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Best Wedding Table Centerpieces Ideas On A Budget
Thoughts on charcuterie board centerpieces?
We have considered doing a charcuterie board as a centerpiece at each table surrounded by a little bit of greenery, maybe some candles. We will have a pretty extensive cocktail hour and a half so I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this idea. Would you (as a wedding guest) enjoy having additional appetizers on your table when you’re seated?
Since charcuterie could potentially be as expensive as flowers, we could easily reallocate that money to our florist budget. We thought the cutting boards used for the charcuterie could be taken home by someone at the table — similar to giving away flower centerpieces at the end of the night. General thoughts?
Disclaimer: if we go with this idea, the venue staff would wash the cutting boards before the end of the reception. Guests wouldn’t be taking home dirty dishes lol
submitted by haneyme to weddingplanning [link] [comments]
Help? How could I make this hoop centerpiece happen?
So I am NOT a crafty person at all (and have very limited space in my apartment for either crafting or storage, no outdoor space or garage at all, no car). My original plan was to rent fake flowers for centerpieces...everyone hated the idea lol.
My FMIL is craftier and thinks she can make the centerpieces herself as a gift (I would purchase, she would do the labor). She thinks we can do these centerpieces for under 30 per table, but I'm just lost on how we could possibly do it. Would love ANY tips or experience if anyone's done them!
The centerpieces I like look this:
Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 I've found a
relatively affordable hoop on amazon here...I'm not sure if it's possible to find cheaper but would love resources if anyone has them? I am also really unsure HOW we would actually attatch these to a base securely without having to nail them in or something complicated....And then for flowers I've been looking at ling's moment,
a box costs between 24 - 30 dollars but it looks like we'd need a box per centerpiece...so already the budget is kind of blown....
A lot of tutorials seem to use hula hoops but I'm a little wary...first, I can't find cheap hula hoops (like 5 or under per hoop?) anywhere online. Secondly I'm concerned it's too labor intensive for FMIL (stripping them, repainting, etc). And thirdly I'm concerned they are too light and will topple over...
So basically I'm just lost. Would love to hear from some expert DIYers on this whole idea.
submitted by flirtandflutter to DIYweddings [link] [comments]
Budget and Recap! 10/10/2020 West Point, NY downsized but glad we still had a celebration!
First of all Weddit thanks for all the input and help and ideas. It was great to have a place of sanity to go while we were planning this day for the last 2.5 years! Our wedding was incredible and while it wasn't the day we had originally wanted, it was perfect. I am so grateful that we were able to have our closest friends and closest family there. As we navigated our options with postponing we realized that it wasn't really an option for us. Due to my husband's job if we didn't have our celebration in October, it wasn't going to happen until at least fall 2022. We'd already been engaged for 2 years and we were both ready to move on. While postponing is the right option for some couples, we realized that there are a million reasons to celebrate so we wanted to do
something this year and we can throw a huge party with everyone we love for an anniversary, birthday, big life celebration, or just because we want to.
I know that having a wedding at all right now is a controversial topic. I really don't want to have the conversation with anyone about the precautions we took. Among other things, every single person that attended had to have a negative test within 24 hrs. We did not invite friends/family that would have to travel and the one bridesmaid (bff) that did travel came in with us 3 weeks early so that we could all quarantine and test multiple times. We also had ample mask wearing, sanitizer, distancing of all seating, and everything was outside. Post wedding everyone tested again and everyone was negative. I do not want to engage with anyone on if it was the right thing to do. THE BASICS Date: October 10, 2020
Guests: originally planning for 225, ended up with about 50 once we cut the list down. There were a lot of family and friends that weren't invited to our smaller celebration.
Venue: The Historic Thayer Hotel at West Point
Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/DpcLVeX What went not so right: - I super sprained my ankle on the way to the venue on Friday. We were picking up lunch in the town next to the hotel and I stepped of a curb wrong. I ended up with 2 grade 3 (the worst!) ankle sprains on the inside and outside of my ankle, with significant bone bruising. This was determined at my MRI the Tuesday after the wedding. Thanks to the hotel for having a wheelchair for the rehearsal, my physical therapist for being the best and facetiming me literally hours before the rehearsal, my aunt for getting multiple boots for me on her way up, and the most amazing friends I was able to walk down the aisle and overall have an amazing night.
- The flowers. They were all kinds of wrong. No one else would know that but me, but instead of a bouquet with lots of flowers the greenery to flower ratio was completely wrong. The colors were wrong (way more white than burgundy) and overall the flowers were just not what I wanted. When we went for the final she didn't have a mock up done and if I were to do this again I would insist there was a mockup so that I'd know I was getting what I wanted. There were also no cake flowers provided. I would not recommend this florist (PM me if you need details)
- the cake. While it tasted fine and none of our guests knew it was also all kinds of wrong. 4 days before the wedding the owner of the bakery called me and tried to completely change our cake. We were meant to have a full buttercream cake with the bottom tier burgundy ombre and flowers on the cake. This was what we got instead There was fondant and it looked like an episode of "nailed it". Our Maitre'd also said that the overall quality of the cake was terrible (this was their preferred vendor and apparently quality has been declining) and I honestly felt like we were scammed between the tasting and presentation and what we ended up with. I would never recommend anyone get a cake from Sweet Grace bakery in NJ.
- Some key family members weren't able to be there. My husband's aunt and uncle, who was supposed to be our second officiant, couldn't be there due to a medical issue (unrelated to COVID) and he was very much missed. A dear friend was also unable to come be a bridesmaid in the wedding due to the pandemic. She moved abroad and was going to come back to the states, see family and quarantine, but given current restrictions, she was nervous about being able to get back to her home so she wasn't able to be there.
What went right: - literally everything else.
- I walked down the aisle to "Storybook Love" from the princess bride. The ceremony made me cry. My husband's vows were the most romantic and I felt like our ceremony was a perfect blend of us. We are an interfaith couple and we wrote our ceremony with the help of our officiant, my aunt. We used both a reading from the bible and followed many cultural jewish traditions. More than one person told me that they loved how we did a modern secular reading of the seven blessings and we had descriptions of all of the rituals and traditions in our program. If anyone wants a link to the rituals and traditions in a jew-ish wedding i'm happy to pass along.
