mom suggested a bakery near her office, and my husband really wanted to do a small cake and cupcakes in a mix of flavors. It ended up being affordable and everything was insanely delicious (and I'm NOT a cake person). Picking out the different cupcake, frosting, and filling flavors was weirdly fun. This category also includes the super basic cupcake boxes I ordered from Oriental Trading Company for people to take home leftovers (a pretty awesome idea, if I do say so myself).
Alcohol - $1,500
This category includes bartender service through our venue and all the beer and wine (we didn’t have liquor). We had a little leftover beer, which my family drank, and a lot of leftover wine, which we were able to return (so that’s subtracted from this cost). My planning spreadsheet indicates 12.5 cases of beer and 6 cases of wine to be purchased, but I can't remember if that aligned with reality or how much wine we returned (but I'd guess maybe 3 cases).
A lot of thought went into this category, especially by my husband! We wanted our menu to represent the three states that have been important to our relationship—Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma—so we bought from a bunch of places and schlepped a lot of beer on our drive up. We ended up with five beers on the main menu and three “special selections” that we only had 10-12 of each—those were New Glarus Serendipity and two limited-edition beers from Oklahoma. We had planned on Victory HopDevil for our Pennsylvania beer since it’s one of my husband’s long-time favorites, but found out on our drive up on Wednesday before the wedding that it was no longer distributed in Minnesota or any of the other states we usually stop for beer in (Iowa and Missouri). My husband had the great idea to call the excellent Casanova Liquors in Hudson. They didn’t have it, but could order it in for Friday pickup, when he was planning to go there for the New Glarus anyway. I’m STILL delighted that this worked out! Highly recommend Casanova for any of your weirdly specific beer needs in western Wisconsin 😊
We bought all our wine from Total Wine. We had a vague idea of what we wanted (a dry red, a dry white, and a less dry white), but they were super helpful with specific wines and amounts. As mentioned, we actually ended up having to have my family return a lot of the wine (apparently we have a beer crowd?) and they made that easy too.
Ceremony - $450
This includes the cost of our marriage license, a Prepare-Enrich inventory, and the amount my mom gave our pastochurch. I think my husband thought the Prepare-Enrich was a little unnecessary, but we had some good conversations come out of it.
My husband is very much non-religious and so is his immediate family. My family is a mostly religious mix of Lutherans and Catholics. I attend a pretty theologically liberal but liturgically traditional Lutheran church regularly, and having God’s presence in our ceremony was important to me, but I also didn’t want it to be over-the-top all-about-Jesus to where people who know my husband would be like, “umm, I KNOW he had nothing to do with this ceremony.” I was planning on just hiring a secular officiant, but asking the pastor from my mom’s church (which I grew up in) to officiate was my mom’s idea, and it was great. Like most in the ELCA he was super flexible on the actual wording of the ceremony, so we ended up with something that I think fit both of us.
We wrote our own vows, and our ceremony was modified off of our pastor’s suggestions. I think we were both nervous about coming up with the ceremony details, but sitting down and reading through example vows together and noting wording we liked and didn’t like was actually a really fun experience. I will say if you’re planning on repeating your vows after the officiant, they feel MUCH LONGER than you expect, especially in front of an audience… I was surprised by how long ours felt to me and it was almost hard not to laugh. I'm a monster.
Photography - $3,200
The photographer was the second big choice we (actually I, my husband didn't really have opinions on photography) made and one of our bigger splurges. I realized as I started researching that I apparently have STRONG opinions on wedding photography 😂 I really wanted a photojournalistic style that captured the feeling of the day, and less focus on wedding party shots (since we weren't actually having a wedding party) and Pinterest-y details (since we weren't really planning any). I found our photographer on Instagram and fell in love with her work. She and her assistant were so much fun at our wedding, and I loved our photos! She also shoots 100% in film now (and did for our wedding), so that was pretty cool.
We didn’t do engagement photos, since our photographer was in another state and we didn’t feel like we needed them. I used other photos of us on our website, and we took photos with a tripod and remote in the backyard for our super dorky and homemade Save the Dates that I am still EXTREMELY proud of. I don’t regret that decision at all. We’ve been together nine years, so we have lots of photos together 😊
It literally never crossed my mind that we might need a videographer. I don’t regret that either.
