something about this wedding made me smile…maybe it’s the super cute bride or all the DIY details…doesn’t matter- enjoy! photos by one of my newer favorites- Katherine O Photography.

how neat is this next one?

so cute!! be sure to check out the Katherine O Photo Blog for more!

these reminded me so much of today’s earlier post- how easy would these be to do?! Courtesy of Martha Stewart.

(first,second)

beautiful wedding from Jasmine Star Photography….oh and the bride is absolutely GORGEOUS!!! click through to see more!

It’s so good to finally have some time to share this super cute wedding with you all! I became a fast fan of Dana Grant’s work a few months back,when I found this engagement session where the couple bakes cookies in a vintage kitchen. I’ve been following her blog ever since! How cute is this wedding that popped about a week ago? I love the carefree, fun feel of this wedding!

love their style!

Congrats to Laura & Deejay! To see more from Dana Grant, click here.

**Note…the Daily Decor feature will be back soon…working out some software issues!”

Jessica Claire is one of the top wedding photographers in the country, and now she’s in the process of planning her own wedding. Her invitations are ridiculously unique and beautiful- totally artistic. I’m sharing an image here as a teaser- but definitely head over to her blog-site for more pics and details on the process!

More from Meg & Matt’s super lovely vintage wedding…. I am so in love with Jenny’s work!!! If you’re in the Seattle area, you gotta check her out!

Wedding Date: 5/16/09
Number of Guests:17
Initial Budget: $2000.00 (not including photography)

Ceremony: $200 “Since we eloped, the resort was much more willing to work with us on the price of the site fee. Realistically, we only used their garden for 15 min, but they were so great about it. They arranged for music to play and chairs for everyone to sit in. They also helped us contact a local officiant, so we didn’t have to pay a travel fee to the location. Just as a comparison, another resort on the island quoted me $2000 for the same thing, but they didn’t want me taking pictures anywhere on the grounds.”

Officiant: $275

Reception: We had the reception in the restaurant of the resort.  We had to pay a 18% service charge, but it only came out to an extra $100, so it seemed worth it. The private room had a balcony overlooking the bay, and they set up an ipod with music for us. They also had some flowers in vases and nice linens. Honestly, it was way more than I expected and I was thrilled with the result. The food was to die for, and we brought our own wine ($20 corking fee, but well worth it, because we had brought some bottles we had been saving from Italy and Sonoma, CA).

Catering/food: $300 “Matt and I had a prime rib dinner to die for – 2 cocktails each and couple glasses of wine. Everyone paid for their own food – so we spent about $300 for our food and site fee.”

Bridal Gown & Alterations: $200 for supplies Meg made her dress so she had no need for alterations.

Bridal Accessories: $180 “I splurged on a lilac colored ribbon to use as a sash – cost $75. I bought the shoes about a year earlier on sale for around $65. I made the birdcage veil (after 3 tries…) and spent about $20 on that and $20 on the hand made ribbon flower I wore in my hair.”

Hair/Makeup: $200 “For the makeup, I went to Sephora and had a professional show me what to do for free and then dropped $200 on the makeup to do it. Some would say that was a lot of money, but I’d say now I get to look good every day. If my make lasts 6 months, I’ve only paid a little over a dollar a day, and the Laura Mercier stuff I bought was well worth it.”

Groom’s Attire & Accessories: $500 “Matt didn’t have a suit, so we went to Men’s Warehouse and bought him a dark grey suit that came with 2 pairs of pants. He wore the suit about 3 times before the wedding and since has been a great investment.”  $200 of that for the fur felted hat he wore. “Kind of a splurge, but Matt actually wears a hat every day, so we felt it was a good.”

Transportation: $65 for ferry ride

Flowers: $200 Meg did all of the flowers herself.

Other décor: $0 “I didn’t do any décor, and it worked out great. I picked a beautiful place to get married in, and there wasn’t a need for anything else.”

Cake: $65 “…best cake I’ve ever had. It was carrot with cream cheese frosting, and the local baker decorated it with a fondant ribbon and gum past orchid. I told her to surprise me, and it worked out great.”

