Dress Shopping on a budget

     I have what I thought would be a AMAZING dress budget! Well that was until I started dress shopping. I never thought that so many dresses were thousands of dollars. And of course I love looking at those dresses and falling in love with them even though they are so far out of budget.
    There is some amazing and affordable dresses at Davids bridal and Alfred Angelo. And yes I have been to Davids bridal and tried on dresses before But I have not been able to go to Alfred Angelo yet But it is on my list of stores to go to!
    But I am pretty sure I am going to fall in love with a dress that is so far out of budget I couldn't make it work even if I wanted to Like this Martina Liana style number 260.
   But luckily I know if I find a dress that I could not imagine wearing anything else for the wedding I could always find it used on a pre-owned wedding dress site. Here is a list of a few I found with a  quick google search

• Preowned Wedding Dresses
• Once Wed
• Bravo Bride
  
• Recycled Bride

    And I'm sure that those are not the only ones. But it is a good start! So when I am trying on wedding dresses when I am asked what my wedding dress budget is I might fib a little bit... Because if I find a dress that I am in love with I can just search the preowned wedding dress sites until I find the dress I need! Plus when buying Preowned you don't have a 6 month wait, 9 times out of 10 they already have a bustle and one of the best reasons would be the price difference! You only wear your wedding dress for a few hours anyways right?

Bridesmaids Dresses

From TheKnot.com

    I love the look of mismatched bridesmaids dresses. Not only do I like the look of it I also like how easy it is. All you have to do is say Get a Pink bridesmaids dress. Easy as that! No one mad because they don't look good in the dress. Or complaining the dress is out of budget. They get to choose their own dress! You can pull the look together by matching jewelry or shoes. And that would make a great bridesmaids gift! Sounds perfect doesn't it...
    But "Huston we have problem" I am not the only one planning this wedding. Juan has a say in the wedding too. And if you cant already tell what I am about to say Ill just put it out for you. Juan says "NO MISMATCHED BRIDESMAIDS DRESSES"

wedfully.com

    I almost feel like saying you don't like my idea then you pick a dress that looks good on all 5 bridesmaids, For around 100 dollars that I can just veto your idea if I don't like the dress. But luckily I found a dress that all of the bridesmaids agree on. For under 100 dollars AND Juan and I have come to a decision. All of the girls will wear the same dress but just in different colors. So instead of the picture already posted I will have something like this.

     So what is this magic bridesmaids dress that will look good on 5 different bridesmaids you ask. Well It is from David's Bridal It is the Cotton Sateen Strapless dress with Ruching And it Even has pockets! It is Style # 83312. It looks great on everyone. It is under 100 dollars and I in a a round about way still get my mismatched bridesmaids!
    Now I still have to find a dress for me... I should really get on that...

Flowers

    Yes I know I have not been posting on my blog... Shame on me. Things have just been so crazy that I kinda forgot about my blog... Sorry...
   So I decided to price my flowers for the centerpieces the other day and ended up with a HUGE SHOCK! I was planning on using Hydrangea in with the Gerber daisies as a filler thinking it would help save money. I was wrong with the price of Gerberas  being so good I would end up spending even more! So I found out that I the thing I was trying to do to save money would end up costing A LOT more in the long run.
   While I was looking at flower prices and trying to figure out what number to budget for flowers I figured out that I do not need 2 vases of flowers on each table just 1 vase and our table number would be good for a centerpiece if I add some tea lights! (and I just started selling party lite so I can get a really good deal on tea lights!) So I basically cut the flower price by more than I could even imagine! And I have a admit I am VERY happy about that!

    And I found the perfect table numbers to go with my new centerpiece idea! These wooden heart table numbers from Lilson on Etsy! How cute are they? And yes that is a chalk board square so I can choose to do table numbers or letters or names and I could change my mind 100 times and It still wouldn't matter! Oh and on the Wedding party table I can have them say Mr & Mrs! I love it!
    I change my mind a lot so its a good option to have! I love the little bows on them but not sure if I would keep them or change it to a fun bright colored bow. Either way I really like them and I am excited that I found them!

intimateweddings.com

    So you might be asking how I am planning on using this table number. Well I first thought I was going to have to figure out how to add a base to these. Then Juan gave me a great idea we are only having on vase (well really its a mason jar) So we can just add some rocks to the bottom of the mason jar to keep it steady and just put it in with the flowers! What do you think? A mason jar of flowers Like the one pictured With a few rocks on the bottom with one of the tables number sticking out. Do you think It would look good? Or what would you change to make it look better?
    Oh and the mason jars will not be hanging its just the best picture I could find!
But thank you for reading my blog and don't be afraid to comment!

I found the almost perfect venue!

   So when looking around for different venues I found the cutest little Chapel! Fi wanted to get married in a church and this is the closest we are going to get! It fits in the budget it is adorable and has a outdoor area where we can have the reception!
   So now the only part of this venue that doesn't work is that it only fits 125 guests. Our guest list is at 200 So to have this venue be a possibility I would have to do a lot of cutting to our guest list. Its worth a shot to see how many people we can cut right? Now you have to be wondering how could a venue be so great that I am willing to cut our guest list almost in half? See for yourself.

All pictures from http://www.canbyweddingchapel.com

    Would you be willing to cut your guest list for the almost perfect venue?

A change of venue... (Warning Pic Heavy post!)