Floral - $475
We ordered bulk flowers through FiftyFlowers and Costco, and my mom, sister, aunt, and I assembled them ourselves the day before the wedding. Not having wedding party bouquets made this easier! We made my bouquet, centerpieces for 10 tables (since ours were long rectangles, we did three small vases per table), and boutonnieres and corsages for family. I practiced my bouquet and centerpiece with grocery store flowers in advance, but wish I had practiced corsages--those got stressful and my sister had to save the day and take over so I could leave and finish up other wedding stuff 😂 but overall I'd still recommend this route! It was fun, they turned out great, and we spent $475 total including the practice flowers, all supplies, and vases from Facebook Marketplace.
Guestbook and Other Décor - $520
This category includes décor rental through our venue, our guestbook, supplies for our cake topper, and a few random frames for menus and table numbers.
We made our own cake topper because my husband had access to a laser cutter and I liked the idea of having all my fonts match even though literally no one else would ever notice. This was unusually crafty for us (well, for me anyway) and and actually fun to work on together!
One of the only super unique touches we did (that we both LOVED and were super proud of) was our guestbook. I wanted something we’d actually see regularly, unlike a traditional guestbook, but most of the décor options were really not to our taste. We do love to listen to vinyl together, however. I got this idea somewhere else on the internet so I can’t take credit, but we ordered a one-off lathe-cut vinyl record from American Vinyl Co. We each picked songs for one side, and I designed the gatefold cover with pictures of us and our dogs and a lot of white space for people to sign. I’m still obsessed with it TBH.
Stationery and Website - $520
This category includes basically every paper good and related item… Save the Dates, return address labels, pens, invitations, escort cards, programs, table numbers, wedding thank you cards, bridal shower thank you cards, and postage for everything.
Our Save the Dates were ordered through Vistaprint, as were our thank you cards.
For invitations, we used Ann’s Bridal Bargains—they are so cheap (especially with a 30% off coupon), quality was great (I think I upgraded the paper thickness), they looked classy, they ship you extras, and the fold-and-send invitations with integrated RSVP postcards were a hit! I also decided to learn hand-lettering (thanks Youtube) and address our invitations, which was surprisingly fun and got many compliments.
We used Joy (withjoy.com) for our website and I can't say enough good things about it! Very nice-looking, easy to use, and free. We offered our guests the option of either online or paper RSVPs, and it worked very well. I also splurged and bought a domain from GoDaddy for $20 so we had a fancy redirect address 😂
I designed the programs and got those printed through CatPrint. It’s kind of weird that we somehow managed to use three different printing services for this not-that-complicated wedding, but each just offered the best price and/or the exact product I needed for that particular item. I’d use any of them again! (but I do always make a point to tell people about Ann’s Bridal Bargains because I feel like they don’t get enough love)
Photo Album - $300
I splurged on this through Artifact Uprising. They have some guidelines and tools that make it surprisingly easy to sort through all your pictures and design a nice album. It turned out beautifully and I love it!
Bridal Attire and Beauty Services - $1,400
I bought my Lillian West dress as a sample—it was originally $1,500 and I paid just under $1k after tax. I currently have it on consignment, so we’ll see how that goes. I didn’t have major expectations for "the dress", but I fell in love with this one at the second store I went to and it fit me perfectly. Still love it! This category also includes my alterations ($100 for hemming, a one-point bustle, and getting push-up cups sewn in because I have super small boobs and needed a little more space taken up!). I should have had my seamstress sew the bustle a little higher—it ripped out while my husband and I were upstairs practicing our first dance, and he had to safety-pin it a few more times before our DOC sewed it up higher and saved the day. So that’s something to watch out for! I also recommend going to your regular tailor if you have one rather than some fancy bridal person—I feel like I saved a ton of money compared to what I was seeing on a Facebook page for local brides.
I was super happy with my hairstylist and how she handled my curly hair—it ended up looking like me, but better, which is what I was going for.
I'm not a big makeup wearer, and having had my makeup done for other weddings I was nervous about not looking like myself. I did my own with my own drugstore eyeshadow and beloved Sephora mascara. I don't think I look washed out in pictures :)
Groom Attire - $475
This category includes my husband’s suit from a local shop, alterations, shirt, tie, cufflinks, and shoes. He’s pretty low-maintenance 😊
Day-Of Coordination - $1,500
The single best wedding-related decision we made was hiring our DOC. Venue staff had told us most people there don't end up hiring a DOC because the venue provides so much service, and initially I felt like we had so few vendors to coordinate we didn't really need one. However, the venue end up having quite a bit of staff turnover during our planning and it just made me nervous. I also know myself and I've worked in events and I'm a stressed out, raging bitch when things are going wrong and people are asking me lots of questions--and I did NOT want to be that person on my wedding day. I'm so glad we decided to spend money on this! Our two-month-out call with our DOC came at a time when I was starting to get super stressed about planning and all the details I was sure to forget, and she immediately put me at ease. On our wedding day, my hair appointment ran late but arriving at the venue to see her and the venue staff already setting everything up perfectly was the greatest feeling. She not only saved my bustle but also probably put out countless other fires throughout the night that I don't even know about. In short, if you are wondering whether a DOC is worth the money, think about how much you're spending on everything else--the DOC is who you pay so you can ENJOY all those other things you're spending money on! 10/10 would do it again.