Miscellaneous: $500 “We stayed at the resort and paid about $500 for two nights in the off season! We had a king bed, and the room was furnished with antiques. A lot of the pictures are in the room. We also had a claw foot tub that was great to use in the morning before the big day. The balcony looking over the water had a breath taking view – total bargain!”

DAY OF GRAND TOTAL: $2685 (not including photography)

OTHER COSTS

Wedding Bands: $2000

FINAL GRAND TOTAL: $4685

Thank you so much for sharing Meg! Congratulations to you and Matt- wishing you all the best and endless happiness!

Advice from the bride:

Best cost-saving advice: Be flexible. Let a wedding image come together to fit the situation. We didn’t intend for our vintage inspired wedding, but it just worked out with the location and the clothes we wanted to wear.

If you can splurge, do it here: Photography. We worked out a separate deal for our photography, which included a travel fee. It was by far the biggest splurge, but I wouldn’t change a think. Jenny is professional and an EXCELLENT and Talented artist. Ya, I had the vision, but it would have only lasted a day if it weren’t for her skills in capturing that vision and really bringing it to life.

Don’t bother with: Expensive cakes, fancy food and drink. No one remembers this stuff after it’s gone. Spend on things that will improve YOUR experience. It’s your wedding, and five years later, you’re the only one who’s going to remember and still going to care. Sure, not everyone can make their own wedding dress, but there’s got to be something that you’re good at that will add to the day and you should take total advantage.

Other Advice: Go online. I also bought flower girls dresses for my nieces for $25 a piece and they look adorable. I bought a couple of paper parasols for about $20 that they carried and they looked great. Do your own flowers. I practiced for months before hand, and I love how they turned out. You might not be a florist, hair stylist, or makeup artist, but with a little practice you might be! Oh, and lots and lots of wedding porn! (hey get your mind out of the gutter!) I’m talking about pictures of other peoples wedding ideas. I’m not very good at coming up with ideas on my own, but I’m good at re-creating what others did. They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, and I’d have to agree!

I get so excited when I stumble upon a beautiful wedding! And this one is extra special. It’s a vintage inspired elopement! Okay…not exactly, but you’ll understand why I called it that as you read further. The super talented photographer behind the lense is Jenny Jimenez, based out of Seattle. She’s gotta ton of goodies on her blog, but I fell in love with this one right away. This doesn’t come along everyday- how romantic is this? Take a look at this stylish couple.

Oh and it gets better. The bride MADE her dress, veil, lace jacket, and put together all of the little details for this affair. Super multi-talented! Here’s what Meg had to say about her wedding:

“We decided to elope for cost reasons, AND equally important location. I wanted to get married in a fabulous location. Something that inspired me and my husband to be. The San Juan islands was the logical choice being that we live in the Northwest (Seattle). I called around to a ton of places. I noticed that a lot of the resorts and b&b’s had elopment deals, and so I decided to focus my efforts there.”

“Ultimately I ended up calling Roche Harbor Resort. They don’t have an elopement deal, but I told them that I wanted to have my wedding there and that I was wondering if they could compete with some of their competiters by putting together an elopement package that would fit my budget. I told them I wanted to spend $1000 and I wanted to take as many pictures as I wanted on their grounds. They said they could give me an officient, 2 nights stay, and $200 site fee, which came out to $1000. I took it! Elopement at Roche Harbor was the second best decision I ever made, the first being to marry my husband!”

“I made the dress, my veil, arranged the flowers (bouquet, boutonnieres, etc.), arranged the day.   I’ve been sewing for fun since a kid. My real expertise is couch covers.  My dress is actually a custom made corset, skirt and lace jacket. I took a corset making class with a friend a couple years back. The class cost me $45 and about $50 dollars in supplies. I made a beautiful corset at the time, and then altered the pattern to make a corset for the wedding. I HIGHLY recogmend doing this if you can. Similar corsets sell online for $500 – no joke, these are the real deal with 1/2″ steel bones.”

I love the groom’s hat and it just so happened to be the bride’s favorite detail of the day!

Meg was kind enough to share her budget information with us, so we’ll have more from this wedding in a bit!

I was so excited when Katie from this post told me she would share her budget with me. And I was even more excited when I saw that it was a $10,000 budget! I love this wedding!

