One of my readers asked for some inspiration for an orange & brown wedding…here’s what came to mind…

photo credits: tags (Jessica Johnston via Once Wed), rustic flowers (Saipua via FFFOUND), groomsmen (Benjamin Dell via Once Wed), table (Karen Mordechai),butterfly garland (Panda with Cookies Etsy shop), ranunculus (FFFFOUND), dress (artgranted etsy shop), food (Chewing the Cud via Style Me Pretty)

event by EverAfter Events

so many more gorgeous images from this wedding. I love Stephanie Williams! Click below for more.

The first thing that caught my eye in this wedding was the color choice- I love how the pink and orange pop against the chocolate brown! Janae was such a beautiful bride- I was beyond ecstatic when she agreed to share her budget breakdown for the blog! Thanks Janae!!!

Couple: Matt and Jenae
Wedding Date: August 29, 2008
Number of Guests: 75
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Initial Budget: $29,000

Wedding Day Costs

Ceremony: $950 Rental of the Plaza Del Sol at the Fess Parker Doubletree Resort

Officiant:  $0 Our good friend doubled as groomsman and officiant.  We wrote our ceremony ourselves and printed it into a leather journal for him to read from.  We loved how personal it was to have someone so close to us perform the ceremony and loved adding in personal touches to the ceremony.

Reception: $2,500 Rental of the Plaza Del Sol  (included, cocktail hour at Rotunda, chairs, basic linens, and tables)

Catering/food: $92 per person – $12,000 food minimum.

Rentals: $1,000 Chocolate brown patio chairs, linens, and napkins from Ventura Party Rentals.

Bridal Gown & Alterations: $500 (Mori Lee’s destination bridal line) Alterations were another $100 for it to be taken in and bustled.

Bridal Accessories:  $150 I purchased my necklace, bracelet, and earrings from Target.  For all three items,  it was around $60.  I bought silver metallic wedges from Charlotte Russe for $25 and my veil from David’s Bridal for $20.  I also got a vintage Monet brooch that doubled as a locket (it featured pictures of my late grandfather and my husband’s late grandmother) that I wore on my sash for $40.  We made both of my garters for $5.

Hair/Makeup:  $406

Groom’s Attire & Accessories: $150

Groomsmen Attire:  $150 “We purchased colored dress shirts and ties from Kohls for $30 per set.”

Paper: $300 Jenae designed, printed, cut, and assembled all of the paper elements.

Transportation: $0 We opted not to have any special transportation.

Photographer:$4,000 for 9 hours of coverage, 900 4×6 prints, online viewing/ordering, and a leather bound coffee table album.

Videographer: $2,700 Our videographer was Gina Jones with Lola Video. Included 3 DVD copies as well as all of our raw footage.  We love our wedding video and I can’t imagine not having such a beautiful video of our big day!

Ceremony Music: $400 Ceremony music was provided by award winning Spanish guitarist, Anthony Ybarra.  He provided ceremony and cocktail hour music.

Reception Music:  $200 We opted to do an Itunes reception.  We used our own laptop and rented a speaker system through the hotel for $200.

Flowers: $3,700 Our flowers were done by Juniper Designs.  We had 12 tall centerpieces for the reception that also lined the aisle for the ceremony, 2 large urns filled with flowers, 7 small sprays of flowers for the long and sweetheart tables, flowers for the cake,  8 bouts for groom/groomsmen/fathers, 8 bouquets for the bride and bridesmaids, and 4 corsages for the mothers and grandmothers.

Favors: $200 We decided to have a candy buffet to serve as favors for our guests.  We bought all of the glassware and candy at a total of $200.  The table featured 31 different kinds of candy.  It was a huge hit!

Wedding Planner: $750 for day of coordinator

Other décor: $525 Our ceremony columns, “alter”, urns, and sand ceremony items were bought on sale for $250. A wrought iron 2 tiered basket for cards, 6 DIY manzanita branch arrangements were made for $100, and 8 shell and orchid centerpieces were made for $50. The frame and easel for the seating chart was $50. Our cake topper was $25. I embellished clear votives from Michael’s for all of the tables for $100.