- Streaming was amazing. We hired someone my mom found (PM for info, he was seriously great) to set up streaming for our ceremony. The stream was high quality, our website worked well, putting the program online and making a virtual guestbook were great touches. It was streamed through youtube live and it was so nice that it auto records so that we could see it right away! I'd recommend kudoboard for anyone that is doing a virtual ceremony. We loved reading all of the notes and I had the board printed to put with our untraditional guestbook
- the food! Omg the food. We had a cocktail hour with individually plated apps, a 5 course dinner, dessert, and a farewell station. Our venue also wrapped up all of the food my husband and I couldn't eat and it was just delicious. Food, photo, and overall vibe were the top things for us and we definitely achieved it.
- photo and video-- i'm obsessed with our photographer, PM me for the details because I didn't ask about posting. Our videographer was also amazing and he actually stuck around for like 20 min after his scheduled end time so he could see us attempt to cut the cake with a sword. I would highly recommend both
- My veil and makeup! My veil was made by the incredible Morgan from Cicada bridal in Seattle and Makeup was perfect. Our makeup artist (PM for details) did a great job of keeping us on a schedule and overall made the morning vibe perfect. She stood up for me when I needed it the day of the wedding as well. Those two things really made me feel like my look came together and my bridesmaids all loved their looks.
- Mismatched bridesmaid dressed. Honestly I'm just obsessed with the burgundy to blush look and i'd do this again in a heartbeat. I am so glad that everyone picked their own dresses. I gave all bridesmaids $100 to get a dress.
- the band! everyone had a great time and they did a really good job reading the room on when it was time to eat vs when some people wanted to dance. They never called everyone to the dance floor and we had an amazing night. Even my aunt who had been beyond a hermit for the last 8 months felt safe during some of the slow songs to dance with my uncle, away from everyone.
BUDGET BREAKDOWN I am doing my best to break down the budget as detailed as possible. We got married in a HCOL area and our original budget reflects the plan for a more traditional Jewish wedding, where parents were allowed to invite friends. It was important to us that everyone was there with us, our whole proverbial community and we knew there would be a premium paid for that. Once we downsized and added streaming I know there were ways to do it for less, but the quality of the virtual experience was important to us. I don't regret for one second what we spent on things, and we could've easily spent more.
I am putting this budget breakdown in because the two in my budget range that I saw when I was planning made me feel more sane.
I really do not appreciate the budget shaming that often happens on this sub. It was hard planning in such a HCOL area where the national averages are not representative, so I do hope this can help anyone who is looking for what things really cost for a wedding of this size in and around NYC
One thing to note is that we got engaged in June 2018 and while we spent a lot of money, a lot of it was spread out over nearly 2.5 years. Day to day, the amount spent on the wedding didn't impact our budget and we did not go into any debt.
My parents contributed a set amount to the wedding and my fiancé's parents covered the rehearsal dinner. I am not including my engagement ring or the honeymoon in this because I have a rough idea of how much my husband spent on my ring, but I've never asked for sure and our honeymoon is not going to happen until the world opens up. We are planning on taking 2 big trips to double celebrate our honeymoon (and because since we're waiting, why not?) to Japan and then to South Africa and Namibia.
totals: all totals include gratuities initial budget: 80k planned budget pre-covid: 100k Total spent (including things that were not really in the budget) ~50k Breakdown: ****Ceremony and Reception: ****
- Venue and Catering: $14,005.18 This included the fee for the ceremony ($1500), AV setup (hardwired internet), breakfast/lunch the day of, all wedding food, open bar, matire'd fee, gratuities/taxes, all linens, china, table setup, staff, cake, etc. this also includes the cost for the bride and groom's hotel room for 1 night as it was comped the other night.
- Officiants: $600, we had my aunt officiate and did the legal bits in a count house months earlier so she did this for free but we paid for her hotel room (2 nights) as a thank you so
- Ceremony Streaming: $750. This was a last minute cost and while we both think it was a bit high, the streaming was perfect and paying to not have that stress was incredible. I'd highly recommend the guy who did our streaming as he set everything up well and we got so many compliments on the stream.
- Ceremony/Cocktail Hour Music: $700 this included a flute/violin duet for a prelude and ceremony and then a jazz trio for cocktail hour. They were great.
- Flowers: $3,906.76 . We are in discussions with the florist that we did not get the things we asked for and are looking for a refund in some part of this. Our original estimate pre covid was aver $5,000 for flowers to give some context. we had 7 bridesmaids bouquets, 1 brides bouquet, 7 table centerpieces, chuppah rental and florals, and placecard table flowers.
- Cocktail Hour Decor: ~50. I am so glad I did this myself since our flowers generally sucked and they wanted to charge me $35 per bud vase. I thrifted bud vases and bought some from a bride on reddit, then I got 2 old atlases from half price books, some floral wire, and then tiny black rocks from amazon. Overall this DIY cost me like $50 and it was perfect. Also in this cost are some cool votive candles I bought from amazon.
- Photography: $6,000. incredible would 100% recommend. PM me for the name. This included 10 hrs of shooting, over 800 photos, and an album
- Videography: $2,000 incredible would 100% recommend. PM me for the name. This included a full day of shooting, all raw footage, a ~5 min highlight video and a full ceremony video.
- Sabers for Saber Arch: $100 donation to the West Point Hostess Office
- Photo Booth: $350 total. $250 deposit lost due to covid. Once we moved everything outside we didn't have a good place for the photo booth or to run electricity to it. So we cancelled that and instead spent $100 on a big cutout frame we hung from the ceiling. Originally the photobooth was going to be another $400 so I'm just counting it was coming out ahead.
- Tents and dance floor rental: ~$3,500 this was an additional cost that we took on as a covid precaution and it was perfect. This includes rentals (2 tents with walls that we ended up keeping up), having tent heaters on standby (they weren't needed), and the dance floor. My mom did a great job working with the venue and the rental organization to get a great setup and flow with the tents.
- Party Entertainment: $8,500 this includes 10 musicians and live continuous music for the entire party. Also includes their travel fee and they MC'd our entire reception. They were wonderful!
****Appearances ****
- Gown/Alterations: $1400 for the gown, $895 for alterations - I felt incredible and I hope some of the photos I posted help any bride who is size conscious to know that even at my heaviest I felt amazing and your size shouldn't stop you from having an amazing time.