Couple: Katie & Matt

Wedding Date: 10-11-2008 (what a great day that must have been, cuz it’s my birthday!)

Number of Guests: 86

Initial Budget: $10,000

Ceremony & Reception Site Fee: $762 – “We had our ceremony and reception at the same place so this is for the ceremony site as well as the reception hall. This saved us a good bit of money and also made it easier since we had quite a few out of town guests.” Price also included chairs and tables.

Officiant: $0 – Matt’s family friend officiated.

Catering/food: $2,454 total (about $24 per person, they estimated 100 people), $250 beer/wine

Rentals: $850 ($600 for linens, $250 plates, glasses, silverware)

Bridal Gown & Alterations: $450 “I purchased a really lovely bridesmaid dress. It was simple but that, again, saved a ton.”

Bridal Accessories: $90

Hair/Makeup: $150 ($90 for the bride, $60 for mom and maid of honor)

Groom’s Attire & Accessories: $180

Groomsmen Attire: $140 for ties and pocket squares

Paper: $250 all paper was DIY including my menus, invitations, save the dates, comment/escort cards

Transportation: $50

Photographer: $2,080

Videographer: $0

Ceremony Music: $0

Reception Music: $0 “we downloaded songs onto our mp3 players”

Flowers: $175

Other décor: $400 paper lanterns, skeleton keys, glass pieces from thrift stores, candles

Favors: $0 “we didn’t do favors but some of our guests took our table numbers and the keys attached to their escort cards home with them which was actually really sweet.”

Cake: $270

Wedding Planner: $0

Gifts: $280

Day of Grand Total: $8,831

Rehearsal Dinner/Day after brunch: $500 for casual rehearsal dinner at Matt’s parents’ house.

Honeymoon: $500 “we are so lucky –a family member contributed a beach house for use for our honeymoon as a wedding gift”

Wedding Bands: $400

FINAL GRAND TOTAL: $10,231

I am so grateful to my brides from this week that were willing to share. Thank you Katie! Your day was truly gorgeous and obviously a reflection of you and your husband!

Advice from the bride:

Best cost-saving advice: One of the things that saved us the most was finding a good deal on the site that we used for both reception and ceremony. We looked with the local parks department and found a bunch of duds and one beautiful site that was a fraction of what we would have paid for a private venue. It was really worth looking a little harder for our site. I would also say for any DIY brides, to calculate the cost of doing it yourself vs. paying someone to do it and make sure it’s actually worth doing yourself. Buying decorations and DIY items gradually also helped us spread out a lot of the cost. We were also really fortunate to have friends and family who offered different things to help us (a family friend cooked our rehearsal dinner, for example) and not only did it save us money, it added a really special touch to our day.

If you can splurge, do it here: I’d say that’s a personal decision. Matt and I followed the old advice about picking 2 things that are most important to you (in our case food and photography) and prioritize that in your budget. We ended up very happy with how we spent our money.

Don’t bother with: Anything that is not important to you. Do not stress about something that barely matters to you because chances are, most of your guests won’t even notice – your friends and family are just happy to be there to celebrate with you.

Other Advice: Work with vendors that you trust and if you can minimize the number of vendors that you have by letting one vendor take over several tasks, then that is less headache for you! Our vendors were amazing and the way they handled our event totally made our day extra super special. Most importantly I would say – have fun.  When it’s all said and done, it is your special day and you are the one that will remember it most so have the best time of your life and don’t stress about small things. Things are going to go wrong, that’s just the way it is but it’s up to you how much it affects your day.

Photos by Whitney Elizabeth Photography

Charise and Larry were married at a mansion-turned- teahouse in Tennessee. Their wedding was full of vibrant, cheery colors and a ton of DIY and personal touches from the bride. There’s also a yummy homemade cookie buffet to drool over!

Wedding Date: 6/20/08

Location: Franklin, Tennessee

Number of Guests: 60

Initial Budget: $8,000

Ceremony/Reception: $5221.40 (included 4 hours from 7pm to 12 am, separate bride’s and groom’s quarters, use of the entire facility, servers, cake-cutting service, wine pouring, clean-up) (Food was $28/pp)

Officiant: $0 Larry’s mother is a minister and performed the ceremony

Bridal Gown & Alterations: $150.00

Bridal Accessories: $100 included shoes, veil, crinny, jewelry

Hair/Makeup: $100 for Charise’s hair, make-up was done by her sister

Groom’s Attire & Accessories: $163.87

Paper: $0.00 Invites were done by Charise’s coworker’s daughter who was starting her design business and needed practice.