DJ - $850
For the LONGEST time, I planned on DIYing our music with Spotify and rented equipment. I was really trying to save money, and I've always loved putting together party playlists so I figured it would be fun. When the time came to actually dive into that part of the planning, I started to realize there was more to think about than I had anticipated (how do I normalize the volume across all my tracks? how do I eliminate gaps between songs?) I'm a perfectionist about weird things and it was starting to stress me out. We also didn't have a great family/friend candidate to be the point person on music and sound system issues. I ended up finding a super reasonably priced DJ who seemed normal and experienced, and he was willing to go very a la carte (we started with JUST music for dancing and then eventually I ended up just having him do the ceremony too, which was totally worth it and still affordable). He ended up being a lot of fun at the wedding (weirdly he was a former pastor and he and our officiant knew each other) and he picked the PERFECT song off of our guestbook album to make me not sad when the lights came up and the night ended ("Oh What a World" by Kacey Musgraves).
Welcome Dinner - $1,000
Since we didn’t have a wedding party or a particularly complicated ceremony, and DID have a lot of out-of-state guests, we skipped the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner and invited everyone to a brewery within walking distance of the hotel for pizza, pierogies (to rep my husband's Pittsburgh/Polish heritage), and beer on Friday night. My in-laws paid for this, which was super sweet, and it was a lot of fun to have that extra time to hang out with our guests! We also had a few in-town people who brought their kids to the welcome dinner but not to the wedding (even though all kids were invited—they just wanted an adult night!) which was super fun.
Rings - $675
This is mostly my wedding band and getting it resized and soldered, since my husband’s titanium ring was $15 on Amazon 😊
I struggled for a while with what to do for a wedding band and even considered not getting one at all. My engagement ring is antique and a fairly unique shape, so I initially thought my only option was getting a new band custom curved to fit the shape (which I worried wouldn’t match the antique look). I actually ended up finding a straight antique band that goes super well with the engagement ring. There’s a gap, but I totally dig it. Happy to share pictures of this if it helps someone else, because I know I really struggled with visualizing what the options would look like (although once I gave up on the online search and just went to an antique jewelry shop in town, the decision was easy, so I highly recommend that!)
Name Change Costs - $180
Yes, I kept track of this, because I’m insane.
Dance Lessons - $180
I’m so glad we both wanted to do this! We kept it pretty simple and just did three lessons to learn a basic step and a couple of spins. Our first dance song was “Come Rain or Come Shine” by Ray Charles, which has a slow beat that can be tough to hear, and neither of us really knew the first thing about dancing, so the lessons were super helpful and a lot of fun. Highly recommend doing something like this!
Hotel Shuttle - $740
We had a couple of hotel block issues that were totally my own fault, but I had no idea what I was doing so want to share and hopefully help others not make the same mistakes! I used Kleinfeld’s hotel block service to research hotel options, and ended up choosing our hotel based on price, location, courtesy block size, and availability of an affordable shuttle. However, when I went to make a shuttle reservation two months before my wedding, I was told that the only shuttle had already been reserved for another wedding at the same time. In retrospect, I should have requested much earlier, and maybe even if I hadn't had my timeline ready yet I could have asked them about shuttle availability and found out they only had the one, but had multiple wedding groups blocked for that weekend... it was my mistake not asking for more info earlier, but it ended up being an expensive one (I think the hotel’s shuttle was only about $150, and I ended up having to use an outside company for $640 plus tip).
The second issue was that I did not carefully review the block info that was sent to me at the time of confirmation, or I would have noticed that although they reserved the full courtesy block for me on Saturday, they had only reserved five rooms on Friday. I think this was actually Kleinfeld's request, and it was my mistake to not look it over more carefully! I ended up freaking out shortly before the wedding when one of my guests mentioned that the block was already full. The hotel worked with me to add on as many more rooms as they could, and even switched me to another employee when I basically destroyed my relationship with my initial contact (my only bridezilla moment 😂), so I really appreciated that!
Miscellaneous - $2,300
I know that’s a lot for a miscellaneous category! This includes a lot of expenses related to getting married in another state (airfare for our one planning trip; airfare for my bridal shower; expenses for the road trip up for our wedding), plus our two nights at the wedding hotel, welcome bags for our guests, and a few other truly miscellaneous expenses.