- Bridal Hair and Makeup: Hair $300, Makeup $325, bridesmaids/moms - hair $100-$150 depending on style, $125 for makeup. Both services were optional for bridesmaids and my mom decided the week of the wedding to help subsidize the cost for all bridesmaids who elected to have the services.
- Bridal Accessories: $610 Veil ($500), party earrings ($45), ceremony earrings ($0), and party headpiece ($65). All other jewelry (hat, diamond necklace, diamond bracelet, other rings) were all family pieces
- Bridesmaids Dresses: $600 - $100 per bridesmaid. Note: this wasn't necessary for groomsmen because they were all in uniforms, except my brother and my dad covered his tux
- Groom's outfit: ~80, $70 for a special uniform belt for his saber an then $10 on socks with our cat's face on them
- Wedding Rings: $1850 for both rings, his was from Costco, mine was made from diamonds I got at an estate sale by a local. jeweler. I am obsessed with my ring. there was an additional cost to polish/dip our rings and watches and jewelry but I'm not counting it in this budget because it's regular maintenance.
****Gifts and things people kept****
- Stationary: ~ 350 + invitations this includes: save the dates ($175), invites, thank you notes, & invitations to our virtual celebration (honestly I don't know my mom just paid directly to the invitation lady), ceremony programs ($70), menus ($30), place cards ($30),
- Wedding Party Gifts: ~$550 for 6 bridesmaids, 5 groomsmen and 2 jr groomsmen. bridesmaids got a zip up for getting ready, a makeup case and a faux fur shawl in case they were cold. Groomsmen got a yeti bottle opener and a six pack of their favorite beer. Not including the gifts we gave when we asked them to be in the wedding
- Welcome gifts and Bathroom Basket: ~$300, 25 bags we included 2 new mexico soaps, costco snacks and drinks in a canvas bag. the bathroom basket stuff was all free and leftover things we used from my cousin's bat mitzvah
- Favors: $241.51 we had the cutest little globes we filled with gummy bears! The shipping on the gummy bears was dumb but weddings make you do dumb things.
- Flip Flops : $30 for 30 pairs of flip flops. My mom bought the baskets from Marshalls, not sure how much they were but assuming under $20 each. We ended up selling the ones we didn't use.
****Misc****
- Wedding insurance: $636.00 this includes the liability insurance required by our venue and full cancellation insurance in case my husband was unexpectedly deployed. We didn't want to take any chances with this and losing deposits/full amounts, even though in the contracts we ensured there were military clauses throughout. This was purchased in 2019 and gave us incredible piece of mind as we opted for full full coverage.
- Misc Decor and things: $500 This includes: photo frames (we did pics of us in the tub as kids on the bathroom doors) and a photo table, placecard holders, ribbons so we could do a socially distanced hora, a Mr. and Mrs sign for our table, alcohol for our suite afterparty, chargers for the tables, kudoboard (unlimited), website domain
****Not counted in this budget ****
Dance Lessons: ~$600 This money would've been super well spent if I hadn't hurt myself. we still did dance a bit but it wasn't what we planned. One day we can use those skills. I actually had a great time at the dance lessons and I'd 100% do it again.
Pre Marital Counseling: ~$500 very much money well spent. We did 4 sessions with a counselor online in the weeks before the wedding. We both felt like we got some great tools and it was a fantastic outlet for conversations we needed to have. I liked that it was virtual which made it accessible and I feel like we could go back to that counselor if we ever needed it.
Ketubah: ~400, this was a Hanukkah gift in 2019
Smashing Glasses: ~200 this was a gift from my aunt who officiated the wedding.
Engagement Ring Honeymoon Post-Wedding Brunch - My parents paid for this, it was casual
Wedding Shoes: ~$400, I bought these incredible
something bleu shoes Navy kitten heels and then
glitter keds for the party. I ended up in a boot and a sneaker so womp. But luckily both pairs of these shoes aren't very "bridal" and i'm definitely planning on wearing the glitter keds to the next tech conference I go to. I don't consider these "wedding budget" things because I'll wear them other times as well.
Rehearsal dinner - MIL paid for this
I'm glad I can post this and happy to talk to any other brides/grooms who are in the midst of planning!
submitted by westpointwedding to weddingplanning [link] [comments]
Help from DIY-ers? How can I make these hoop centerpieces happen?
(cross posted to DIY weddings) So I am NOT a crafty person at all (and have very limited space in my apartment for either crafting or storage, no outdoor space or garage at all, no car). My original plan was to rent fake flowers for centerpieces...everyone hated the idea lol.
My FMIL is craftier and thinks she can make the centerpieces herself as a gift (I would purchase, she would do the labor). She thinks we can do these centerpieces for under 30 per table, but I'm just lost on how we could possibly do it. Would love ANY tips or experience if anyone's done them!
The centerpieces I like look this:
Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 I've found a
relatively affordable hoop on amazon here...I'm not sure if it's possible to find cheaper but would love resources if anyone has them? I am also really unsure HOW we would actually attack these to a base securely without having to nail them in or something complicated....And then for flowers I've been looking at ling's moment,
a box costs between 24 - 30 dollars but it looks like we'd need a box per centerpiece...so already the budget is kind of blown....
A lot of tutorials seem to use hula hoops but I'm a little wary...first, I can't find cheap hula hoops (like 5 or under per hoop?) anywhere online. Secondly I'm concerned it's too labor intensive for FMIL (stripping them, repainting, etc). And thirdly I'm concerned they are too light and will topple over...
So basically I'm just lost. Would love to hear from some expert DIYers on this whole idea.
submitted by flirtandflutter to weddingplanning [link] [comments]
Wedding Recap: Microwedding in Southern California (Los Angeles County), 13 guests, $23K
This is a long one, so for those only interested in the numbers, scroll down to the table below. The subsequent paragraphs will be the more detailed breakdown of each of those line items on the table. I will also do my best to include the approximate cost based on our original estimate of 85 guests since I know larger weddings will eventually return and it’s good to know what the cost of that might look like.