    I was so excited about my back yard garden wedding but sadly that is not going to be happening anymore. In order to be able to do that we would have to cut our guest list down from 200 to 120 people that is 80 people! So here I am on the hunt once again for a wedding venue.
    We could use Historic Deepwood Estate it is so pretty and manageable on the budget (if we have the wedding on a Friday or a Sunday)! We can use the vendors that we want to, There is a onsite tent that we can use for a lot cheaper than I could get from any rental company, AND there is enough space for ALL of our guests! But because it is a "city park" There would be No Liquor allowed and we would have to get the permit for the beer and wine to be allowed to be served, And if it is hot all of my guests will be hot too and I will be dying in a big white dress.  LOTS of pictures below!

     Another Idea that was brought up to me was doing a Bowling Alley Reception! How fun would that be? They would take care of food (No stress of finding another vendor) They have a full bar! We wouldn't have to get a DJ because they already have music and a sound system! They are remodeling before the wedding so the place will look even nicer than it would now! AND my mom and grandma both work there. I should be able to get some sort of discount right? I have only been there on and off my whole life and the owners have seen me grow up. Well its worth asking right Now there are the awesome pictures that I got Last night from the wonderful ladies on Wedding Bee!

Finally a VERY ROUGH Inspiration board!

    So I finally put together a inspiration board! it is Very rough and doesn't even have all of my colors on but I did a little one with paint and here it is! The pictures are from random sites from Davids bridal to the knot to random pictures I found on Google! 

    I had A LOT of fun coming up with ideas for the wedding and if you cant tell by the pictures I am planning a Outdoor, Fun, Summery, Bright wedding. 

    I'm hoping to put together another board with all my colors and a more complete look! Ill practice a little more and I hope to post a better one soon!

SMILE your on candid camera!

So one of the big wedding trends are Photo Booths. I love them think they are so fun and they double as a favor! The only problem is they are not always very budget friendly...  I figured If decide to spend that much on a strip of photos why not just upgrade and do Flip books? Have you ever seen them? They are AMAZING! 7 seconds of your life in a flip book! Check them out at www.fliptography.net
So I really want to have the flip books at the wedding and now I just hope I can find some wiggle room in the budget to make them happen.
Is there anything that you would want to squish in your budget?

Food for thought...

rd.com

   So Food has been the biggest drama starter for wedding planning. Juan and I have narrowed down our choices to either BBQ or A taco bar! Both foods are not very "traditional" wedding food.
   But I personally would LOVE to have BBQ and even better they can do the Snow Cones that I so badly want! So not only could I have one of my favorite types of food for the wedding We wouldn't have to rent a snow cone machine and buy all of the syrups and cups and chance having way too much or *Gasp* not enough.
    Now why would food be a drama starter your wondering? Well My grandma thinks that we should do a pot luck reception. And yes that would be great and a real money saver but could you imagine make enough potato salad for 175 guests? I know there is no way I would want to ask anyone to make that much food!


cafepress.com

     Now a few other family members think that BBQ is not a good idea. Why you ask well because of the mess... But my Bridal party LOVES the idea! One even told me she would make me a BRIDE BIB (I can be a little messy at times... well most the time) It would be funny and I think would make a great photo op IF we can get the whole wedding party to put one on! But I don't think mine would look like the one pictured. I would want one in our wedding colors :)
    And when looking into prices I have noticed that BBQ from a place that I know will have great food is less than traditional catering and the BBQ includes snow cones and drinks... How could I go wrong with that?
    I think with a little warning and lots of napkins BBQ would be OK. What would you think if you went to a wedding that had BBQ?

A guest book to remember!

I asked my mom about the guest book for her and my dads wedding and She told me she had No idea where it even was... So then next time I saw Juan's Parents I asked them the same question and they didn't know where their guest book was either. I couldn't help but think that I wanted to do something different. So there are a lot of other options out there...

girlywedding.com

The first thing that popped into my head was a finger print tree. Anyone in the wedding world probably knows what I am talking about. You draw/print a picture of a tree on paper then everyone leaves a thumbprint leaf and sign there name to the thumb print! You could also do the Balloon idea (that I love) And then you frame it and hang it on your wall after the wedding. And you get to see your wedding "Guest book" every day! But thinking about it I don't know if as a wedding guest I would want to have ink all over my finger... Yes I know you can use the little wet napkins or other things but I wasn't sure everyone would even use it... So That's when I came up with what I think at least is a great idea!

A wedding guest book BENCH! You take a unfinished wood bench and have everyone sign it with sharpies then after you get back from your honey moon. You put a clear coat on it to protect all of the signatures. You can display it in your home or in your back yard! Either way I know this is what I want to do for our "guest book". To make it even more special we are going to ask one of our grandpas (Both would be very qualified) to make the bench for us (of course we pay for materials) We can choose what colors sharpies we want our guests to use! And I think I even want to use old glass soda bottles with sand at the bottom to put the sharpies in... I have a ton of them and I think it would be really cute!

What do you think of alternative guest books? And even more important (at least to me) what do you think of the guest book bench?

Picture This

OK so I have already admitted that I love Taylor Swift (don't judge me) Well when her video Mine came out I couldn't help but notice the hanging pictures... See picture ---->

 How AMAZING would this be at a wedding? Well I think It would be VERY amazing! And I don't want just random pictures of me and the Mr. Hanging no I want our engagement Pictures AND Friends and Family's wedding pictures! I think it would be sweet.

 I have already told family that I need copies of these so I can make copies and do all the work that will be involved in a pretty easy but time consuming DIY project!

 Oh and my Aunt who I told this idea to said it would be also really cute (and rustic) plus easier to just clothes pin the pictures to the string in rows.

 I still don't know what one to do... What do you think? Hanging pictures or Clothes pined pictures?