Gifts: $200 Our groomsmen and fathers received a hand engraved  glass beer mug featuring their initials, a bottle of hot sauce (groom loves spicy food ad is from the south), their ties/dress shirts, and custom made wedding party t-shirts that were designed by the bride and groom.  The bridesmaids and mothers received hand engraved martini glasses that the bride made, custom made bridal party tanks that were designed by the bride, their jewelry, sashes, and initial pins to pin on their bouquets.

Miscellaneous:  A free night stay in an ocean view room was included for the night of the wedding but we decided to upgrade to a suite for a total cost of $125.

DAY OF GRAND TOTAL:  $30,946

OTHER COSTS

Rehearsal Dinner/Day after brunch: Our rehearsal dinner and post-wedding brunch were also factored into the food minimum for our wedding.  We were hoping to have around 135 guests at our wedding but when our guest list dropped to about 75 guests, our catering manager arranged for us to have the rehearsal dinner and post-wedding brunch included into the minimum so that we could reach it.  It worked out so well!

Honeymoon: $500 We spent another night at the Fess Parker Doubletree and then went to my grandparent’s condo in Carpinteria for almost 2 weeks.

Wedding Bands: $400

FINAL GRAND TOTAL:  $31,846

Congratulations Matt and Janae!!

From the bride….

Best cost-saving advice: Buy things on sale as much as you can.  Also buy things for your wedding that you think you might be able to use again.  All of the glassware that I bought for my candy buffet is used in my home.  The chargers that I purchased on sale, I rent out to other brides and use for my other events.  The ceremony columns, “alter”, and large urns were all purchased on sale at Target and now serve as furniture in our home and backyard.  With every purchase we made, we tried to find way to use it again.

If you can splurge, do it here:  Videography!!!  So many brides seem to cut videography from their budgets or skimp on it.  Pictures are wonderful but a video brings everything to life…it captures the look of your wedding day, what was said, the emotion…and everything in between.  With everything being so rushed and busy on your big day, videos are a great way to be able to re-live it!  One of the best decisions that we ever made was to book Lola Video.  Because of Gina, we have a beautiful video of our wedding that we’ll watch over ad over again.

Don’t bother with:  Favors that you’re guests won’t really enjoy.  I’ve been to so many weddings were the bride and groom had invested money into favors that were left behind by the wedding guests simply because the wedding guests didn’t like them or didn’t see a use for them.  Remember that even the cheapest favors are a waste of money if they are never used/eaten.

Other Advice: Start planning as far in advance as you can.  My husband and I opted for a 2 year engagement and I got to planning right away.  This enabled me to DIY a lot of the stuff for the wedding and pre-wedding festivities.  It also helped me with searching for things and waiting for them to go on sale.  Because I had two years to plan, I was able to purchase things during holiday sales and was able to find different things that matched our colors during the different seasons/holidays.  With stretching everything out, wedding planning was mostly fun for me and didn’t become overwhelming or stressful until the very end of it.

Photographer Credit: Jessica Lewis Photography

This board has Shari written all over it- it is totally me! Hope you like it too.

photo credits: book (housemartin via fffound), ranunculus invite (pink lily press on etsy), orange macaroons (vi.sualize.us),dress (Sarah Seven on etsy) floral gown (martha stewart), flowers (James Abel Events via Style Me Pretty), lanterns (Design*sponge via Party perfect), blue flower veil (Twigs & Honey on etsy), program (Darling Dexter via Once Wed)

Dont forget to enter our giveaway with WristieLove! Just visit the shop and leave a comment telling your favorite item here!

I’m so in love with navy blue in weddings right now. Often, it’s paired with pink or yellow, but what about orange?

Wooden accents would be a nice complement to this palette- I see lot’s of rustic details. Side note: how good does that cupcake look?

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photo credits: flower (Saipua via ffffound), accessory (Millie Holloman), Mel Barlow, blueberry favors (Alison Rosa viaBrides.com), shoes (unknown),tux (Ming Ho Photography via theknot),  tree (Ecletic Images via theknot), cuppcake (Whiskie Bits Bakeshop via fffound), ticket (Stephanie Colgan Photography via theknot)