Our original wedding was supposed to take place in June 2020, but like many other couples here, we had to postpone. Before we dive into the breakdown, here is how we handled the postponement based on our own payment schedule:
- Our venue had a simple payment schedule so we lucked out here. Our initial deposit was $1500. Half of our total was due two months before our original date (in this case April 2020). The final payment with final guest count numbers was due 1 week before our event. Prior to our April deadline, we reached out to the venue asking what our options for postponement were. They allowed us to postpone and carry over our deposit with no additional fees. There were a couple of Saturdays left in 2020 at this point. The venue placed a soft hold on these dates for us while we reached out to our vendors. We reached out to our planner and photographer first as they were our VIP vendors and we did not want to lose them. We chose a date in December that worked for them and then reached out to our remaining vendors with our new date. Fortunately all were available and willing to change dates and transfer deposits without change fees. Crisis averted for now.
- Repeated the same process for our December date lol. Our two month deadline was approaching (October 2020), only this time we started to re-evaluate the situation around September because October would have been the time we needed to send invitations and people were already asking if December was still happening. Nothing in our state guidelines regarding large gatherings changed since our lockdown in March so husband and I were feeling defeated. After reaching out to the venue again, they were more than willing to postpone again to dates in 2021 and even 2022 without additional fees so that wasn’t the issue. The thought of putting our lives on hold for another two years did not sit well with us. We were no longer considering 2021 and would only consider 2022 due to the COVID situation in our area.
- After discussing with our planner and photographer, they suggested a microwedding. They encouraged us to bump our date sooner to avoid the possibility of rain and COVID cases on the rise in November and December during the flu season. California was one of the first states to lockdown so we would not be surprised if we were the first to lock down again. Now if you’ve read this far, you know back in April our original venue only had a couple Saturdays left in 2020. When we reached out again in September, a new Saturday opened up: October 24. That my friends is how we began the quest for planning a microwedding in less than two months.
We went all in with our microwedding. We still wanted to have the wedding of our dreams regardless of our guest count. We also decided that after all we’ve been through, we currently do not want to plan a larger celebration. I realize that our spending may be considered somewhat excessive though we do live in a HCOL. I will try to point out where some of the more extreme expenses are so if you are evaluating your own budget, you can see where you don’t need to spend nearly as much as we did.
Budget Breakdown
Category | Amount (includes all taxes & fees, rounded up to the nearest US dollar) |
Ceremony Venue | $2018 |
Dinner Venue | $3508 |
Partial Planner | $1500 |
Photographer | $3150 |
Videographer | $1050 |
String Trio | $795 |
Florals | $1510 |
Cake | $228 |
Makeup | $590 |
Hair | $410 |
DJ | $675 |
Gratuities | $710 |
Stationary | $137 |
Decor | $298 |
Marriage License | $61 |
Bride Wedding Band | $1339 |
Groom Wedding Band | $132 |
Parent & Family Gifts | $710 |
Hotel | $165 |
Bride Attire | $2666 |
Groom Attire | $955 |
Miscellaneous Expenses | $779 |
Grand Total | $23,386 |
Below is the more detailed breakdown of each line item. For privacy reasons, we will not be sharing the names of our venues or vendors in this post, but we are more than happy to share this information via DM or chat.
Ceremony Venue - $2018
This was a completely new expense for us. The beauty of a microwedding is what was once impossible suddenly becomes possible. This was our original first choice venue because it is a gorgeous waterfront property, but we never even toured it. After receiving the brochure with the minimum costs...this venue would have blown our entire budget and then some. Sometime in the last few months, California allowed wedding ceremonies to continue provided they are outdoors only. This venue created a minimony package that included the following:
- Complimentary parking
- Up to 25 Chiavari chairs
- Use of ceremony space for 2 hours
- Ceremony sound system
- Complimentary deluxe water view room for the night of ceremony
- Bottle of champagne
- Breakfast for 2 the next morning
- Late check-out
We also asked for some additional items such as a table on the gazebo, umbrellas for our musicians, and an easel for our welcome sign. We also asked for some additional set up time because the 2 hours for the ceremony space included the set up and tear down time. They were able to give us an additional 90 minutes which was great. Normally that might cost extra. The original ceremony fee for this venue on a Saturday was $5000 based on the 2019 brochure we received. We got married at our dream venue at less than half the normal cost. I have zero complaints about this venue. They delivered everything as promised on our agreement with no issues whatsoever.
Dinner Venue - $3508 (Original Cost: Approx 15K)
This was our original ceremony and reception venue. Our initial deposit was $1500 and then we had to pay an additional $1500 to meet the room minimum which in my opinion was very reasonable since this was an all inclusive venue. We even moved to their main outdoor terrace since our original space wasn’t available on the 24th and we are only allowed to use outdoor spaces. This space was even more beautiful than our original space. The remaining amount was the production fees and the gratuity for all the event staff and wait staff. I am forever grateful to the staff I worked with for close to 18 months planning, postponing, and re-planning. They never once gave me a hard time, always answered my emails promptly, and absolutely delivered. I thought they were going to murder me when I asked to reduce my guest list from 85 to 13. They didn’t. This is what was included in our package:
- Premium open bar for 3 hours
- Wine service at dinner
- Complimentary entrees for bride and groom
- 6 Hors D’Oeuvres choices
- Easel for welcome sign
- Tables (welcome table, sweetheart table, guest tables, cake table, vendor table)
- Chiavari chairs
- All linens, china, and silverware
- Mirrored round for center of each table
- Printed menus
- Duet plate (husband and I chose filet mignon and Chilean sea bass for our guests) with sides
- Champagne for toast
- Cake cutting and serving
- Meals for our vendors
- Heaters
- Fire pit and couches for a lounge area
The food was excellent! We were able to pack up all our leftover food and cake for some incredible leftovers the next day. They delivered everything as promised on our agreement with no issues whatsoever.
