Hi everyone! I’m trying to back in the swing of things- and look what I found! Loving these boutonnieres from Pomp and Plumage on Etsy. Affordable and cute!

I know I’ve been on a rustic kick lately…but these images just went together so well! I’ll be sure to do an elegant ballroom type of board next week! Enjoy .

Photo Credits: napkin (Jewelweeds on etsy), birch vases (Rain On Sundays etsy shop), bridesmaids (Bethalee Photography via Once Wed), stones (Sakura Photography), boutonniere (Benjamin Dell via Once Wed),  apples (lindawoods on etsy), escort card (Millie Holloman)

Red doesn’t really rank up there as one of my favorite colors, but I am really feeling this inspiration board. This wedding combines a deeper, muted red color with weathered wood details. I kept the browns as the main color and just used touches of red so they really stood out. It’s got a tiny bit of a country vibe, but I don’t picture cowboy boots and horseshoes at this wedding. Ok…maybe a cowboy hat- but that’s it.

I’ll be back later with this week’s Pretty Picture.

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Shoes (Once Wed), flowers (Debra McClinton via Country Living), grub (Once Wed), birdhouse (BCJ Creations on etsy), ice cream (fffound), hat (post road vintage on etsy), chapel sign (Tanja Lippert), boxes (the broken house on etsy), invite (Darling Dexter via Elizabeth Anne Designs), tags (Country By the Bumpkins on etsy).

Lauren and Patrick were married late last year in Colorado. The chocolate brown details of this wedding are beautiful. At the top of my list of favorite details are the pine cones, the brides layered dress, and their cake!

First Names: Lauren & Patrick
Wedding Date: October 18, 2008
Number of Guests: 95
Initial Budget: $10,000

Wedding Day Costs

Ceremony & Reception:  $2250 “We found an amazing location that was managed by the City of Denver. Because it wasn’t a privately owned property we were able to save quite a bit of money. The ceremony and reception were both held on site. The ceremony was outside on the patio and the reception was inside as the sun went down and the temps dropped.”

Officiant: $0 “In Colorado anyone can perform a marriage ceremony and the bride and groom marry themselves when the Marriage Certificate is signed. My Aunt performed the lovliest most heartfelt ceremony. It was personalized and had lots of laughs and tears.”

Catering/food: $50 per person, this included all tablecloths, napkins, flatware and glassware for tables and the bar. We served family style Italian so our guests could interact at the tables.

Rentals: $300 (wooden chairs)

Bridal Gown & Alterations: $900 After a whirlwind trip to visit my mom, I found the dress (Maggie Sottero: Evita) and was lucky enough to have hit a sale. It was 20% off. Not many alterations were needed.

Bridal Accessories: $50 “I bought my veil from OccanseyDesigns.com for $35 and my earrings were $15 from etsy.”

Hair/Makeup:
Makeup: $50 After three mishaps with make up artists I just decided to go the the MAC counter at Nordstrom after we had our hair done. MAC requires customers to spend a minimum of $50 in product for a makeover. I ended up with gorgeous makeup and lipstick, gloss and eyelashes.
Hair: $75

Groom’s Attire & Accessories: $125 “We bought Patrick’s suit at K&G Warehouse for $75 and found his tie at Nordstrom Rack for only $25. He bought a new white shirt and wore shoes he already had. Not only did he look great, but he also has a great black suit to wear now.”

Bridesmaids Attire: $600 “I bought the Bridesmaid dresses (Watters and Watters Style# 1581) from Netbride.com. They were my gift to the Bridesmaids.”

Groomsmen Attire: $300 “We bought the Groomsmen the same suits from K&G and they supplied their own white shirt and shoes. I found the different green ties at TJ Maxx.”

Paper: $150 Lauren has a design degree and designed her paper products.

Transportation: $0 “We originally wanted to rent a limo but it just didn’t fit into the budget. My sister drove all of the bridesmaids and myself to the ceremony and I ended up driving Patrick and I back to our hotel. In the end it was fun to just be in the car alone and we didn’t really miss having a driver.”

Photographer: $1000 “We were really lucky to find such a talented photographer at such an amazing price. Pictures were very important to me but we couldn’t afford to hire the big name photographers in our area. Luckily Sara Lazio was new to Denver and still building her portfolio. We didn’t do engagement pictures or an album. Our package included eight hours of shooting and all of the digital negatives. We were able to create our own album.”

Videographer: $725

Ceremony Music: $200 “We hired a bagpiper to play all of the ceremony music. Patrick’s family is Irish so it was fun to celebrate their heritage.”

Reception Music: $0 “Our good friend is an amazing vocalist and performed a few songs during the reception. We loaded up our iPod and used the speakers built into the lodge for our reception music. It worked great and saved lots of money.”

Flowers: $500 “I have been a florist for years so I was able to buy all of the flowers at wholesale prices. I invited the Bridesmaids to learn and design with me. They created the centerpieces with my supervision and I did everything else.”

Favors: $0 Lauren & Patrick did not have favors.

Cake: $300 (a traditional cake with three different flavors and the Groom’s cake with the snowboarders)

Wedding Planner: $0

DAY OF GRAND TOTAL: $11,500

Thank you, Lauren, for sending over your budget breakdown! You can view Lauren’s complete married bio, here for more pictures.

Photo credit: Sara Lazio Photography

Advice from Lauren _________________________________________________________________

Best cost-saving advice: Decide on your vision early on in planning. Don’t change your mind. This will save you so much work and money. I knew what I wanted and had an entire year to find it and put it together. I was able to buy things 12 months out and didn’t have huge expenses all at once.

Do it yourself. Everything if you can. It means so much more when you have put blood, sweat and tears into it. If you can’t do it yourself, ask someone to help. People love weddings, well most do. I have never had so many offers for help. I had by bridesmaids over to help with flowers and while they weren’t the best floral designers we certainly had fun working on all the flowers together. When they walked in the room and saw the final vision all put together they were proud of their work to.

Leave out the things no one cares about. I wanted to make menus for every seat, I wanted to have favors for every person, we wanted to have a limo. After my Husband lost his job and I lost my second part time job, we had to really look at what was important. Those things weren’t and no one missed them. I love that my little sister drove two of us to the ceremony and we were speeding so we wouldn’t be late. It was one last moment of madness before the ceremony.  We had a blast driving our own car back to the B&B afer the reception. We saved ourselves lots of $$ by just leaving it all out.

If you can splurge, do it here: Photographer: You will look at your pictures for the rest of your life. Your wedding pictures will capture all of the emotion and the beauty of the day forever. It breaks my heart when I hear past Brides say they hate their wedding pictures. Do your research and let your photographer know what you are looking for.

Don’t bother with: Favors or a limo. Guests don’t want things around their house with your wedding date on it. If you do plan on favors give something that is edible or not plastered with your names.

Other Advice: Relax, not everything will be perfect. It shouldn’t be, perfect isn’t normal and what good stories come out of it if everything goes flawlessly. I was so sick. I had to make the best of the day, I had one day. While I had spent countless years planning my perfect wedding, it happened and frankly I felt awful. It was still a beautiful day.

Get a day of wedding coordinator!!! There are so many little details that go into the entire day. The last thing you want to do is worry about all of them while you are getting your hair done and trying to enjoy the moment.
Let go! Let go of all the stress and worry on your wedding day. You have spent so much time planning and looking forward to this day and believe me, stressing about it on the day of is just a waste of your energy. I didn’t let go until the impromptu dance in the middle of our tables. After I finally realized and calmed down I regretted all the time I wasted worrying about every little thing.