Budget Savvy Bride: Amber's Story

You have heard the saying "It takes a village to raise a child"  well I also believe that it takes a village to make a budget wedding.  As an encore bride I have already had the big lavish wedding.  It was beautiful and memorable.  It was also very expensive.  That wedding in 2000 cost about $20,000.  What I learned is that all that money didn't make the marriage any better. 

As a mother of two I knew that it was my responsibility to have a wedding that reflected our coming together as a family, without breaking the bank.  Luckily with the help of a wonderful community of family and friends I have been able to stay on a very tight budget.  Here is how I did it:

The Dress:

Custom Dolly Couture

$690.00

I originally fell in love with a Stephanie James dress.  Her dresses start at $1500 which was well above my budget.  After searching the internet I stumbled upon Dolly Couture and her short dresses.  After a few emails back and forth and a sketch, I was able to create a custom one of a kind dress for under $700.

Groom’s Suit

Pants $34.99

Vest $47.99

Coat $105.00

Shirt $29.99

Tie $14.99

Converse Shoes $29.99

Total: $262.95

We totally lucked out on finding a suit.  We happened to be shopping at Kohl's when we saw the perfect suit on sale for 55% off!  The suit, vest and shirt are all Chaps and then I found the perfect blue converse on ebay for about half of regular retail as well.  All of his attire will be able to be worn later after the wedding as well.

Ringbearer's Suit

Suit $49.95

I found my son's suit at Burlington Coat Factory during their Easter Sale.  It is a Calvin Klien suit.  What a great find.

DIY Flowers

$189.00 for 200 medium sunflowers

$10.00 for 10 vases from the Dollar Store

Notes: I knew from the start that the only flowers I wanted were sunflowers.  With the wedding date in September it was the perfect season.  While reading on WeddingBee I came across many other brides who had done their own flowers and many linked up the the sites they ordered the flowers from.  I have picked the website that has the best prices on sunflowers.  The centerpieces will be arranged in vases I found at the dollar store.  I have even practiced making a hand tied bouquet so that I can do that myself as well.  Here are my inspiration photos:

DIY Dinner

$300-400 estimated

I was not happy with any of the local cateering companies.  None of them had the food that we wanted to serve at a price that fit into our budget.  Instead we have decided to DIY our taco buffet bar.  My father has cooked for large groups for many years.  The meat will be cooked ahead of time the week before the wedding and then warmed up before it is served.  All the extra condiments will be purchased from Sam's Club and prepared by our friends and family on Thursday and Friday. 

Speaking of friends and family, I am SO very blessed to have a wonderful collection of VERY talented friends to help with our wedding. Since these friends have all been confirmed I thought I would share our Friendors as part of my budget savvy planning as well.

Invitations

$0

In town there is a (not so small) scrapbooking store called Mementos. She has expanded a few times since I originally met her in 2004 and it is much more than just a scrapbooking store. The owner, Lisa is a wonderful and VERY creative woman. She is an Envelopments dealer so we will be using their product line. I did some work for Lisa creating her blog so we are bartering some of the price of my invitations. What an awesome deal!

Photography

$600
The 1st time I got married my mom tried to convice me to use this photographer that she met in our hometown in Arizona. At the time I lived in Orange County and wanted "the finer things in life" and we ended up booking with a larger photography company in Southern Arizona and was NOT pleased with the service we paid for. When I moved back to Arizona in 2002 we started having family pictures done by my mom's photographer, Bill Bulter.  Since then he has done a few more family sessions, a grandkid session and has even photographed a few of my kids birthday parties.

Because we are returning customers (and we refer a LOT of people to him) we were able to create the package that we wanted for a price in our budget. He will be with us all day and has even agreed to set up a backdrop, lights and camera for a "faux photobooth" at the reception. We will also get DVD's of the high res images that should be ready when we get back from our Familymoon.

DJ Services

$300

Our DJ services will be provided by a close friend. He has such a great personality and since he really knows us, we are not stressing about music at all. My friend is just starting out and has only done a handful of local weddings. I had the pleasure of seeing them DJ a wedding in March & May and they did a wonderful job.

Officiant

$0

I have known him since I was a teenager and Mr. B is very comfortable with him as well. He was ordained a year or so ago and has only done one other wedding, but I am confident that he will be able to give us the relaxed yet meaningful ceremony we want to have. We will meet more with him in the upcoming months.

Ceremony Music

$100

He is a very talented musician and he and his friend have performed at other ceremonies. I still have to get them a list of music but I am not worried.

Hair & Make Up

$150 - for mine, my daughter & my mom

My friend and long time hair stylist will be doing my hair & make-up for the big day. She is coming to us, since her house is about 30 min from my parent's house.

Wedding Cupcakes

$150 for 3 flavors of cupcakes decorated

After calling all the bakeries in town, and finding none that would supply cupcakes decorated the way I was wanting I found a church friend that could make them.  The above cupcakes are from the trial run she did for us.  The sunflowers are BETTER than the inspiration photos I originally gave her as examples.

Venue

$0

My parent's home!  I am lucky in the fact that my parent's have over an acre of land and live on the outskirts of town.  We have had many parties there in the past.  My parent's 25th anniversary, my dad's 50th birthday and multiple kids birthday and many summer swimming/BBQ parties.  Our guest list of about 100 people will have more than enough room to party, dine and dance.  It definitely helps that there is no venue fee, even though it does mean a few extra things to think about, like rentals.

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