Partial Planner - $1500 + $150 gratuity
We originally hired our planner as a day of coordinator, but because of COVID she became more of a partial planner and truly went above and beyond. What she charged us for her services was extremely reasonable for our area and we lucked out in hiring her. She was a referral from our photographer and they had done many weddings together. Here is what her package included (taken directly from her website and was also included in our contract):
- Initial meeting
- General meeting
- Final meeting
- Curated list of vendors that fit your style and budget
- Guidance to complete all necessary paperwork
- Unlimited emails and phone calls within business hours
- Wedding rehearsal coordination
- Decor load
- Lead coordinator & assistant to manage ceremony & reception (up to 10 hours)
- Set up all personals and decor according to your approved vision
- Act as vendor point person & ensure they provide their services as contracted
- Keep activities running smoothly and according to timeline
- Direct ceremony processional and recessional
- Line up wedding party and cue for reception grand entrance
- Assist DJ in keeping clients and any necessary parties informed of any scheduled events
- Distribute vendor gratuities on your behalf
- Collect any personal items to be returned to you after the wedding an ensure they are taken to the correct loading area
- Ensure your gifts are secure and collected by the designated person
- Use of emergency kit
On the day of, our planner + an assistant were on site at the ceremony and one of her more senior assistants set up at our dinner site. I cannot express how valuable this expense was. I interviewed a couple of other planners, but this planner stood out in terms of professionalism and attention to details. The biggest thing she did for us was our timeline. She used a tool called Timeline Genius that we could view and edit. Once we finalized our timeline, she distributed it to all of our vendors. Her and all of her staff also followed up with each of our vendors, ensured they received the timeline, and made it clear exactly where they needed to be and at what time. I know certain circumstances are unavoidable and you can’t guarantee a perfect timeline no matter how much planning you do, but we actually kept a perfect schedule. No one ran late and everything went so smoothly. If you are on the fence about this expense, we highly recommend it.
Photographer - $3150 + $100 gratuity (Original Cost: $3748)
Our photographer did not have to do this for us, but she amended our contract since our wedding was much smaller and only needed one shooter. This is what our package included:
- 8 hours wedding coverage
- 450+ hand edited photos
- Online gallery
- Printing rights
- One USB flash drive with all photographs in high resolution
- Complimentary engagement session (we opted to do 1 location and 1 outfit, but she would have allowed us to do 2 locations and 2 outfits; she provided us with 140+ edited photos)
- Sneak peek of engagement session and and wedding day provided 1-3 days after
- Location scouting
- Guidance on how to plan your timeline with your wedding planner (we planned our entire ceremony time around sunset)
- Vendor recommendations
Her work is amazing. We were expecting like 3 sneak peek photos after our wedding. She stayed up all night and sent us over 40 photos around 1am. Overall, we clicked with her from the get go and that is so important when choosing a photographer. We never felt weird or awkward being in front of her camera even though husband and I despise taking photos.
Videographer - $900 + $150 for extended edit + $50 gratuity (Original Cost: $3000)
Because we downsized our wedding, we weren’t sure if we still wanted to have a videographer. We originally had a package with 10 hours of coverage, two cameras, a drone...the works. We were fully prepared to just eat the cost of our deposit on this one because we couldn’t justify spending $3000 on only a couple hours of coverage.
When we reached out to our videographer and told him our new plans, he came through for us much like our other vendors. He did not hold us to our original contract and we amended the contract to do live streaming and a file download of the recording. We had already put down $900 for our deposit and he agreed to do the recording and live streaming without any additional charges. The live stream was AMAZING. Our videographer had a microphone on my husband so our family and friends that joined us virtually were able to hear everything clearly. Plus our videographer came with two cameras plus an additional camera man which was completely unexpected. They captured the ceremony beautifully on the stream from all different angles and we now have a copy to relive the day over and over with
The $150 is for an extended polished edit that we requested that is still being worked on. Our videographer does amazing cinematic quality video so we knew we still wanted to have that after we settled all our other wedding expenses. My husband and I totally did not think we would re-watch our video but we already love the copy we do have. There were moments that happened during our ceremony such as my mom stepping on my veil and a squirrel coming to the gazebo during the moment of silence we had for our departed loved ones. You can only relive those moments through video and that really solidified the fact that we made the right decision with keeping our videographer. If you’re on the fence about this expense, there is a lot you can do here to still have one without blowing your budget. We highly recommend having one for at least the ceremony.
String Trio - $795 + $60 gratuity (Original Cost: $1100)
We almost opted to get a refund on this deposit, but we are so glad we didn’t. We had originally hired them for 30 minutes of pre-ceremony music, 30 minutes of ceremony music, and 1 hour for cocktail hour (2 hours total). When we changed plans, we cut out the cocktail hour. I know this is an expense that not everyone needs to have, but it made our ceremony absolutely beautiful. When we sent out our live stream link, we told everyone to tune in at 4pm which was 30 minutes before the ceremony. During that time our trio played everything from Beauty and the Beast to Coldplay and even Rhianna. Our guests, both present and virtual, loved the trio and we got so many compliments. They also played background music during our unity ceremony which was a nice added touch.
Florals - $1510 + $50 gratuity (Original Cost: $2247)
We went with a local old school florist who did the florals for my cousin's wedding several years ago. She doesn’t have an actual shop and works out of her home which is what makes the cost more reasonable than other florists in our area. The reason the amounts changed is because 1) We changed ceremony venues and 2) We no longer needed 10 centerpieces and some of the other things you have with a larger wedding. My floral order with this florist was hand written to give you an idea how old school she operates. Regardless, she was very easy to work with and had no problem creating a completely brand new order. When we changed ceremony venues, I asked my planner to work directly with her to coordinate what florals were needed for the new space. This was one area I didn’t have a specific vision for or care too much about besides the colors of the flowers. They copied me on all their back and forth emails and delivered florals beyond my imagination. Here is what our order included:
- Bride’s bouquet
- 1 bridesmaid bouquet
- 2 flower girl baskets with fresh petals
- 3 boutonnieres
- 2 pin on corsages
- 2 5’ gazebo side pieces (repurposed for sweetheart table at dinner)
- 4 centerpieces (repurposed for guest tables at dinner)
- 4 white box rentals to display centerpieces at ceremony
- Flowers for welcome sign
- 2 bud vases for welcome table
- Cake flowers
- Delivery to ceremony site, setup, takedown, delivery to dinner site, setup
Cake - $228 (Original Cost: Approx $600)
We had already put down a $100 deposit for our cake so we just modified our cake order. With the reduced guest count, we removed an entire tier from our cake, but still opted to purchase a two tier cake for approximately 30-40 guests so our vendors and wait staff could have some and we could still have some cake left over. My husband LOVES cake so we could not give this expense up. Our top tier was both white cake and chocolate cake with dulce de leche filling. Our bottom tier was a white cake with blueberry Bavarian filling. The cake was absolutely beautiful and delicious.
