About my Wedding...

So I didn't have a wedding when my husband and I got married 6 years ago. We eloped, just the two of us to Las Vegas. It was nice not having any stress and only worrying about the importance of the two of us becoming man and wife. That being said, I knew I still wanted to have the white dress and my family and friends together for some great tunes and great food. So five years later, my husband and I renewed our wedding vows on June 27th, 2009.
By this time we had our two daughters, and all the expenses of being a family. We knew that we had to pull together something on an extremely small budget, and I mean small. Like $3,000 dollars total small. So I set out to put together something simple, and meaningful and most importantly, something true to whom my husband and I really are.
I think the most important thing to do when planning a wedding whether it is big or small, is first coming up with the budget, and then figuring out how do divide it up. The first thing we knew is we wanted something small and intimate. Close friends and family, so our guest list was just over 50 people. Then we decided what mattered most for our wedding. We both agreed that we wanted great food, and great music.
Another suggestion I reccomend is to let family help out. Instead of wedding gifts, since we had already been married for five years and lord knows we didn't need another coffee maker, we just asked our family whom offered gifts to contribute to the wedding expenses instead.
Without getting to crazy on explanations here is a quick run down and of our expensives:

Venue : Metro galleries - a modern and contemporary art gallery with a slight industiral feel. We renewed our vows on the second floor loft, and held the reception downstairs. For the ceremony upstairs we used the art galleries black chairs, and white pillars for our arrangements. We also used four tables that the art gallery had, one for our sweetheart table, one for the cake table, and two banquet tables for the food. We scored this venue at a steal since my mother in law knows the owner. What should have cost us $1200, only cost us $500.

Rentals: We rented six round tables, 5o white chairs, one small childrens table, six small childrens chairs, and 11 table clothes in navy blue. The cost was about $250.

Flowers: I had a bit of a problem, with my tiny budget, I couldn't afford the flowers I wanted, and didn't want to be limited to carnations and roses. So I bought real touch calla lillies and cybiduim orchids. If you have never seen or touched them then you are in for a shock. They look so real no one at our wedding knew they weren't real. They are made from latex and the nice part is they keep forever. I found two great sights that had great prices on these, one was afloral the other was save on crafts. I did all of the flowers and centerpieces myself. I made my bouquet, the bridesmaids bouquets, boutineers, coursages and all of the centerpieces and ceremony arrangements. I also purchased manzanita branches and all the containers for the centerpieces. Total cost $400provided by my dad.

Food: We wanted good food, enough said. We didn't need it to be fancy, but we did want people lickin' there fingers and going back for more. That we accomplished this. We had a restaurant called cocanut joes cater. We had chickan, tri tipp, beans, salad, rolls and ice tea. We had enough to feed all our guests and alot left over to take to the local rescue mission. This delivered cost us just under $5oo. We also purchased bottled water and sodas for $100. My husbands mother and stepfather provided the beer, and my husbands father provided the wine.

Cake: We scored our three individual cakes from the walmart bakery. Each one was a different flavor, white with fresh strawberries, marble with raspberries, and white with bevairan cream. All the cakes cost us $100 total.

Bridesmaids: I asked bridesmaids to find there own navy blue 50's style party dress. The only thing I cared about was that they had that 50's cut and that they were navy blue.

Groom and Groomsmen: My husband hates tuxes, and since our wedding was a little more casual at an art gallery he chose button down shirts and slacks with nautica ties. Grooms total cost $100(he scored everything on sale).

Bride: I wore jewlery my husband had given my for our anniversaries over the years. I found my ceremony dress, a maggie sottero vintage style gown for $75 on ebay, and my Davids bridal vintage style reception gown on ebay for $75. Alterations cost me $100 total for both dresses. I bought my ceremony shoes for $25 and my reception shoes for $45. I scored my birdcage veil for $15.

Favors: I printed up little box templets off of oncewed and put a ferrero riche chocolate in each one. We also set up a cand buffet with personalized bags for guest to fill with an array of sweets. Candy cost: $250.

Pictures: We had friend do our pictures so we scored these for free!!!

Daughters: Our daughters were our flower girls, I made there tutu skirts for $28, and bought there leotards for $14. They already had there sandles, and there pomeranders and flowers on there dresses were part of the real touch flowers I used in the rest of the wedding.

D.J: Our D.J was awesome, and covered by my husbands father as our wedding gift!