Honeymoon - $5,800
I didn’t include this in the total above, but we did eight days in Paris and the Loire Valley immediately after our wedding and it was glorious. We watched numerous flight price trackers for a cheap flight somewhere in Europe that sounded fun, and ended up with two tickets to Paris for $500 each (and then I got $500 cash back on my Capital One Venture card).
How We Paid For It
I feel like this is helpful info, because I know I personally was curious about what a realistic budget was for my own situation when I was planning. I’m 31 and my husband is 40, and we did not anticipate using any family funds for the wedding, although our parents ended up generously surprising us (mine helped us out with a few thousand dollars and his paid for our Friday night event). The primary source of funds was a $20k nest egg of our own that I had set aside specifically for the wedding when I worked in a much more highly-paid industry in my first few years out of school, and cash-flowed the rest (I’d say we make pretty average money, but we also live in a very low COL area, which helps).
What We Skipped
We didn't have a wedding party, favors, a videographer, a bouquet toss, a groom's cake, a unity ceremony, professional makeup, or probably some other common things that I’m forgetting. My best wedding planning advice would be to a) remember that it's a party, not a photo shoot (this was my mantra and guided MANY decisions) and b) leave something out if you and your partner don't care about it! Don't feel like you have to do something because everyone else does. We focused our money and effort on the things that mattered most to us and it worked out perfectly. We literally couldn't stop saying to each other that night and the next day, "I can't believe how perfect everything was!" You guys know what you like, so you do you!
submitted by lambchop235 to weddingplanning [link] [comments]

wedding table centerpiece ideas on a budget video

Jul 17, 2019 - Explore Vfranjul's board "Budget wedding centerpieces" on Pinterest. See more ideas about wedding centerpieces, centerpieces, budget friendly wedding centerpieces. Explore Unique and Inexpensive Wedding Table Centerpiece Ideas. 1. Fish bowls filled with bouquets. With or without water, a variety of fish bowls added to your tablescape adds a touch of fun and the unexpected to an event. Fill them with clear fish tank rocks, flowers, candles, and so much more. Even if you end up using the services of a professional, there are ways to reduce your centerpiece costs. Read on for our tips on keeping those costs down—and discover some of our favorite wedding centerpiece ideas on a budget. Try out any of these chic and affordable wedding centerpiece ideas! No matter your budget, you can have stunning centerpieces for every season both with and without flowers. Now that you know the decor for your reception tables, take a moment to think about whether you want to sit at a sweetheart table for just the two of you or a head table complete with the wedding party during your reception. For dollar store wedding ideas, this floral arrangement looks amazing, doesn’t it? 9. Wine Bottle Succulent Garden Centerpiece. moncheribridals. Are you tired of the usual floral wedding centerpiece? Display gorgeous greenery in your wedding table by repurposing an old wine bottle into a succulent planter. Wedding decoration ideas can still be incredibly unique on a budget. Your guests will love the extra-special care you gave to having their names spelled out in elegant calligraphy. Fran Johnson House laser cut table names for wedding parties, from $1 each, Etsy.com Modern Cocktail Napkins This gorgeous DIY branch wedding centerpiece will make the perfect addition to your wedding, event or home table. Use silk flowers and manzanita branches for a DIY centerpiece that will last. Matherials: Manzanita branches, your favorite silk flowers and greenery, hot gun & glue, and wire cutters. Simple wedding centerpieces don’t mean they look cheap, they actually can look anything! It goes to show you that you don’t need to spend a few hundred dollars per arrangement to get wedding flowers that look like a million bucks. Simple wedding centerpieces will often do the trick and save you a lot of cash. What’s more, they can match There are so many different things that you can do with candles for centerpieces, but one of my favorites is to get a glass bowl, fill it with water, and light some floating candles. It is simple, elegant, and romantic. Candles can really set the mood if you want a classy wedding reception. 10. Use Lanterns. Here's a unique wedding centerpiece design that uses citrus fruit as a vase for flowers. Simply cut a small circle into the top of a grapefruit or an orange, remove about two inches deep of the flesh, and replace it with a piece of craft foam. Then, stick flower stems into the foam for a centerpiece that smells amazing with citrus and floral notes.

wedding table centerpiece ideas on a budget top

[index] [5835] [4829] [1293] [6917] [1054] [1700] [3903] [3959] [5569] [3895]

wedding table centerpiece ideas on a budget

Copyright © 2024 hot.alltop100casinos.site