Makeup - $590 + $100 gratuity
Found a great makeup artist who did bride makeup in another wedding my sister was in. I had a 1 person bridal party, but made sure my family members who wanted makeup done for the day were taken care of. I took care of this expense. My makeup artist even went the extra mile and made touch up kits for everyone even though she normally only does it for the bride. Breakdown as follows:
- Bride makeup - $250
- Makeup for mom, sis, aunt, and cousin - $85 each
Hair - $510 + $100 gratuity
My hair person was my regular stylist who has cut and colored my hair for years. The pricing I have below is probably much more generous than going with someone I did not know. Breakdown is as follows:
- Bride hair - $150 (Chignon updo)
- Sister hair - $100 (half up/half down do with curls)
- Cousin hair - $60 (long hair curls)
- Mom and aunt hair - $50 (short hair curls)
DJ - $675 (Original Cost: $1200)
We ate the deposit here, but fortunately this was the only deposit we forfeited. Here is the breakdown of our original package:
- 4 hours of services
- Equipment: Wireless mic, 2 speakers, 1 subwoofer, 2 turntables, mixer, and MacBook
- Lighting: 1 cake pin spot, 2 dance lights, 20 wireless uplights
Our package really wasn’t bad for the price, but unfortunately we didn’t need any of it any more. We asked our DJ if we could carry over our deposit for different services later on such as a party or vow renewal. He said that we would have to sign a new contract AND pay a new deposit. No thanks. He also would not let us transfer or donate the original deposit to another couple. To be fair, he was not contractually obligated to do anything for us, but he also never wrote us a new contract for our December wedding date so who knows if he would have shown up if we proceeded with that date. My husband and I were of course upset to lose that money, but we were more upset that he had zero empathy at all about what COVID did to disrupt our plans. I completely understand that COVID eviscerated the businesses of many wedding vendors and times are tough all around, but his attitude made it easy for us to just say “thanks bye” instead of finding some way to keep him and give him our business.
Stationary - $137
This expense was for our Save the Dates only. They turned out super cute, but of course the original wedding never happened and we have a ton leftover. Will probably plaster them all over our fridge. I probably wouldn’t have any regrets about this expense if our wedding happened as scheduled, but this is probably the one thing that was a waste of money. When we made our wedding cancellation notice and sent our invitations for our virtual wedding I created all of those using the Canva app. Totally free and amazing. Breakdown is as follows:
- 50 Save the Date Magnets - $109 (purchased from Minted w/30% off discount code)
- Wrap around printer labels - $14
- Postage - $14
Decor - $298
Breakdown:
- Chiffon rental for gazebo & eucalyptus rental for welcome table - $62
- Cake stand - $42 (purchased from Amazon; cheaper than renting from bakery for $50)
- 25 Candle holders & tea lights - $59 (purchased from Amazon)
- Clear acrylic hexagons for place settings - $16 (purchased pack of 25 from Amazon)
- 18”x24” clear acrylic sheet for welcome sign - $15 (purchased from Home Depot)
- Paint and brushes to paint acrylic - $15 (purchased from Michael’s)
- Unity ceremony items - $60 (we did a tree planting so this expense includes a small tree, soil, pot, two watering cans, and two shovels)
- 4 picture frames to display engagement photos at welcome table - $29 (purchased from Marshall’s)
*NOTE: We also had a bunch of those tall glass cylinder vases that you fill with water and place floating candles in, but our planner has these in her wedding decor stockpile so we didn’t have to purchase our own which was a big win. She reuses them for every wedding.
Marriage License - $61
We did the online application through Orange County and picked up at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
*NOTE: Marriage certificates are an additional $15 per copy which we have not paid yet. We just mailed our license this past Monday and it takes 5-10 business days after our license is received for them to record our marriage into their records so we can order the certificates. Will likely get two copies as one needs to be mailed to the SSN office for my name change and I want a spare copy just in case.
Bride Wedding Band - $1339 & Groom Wedding Band - $132
My husband and I picked our wedding bands together and included them as part of our wedding expenses. Both were purchased at Jared.
Parent & Family Gifts - $710
Since we only had 13 guests and one of those guests was our cousin who also served as our officiant, we didn’t do favors and instead gifted them with some items they could actually use and enjoy. We definitely splurged here, but it was worth it to say thank you to those family members who helped make this wedding happen for us during a pandemic. We will also be creating photo albums and printing photos for them as part of our gifts once our photos are finished editing.
Hotel - $165
This was for a 1 night stay at the hotel that was right next door to our dinner venue. We did receive a 1 night complimentary stay at our ceremony venue which we could have used, but that would require us to drive back to the venue which we did not want to do. The coordinator from our ceremony venue mailed us a gift certificate for the 1 night complimentary stay and breakfast for two the next morning so we plan to use it on our 1 year anniversary. So excited about this.
The remaining 3 items my husband and I paid out of our own pockets. I know these expenses might still be considered shared expenses with other couples so we wanted to include them in our budget breakdown. Bride Attire - $2666
- Dress - $1570 (gifted by my aunt; beautiful lace ballgown)
- Fabric garment bag - $28
- Alterations - $505 (I purchased a sample dress and needed to have a ton of alterations done because I’m 4’10” and plus size. Completely worth it despite the high cost.)
- Rhinestone belt for dress - $275 (I realize this is an unnecessary expense and could have just purchased this off Etsy for $30-$50)
- Undergarments - $133 (corset bra, panties, slip shorts)
- Shoes - $39 (purchased from DSW with coupon)
- Veil - $35 (purchased from Etsy)
- Earrings - $29 (purchased from Olive and Piper)
- Hair piece - $39 (purchased from Etsy)
Groom Attire - $955
All items were purchased from Men’s Warehouse
Custom 3 piece suit - $686 (completely custom measured and husband got to select all fabrics and details like the cut and color of the pieces; any additional alterations were included at no charge)
- Dress shirt - $50
- Alterations on dress shirt - $18
- Leather belt - $33
- Dress socks - $33 (pack of 3)
- Shoes - $80
- Tie - $35
- Pocket square - $20
Miscellaneous Expenses - $779
You’re probably wondering what the heck this expense is. These were mainly my own expenses for all the hair and makeup trials I did as well as the attire purchased for our engagement session. I no longer have receipts for what husband spent on his engagement session attire so that amount is not included in this breakdown.
