Eye Candy....

Just a quick little note... with everyone buzzing about Prince Williams recent engagement, I thought I would post my all time favorite royalty wedding gown... and of course it is Grace Kelly's gorgeous gown! I would wear that dress and veil even now. Although I could do without the wedding parties attire....

Wedding on a budget part 3.... the dress

I had two dresses for our wedding, I am only picturing one here, the other was worn during the reception. I found my vintage style Maggie Sottero Gown on ebay. It was not in the best of shape, but for $75 dollars which included shipping, I got the dress I always wanted. Once I got it I paid another $75 dollars to have it cleaned, and altered. The dress originally retailed for $1400. My reception dress was a vintage style gown from Davids Bridal. I found it new, again on ebay for $75. A great way to save a lot of money on your wedding is on your gown. If you take the time to look, and have patience, you may find something quite wonderful, that far exceeds your expectations. I was so worried that I would not be able to have the kind of dress I was hoping for, but I got lucky enough to have two for $150.

Wedding on a budget part 2.... Venue

There are many great places to have a wedding. If you are trying to save money, like we were then you need to decide what it is that you want from your venue. For us, we wanted a place where we could have outside food catered, not be charged for an alcohol fee and for it to be unique but casual at the same time. We ended up choosing Metro Galleries, which is a contemporary art gallery. The venue worked well for us, it was casual yet elegant at the same time. Another wonderful part of using an art gallery is with all the great art you don't have to decorate too much. The greatest part was we got it for a great deal, since my mother in law knows the owner. For those of you whom don't have a family member whom knows someone that owns an art gallery, here are a few tips to still get a great deal. First, art galleries are very reasonably priced anyway, so check out a few you may be surprised at just how affordable it really is. Second, host a wedding on an off day like a week day or a Sunday where you will get discounted prices. Third, be flexible on a date, if you are willing to have your wedding on a date that hasn't been booked, then you may be able to negotiate a smaller rate, because having an event booked even at a discounted rate is better than not having a booking at all. If you would like to learn more about Metro Galleries, here is the sight here.

Wedding on a budget part 1..... Flowers

With a small budget, I came to the realization early on that I was going to have to get pretty creative with the flowers for the wedding. The flowers I wanted, were way out of our budget, and the types of flowers I could afford were not at all what I wanted. One thing I knew for sure is that I wanted a nice full bouquet, I mean I was the bride and felt I deserved to have a nice lush bouquet in my favorite flowers. After months of researching different possibilities, and I mean I really searched I stumbled across a phenomenal idea. There is something out there called real touch flowers. Now these are artificial flowers, but not the silk craft store fake looking kind. These are flowers made out of latex, that look so real, they even feel quite real. I was quite curious about the true quality, I mean they looked phenomenal in the pictures, but how would they look in person? So I ordered a few samples and was so surprised and impressed at the quality. The best part is I could now have all the flowers I needed and wanted, that was way within my budget. I found a couple of discount sights that carried the flowers, and set to work making everything myself. Now there are people who make real touch wedding sets for a living, but if you are willing to take the time, as I did, then you can do them all on your own. I used white and green calla lilies, and green cymbidium orchids for my bouquet, the bridesmaids bouquets, and some of the centerpieces in which I will get to later. The boutonnieres were made from green dedrobium orchids. All in all the flowers for the whole wedding cost me less than $400. The best part? No one knew they weren't real until I told them. They stayed looking gorgeous, no worrying about staining my dress and they all came home with me after the wedding. I have my bouquet in my curio cabinet and the rest of the flowers I used in decorating my home. A few great sights to use if you are interested in using real touch flowers are www.afloral.com and www.save-on-crafts.com.

Tips For A Wedding On a Budget....

So I thought I would take the next few days to post a little about my experience with having a wedding on an extremely small budget. I did a lot of D.I.Y, as well as scavenging, but everything turned out great. Most importantly it was meaningful and really represented who me and my hubby really are. My husband and I got married in September of 2003, but we eloped. Yep, I got married in pants, just the two of us, in a little chapel on the Vegas strip. So last year we finally decided to have a wedding with all our family and close friends. I hope this helps to inspire and give some ideas to some of you out there whom are struggling with a small budget, but have big dreams and ideas... So here we go!