Charise’s friend owns a small printing shop and did ALL of my paper products as his gift. Charise did the design work, menu cards, signs and the cutting and assembly for the fan programs.

Transportation: $0.00 Charise’s sister’s car was used.

Photographer: $350 (included 8 hours, CD of all images and copyright release)  ”While my photographer touched up many of the photos, I touched up and put effects on most of them myself.  I just searched the internet for tutorials and practiced until I got what I was looking for.”

Videographer: $400.00

Ceremony Music: $0.00 Charise’s brother-in-law played the music and sang at the ceremony.

Reception Music: $0.00 Charise and Larry used their iPod.  ”Everybody was so interested in having a good time, nobody noticed it was an iPod.”

Flowers: $250.00 Flowers purchased from www.globalrose.com, www.flowerexchange.com, and a local wholesale florist.  Charise made 2 bouquets, 2 bouts, and 10 centerpieces.

Other décor: $397.76 All of the décor for the ceremony and reception.  ”I bought EVERYTHING either on clearance or on sale.  EVERYTHING….”

Favors: $72.00 Homemade cookie buffet with takeout boxes from www.papermart.com

Cake: $503.50 wedding cake and groom’s cake

Wedding Planner: Included with the cost for the venue (DOC).

Gifts: $100.00 Gift bags of Charise’s homemade soap.

Miscellaneous: $187.29 24 bottles of wine from a local winery for the wine tasting. “They offered a 20% case discount for any wine.  We mixed the cases.”

TOTAL COST: $7,745.82

Other Costs:

Rehearsal Dinner/Day after brunch: $0 Rehearsal was the morning of the wedding.

Honeymoon: $0

Wedding Bands: $350.00 for the groom’s, Charise’s came with her engagement ring.

TOTAL: $8,095.82

Thank you so much Charise for sharing your budget! I’ll leave you with some of her advice.

Advice from the bride:

Best cost-saving advice: Have your ceremony and reception in the same location and/or on an “off day”.  This saved on cost and transportation.   Have your wedding in a location that doesn’t need much decorating.

If you can splurge, do it here:  Location.  In my opinion, guests tend to remember THEIR experience at your wedding.  If the location, food, and ambiance is set to take them to a “certain place” and makes them feel good, the bride can almost walk out in a gunny sack and it wouldn’t matter (of course I exaggerate…).

Don’t bother with:  For the budget bride, don’t bother with having an open bar.  I had a “wine tasting” at our reception, so it steered people’s minds away from the open bar.  We had each type of wine (2 reds and 2 whites) on a separate table with a sign explaining the wine and its characteristics at each table.  We got so many compliments from people who had never been to a wedding featuring a wine tasting.  Little did they know we were psyching them out trying to save some cash…

Other Advice:

If you’re on a budget, think outside of the box.  If a florist isn’t in your budget, don’t pass up the idea of DIYing fresh flowers using online vendors.  Just practice a couple of times before you actually do them, and stick to really simple, hearty flowers that will be next to impossible to kill (roses and gerber daisies work well here).  DIY as much as possible, and try not to rent anything if at all possible.  On the flip side, if you know you’re not crafty, don’t try to DIY things that you really know you won’t be able to pull off.  Redos can cost as much or more than buying already made.

Get on mailing lists for coupons for places like Joann’s and Michael’s.  I did major damage with all of the 40% off coupons I used.  And don’t forget about Vista Prints.  They have so many free or next to free products.  You can get lots of your paper products done through them…CHEAPLY…

Ask your vendors if they have discounts or are having sales.  I got discounts with all of my vendors this way.  Be honest with your vendors about your budget (if you’re a budget bride), and ask for suggestions for cost savings.  Asking helped me weed people out.  Those that were firm with their numbers and had nothing to offer with suggestions, got nixed off my list…made my job THAT much easier.  Those that were willing to help me got my business.  It made it appear that they wanted my business and cared about the product/service they offered.