- Dress for engagement session - $60 (purchased from StitchFix)
- Shoes for engagement session - $40 (purchased from Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse)
- Hair extensions + styling for engagement session - $70 + $20 gratuity (extensions were re-used for wedding)
- Makeup for engagement session - $120 (not the same makeup artist who did my wedding makeup; he ended up being a flake and I didn’t book him)
- Makeup trial #1 - $150 + $10 gratuity (this is my actual wedding makeup artist)
- Makeup trial #2 - $75 (we did another mini trial since the airbrush makeup didn’t last on my oily skin and we used this opportunity to also modify anything else I didn’t like about trial #1)
- Pre-ceremony haircut and color - $90 + $20 gratuity
- Mani/pedi for bride & pedi for groom - $105 + $15 gratuity
Final Thoughts
Planning for even a microwedding during COVID was so hard. Although we followed the state health orders, we were fully aware that nothing is ever 100% safe. Before we began planning for this microwedding, we had conversations with each family about their comfort level with attending such an event. Fortunately we were working with four households who are in constant communication on a regular basis. I say this to emphasize that we are all very close and transparent about following best practices during the pandemic such as distancing, mask wearing, and hand washing. Everyone in the four households works from home or is continuing school from home so it was easy for husband and I to cut our guest list there and stand firm since we trusted everyone we had present that day was doing what they needed to do to stay safe and keep each other safe.
Some other precautions we took:
- All events took place outdoors.
- Chairs at ceremony were distanced arranged by household.
- Masks were worn at all times except briefly during ceremony procession and photos. Photos were done by household.
- Husband and I COVID tested negative the week of the ceremony and quarantined after taking our test. We ensured all errands were done prior to the week of the wedding so we wouldn’t have to go out again until wedding day.
- Getting ready was done at home to avoid exposure at a hotel. Hair stylist and makeup artist wore masks and face shields and practiced the sanitization protocol they would use in their salons. We kept all windows and doors open and made sure everyone stayed in separate areas (no foot traffic).
- I had my sister carry around a bag full of sanitizer, wipes, and Lysol so we had it readily available at all times.
- Tables at dinner were distanced and arranged by household.
Lastly, do husband and I have any regrets? None whatsoever. This wedding was beyond anything we could have ever imagined. I can honestly say there is nothing we could have done differently and as crazy as this sounds, we're glad our original plans got cancelled. There were things about the original plan that we weren't happy about and this was our chance to make those right. This day was truly a reflection of the both of us.
I hope some of you find this recap helpful. If there are any questions at all, please do not hesitate to reach out. I am happy to help. Thank you so much to this community for all your support the last 18 months. Could not have done it without you.
submitted by erinjg43 to weddingplanning [link] [comments]
Ideas Needed for a Picnic Wedding!
Oops, I’m a covid bride...
A picnic wedding reception wasn’t my original ~vision~ but I’m rolling with the punches. Postponing our wedding has made us realize how expensive our original plan was, so we’re rethinking everything as we try to find a celebration that will fit our budget.
Side note: We‘re not planning to do this until the pandemic has calmed down. My inner bridezilla hates all the waiting but I’m not willing to risk anyone’s health.
THE VIBE
I’m going for “garden party” as opposed to “rustic farmhouse chic,” but I also want things to feel laid-back and easy
THE LOCATION
A public park in the middle of my city
THE TIME
11:00 am following the 10:00 am ceremony at our church
THE DETAILS
• The menu consists of brunch-y finger foods like fruit skewers and bagels, mimosas, and cupcakes for dessert
• To save on a DJ, we’ll replace music/dancing with lawn games and other activities (croquet, hula hoops, a wedding cake piñata, a photo scavenger hunt with prizes)
• Seating will consist of picnic blankets, with chairs/tables provided for those who are physically unable to sit comfortably on the ground
• Flip-flop sandals as party favors will give people the option to change out of their heels
• A Selfie Spot instead of a photo booth will save so much money it’s actually OBSCENE
WHERE I NEED HELP
• A timeline. Will guests eat and immediately leave if there’s no dancing? I‘m hoping that if we schedule the scavenger hunt prizes and the piñata for an hour or so after brunch is served, there will be something keeping everyone here.
• Seating logistics. For the original wedding, I created a seating chart (which is suuuuper necessary for this group) that had 8 people per table—which, in this case, means 8 people per picnic blanket. How big should each blanket be to comfortably accommodate 8 guests? I’m also providing a pillow for each guest to sit on...anybody know where to get like 60 pillows for real cheap? My mom is sewing pillowcases to help everything match.
• Decorations. I’m keeping these to a minimum: a couple of signs with directions, props and a backdrop for the Selfie Spot, and centerpieces. I’m planning to buy small wooden boxes I can put in the middle of each picnic blanket to hold table numbers and centerpieces; any ideas on where to get boxes like that? Suggestions for decorations I haven’t thought of?
• Set-up logistics. Someone needs to go set everything up the morning of the event and babysit everything while the ceremony is going on—it’s a public park, and while we’re allowed to reserve it for the wedding, the park doesn’t provide security to keep people away from our stuff. Has anyone done this before? I can’t ask my MOH because whoever is in charge of this will have to miss the wedding itself.
Sorry this post got so long. I love love love this stage of the planning process and now that I’m over the initial disappointment of postponing, I’m excited to start it all over again. Let me know if you have ideas/critiques/suggestions—I’m super open to brainstorming, I love to DIY, and my Pinterest app is OPEN!
submitted by bridezilla5320 to Weddingsunder10k [link] [comments]
Food for Thought to all COVID Brides.
Hey guys, I know I've posted on a number of posts, but I wanted to hopefully help give you some ideas.
1) When will it be safe to have a wedding? Both Moderna and Oxford trials conclude this month, with their release of their findings to be announced in September. That means next month, we could very well have a date as to when the vaccines will be released to the general public around the world. If I were you, use this as a time to assess the situation and decide what to do from there. If earlier statements of a December vaccine release date are correct, and the vaccines take 1-2 months to build antibodies and T-cells in the body, you're looking at around a February or March for this to start lifting. But Disclaimer: I ain't a doctor, please read credible news sources and be informed of your own volition.
2) How can I prepare if I need to move the date again? Build your Plan B, C, D or X if need be. Communicate to your vendors. Be flexible, and be safe. But you don't need to "start all over": first ask the venue for the next date that works, as well as the rest of your vendors. Same wedding, different date - just don't print your date all over the place and you'll be fine. If anyone gives you crap, start putting everything in writing with delivery confirmation (or email). No more verbal communication - just in case you need to lawyer up.
3) I really want to try on wedding dresses, but, pandemic? There's SEVERAL try-on dress shops that ship to your home. Even better? There's a lot of out-of-work seamstresses, tailors, and costume designers right now. Ever wanted a dress that's ACTUALLY custom made? No, I mean for real, and ACTUAL custom dress? Well, here's your chance. Contact your local tailors and seamstresses. Contact your local film commission branch to see if they have any recommendations. If you're in NYC or LA pretty sure calling the Garment/Fashion district stores will lead you to some wonderful recommendations. As always, make sure you see a portfolio of your designer's work, you communicate your budget clearly, and ask them what a whip stitch is. If they don't know, hire someone else. Even a costume design graduate can do a "thrift flip" aka, take a dress base and tweak it to your style at a much lower cost with some great results.
4) This is horrible! I have more time to wait I don't know what to do with myself! Yah, I feel you. I live in Florida, and I wanted it to be cold (aka, not feeling the makeup melt off my face). The date we had in mind was important to us but, oh well that's how the cookie crumbles and it turns out our new date will be even cuter, so it all worked out. My December wedding is now a March wedding* (pending COVID), so now I have extra time to... oh god..
PLAN MORE SHINY THINGS! :D
-I decided to learn how to use epoxy resin to make badass escort cards for really cheap.
-I decided to put more energy and effort into the table settings, which I wouldn't have done before.
-I decided I'll DIY my signs using a new technique for fun, which I wouldn't have been able to do.
-The fiance and I are taking more time to plan our honeymoon for whenever we can do it.
-We're making all of our centerpieces with silk flowers. Then it doesn't really matter what time of the year it is, silk flowers don't die and don't have "seasons". You don't even have to water them! :D
So I encourage you to embrace the weird. Embrace the crazy that is these times. Think outside of the box. Throw away the "normal" and just go with the times. Don't settle for your dream wedding: push beyond it to surpass your expectations by stepping beyond the comfort zone of normlacy coz this ain't normal. At the end of the day it's going to be ok. Take advantage of this extra time to exchange ideas to make our weddings even more badassical and fabulous, everyone. Use the extra time to make your wedding even more incredible while you protect the lives of those you love.
As a final note, to those who absolutely have to get married now for reasons (immigration, army, etc hopefully you get what I mean): My heart goes out to you and I'm sending you ALL the virtual hugs. I really hope some of my suggestions might help some of y'all. Be safe, and hang in there. <3 Let me know what you think, or if you ave any tips as well for those navigating these times!
submitted by NotUnidan to wedding [link] [comments]
[RECAP] SoCal | 250 Guests | $33k | Feb 08, 2020
Hello! I hope other brides find this helpful!
But first... PICTURES! Location: San Gabriel, Pasadena & Westminister, CA
Guests: 250
Budgeted: $35,000
Spent: $32,959
Our wedding was a Chinese/Vietnamese-American Catholic wedding. My husband and I paid for the wedding out of our own pockets. It took us about 2 years to plan and save for the wedding. There were a lot of DIYs to cut costs and help from family and friends setting everything up.
Now onto the details!
Florals: $294 - Bouquets: $129
- We bought fresh wholesale flowers from the Flower District in DTLA. My husband and I woke up early in the morning to get the best picks and spent a couple of hours putting it together the day before the wedding. This made for great bonding time. In total we made four bridesmaid/groomswomen bouquets, a small one for the flower girl, the groom's boutineer, the bridal bouquet and flowers for the wedding cake. Our flowers were actually more expensive because it was so close to Valentine's Day. The ribbons and pins were from Michael's and Ann linens. Always use coupons!
- Florals for the church alter: $130
- We ordered two huge flower baskets for the church alter from the Flower District. We picked it up the day before the wedding since they didn't deliver.
- Boutineers (family): $36
- Bought ~50 ribbon flower pins from AliExpress for family, aunts and uncles. It's an Asian thing.
Ceremony (Catholic Church): $700 - Church Donation: $500
- This is pretty much the rental fee.
- Coordinator for rehearsal: $50
- Pianist: $150
- He was actually the church's pianist so he knew exactly what to do.
Tea Ceremony: $479 - Vu Quy signage + Floral Arch (rental): $75
- This is a sign for wedding day. "Vu Quy" is the term used to signify leaving the house for the husband, and this sign is usually used at the bride's side of the wedding.
- Incense Set (rental): $15
- Double Happiness Paper Cups: $11
- We didn't want to share the same tea cup among 20+ relatives
- Roasted Pig: $280
- Wine: $58
- We bought wholesale from a winery
- Wedding Trays (rental): $40
- To put the gifts for the bride's family. The gifts included wine, fruit, teas and herbs (provided by groom's parents).
Reception: $18,253 - Food/Venue: $13,984
- Asian banquets charge by the table and each table seats 10 guests--we had 25 round tables + Sweetheart table. The venue included the wedding cake, hors d'oeuvre during cocktail hour, a 9-course family style meal per table and soda. We also paid for special meals for guests that had dietary restrictions and our vendors (MC + Photo/Video team). We had the place from 3PM for set up till 11PM. The venue cleaned everything themselves.
- Going with an asian banquet made everything so much easier. It's affordable and it includes everything like tables, chair, table clothes, glassware, plates, lighting and etc.
- Open Bar: $1,856
- Early on in the wedding planning, my husband and I knew we wanted an open bar cuz a majority of our guests love to drink. One of the deciding factors of our reception banquet was that they had an open bar option in the package. This meant one less vendor for me to worry about. Other banquet halls that we checked out were BYOB/hire your own bartenders. We paid for four hours of the premium menu. They were also very VERY generous with the alcohol so everyone had a blast. They also included virgin drink menu for kids. After doing the math, if each guest had at least one drink, it'll be $7 per head. So it was worth it in my opinion. And at the end of the night, everyone had enough liquid courage to get onto the dance floor.
- Emcee + Tip: $550
- We hired an MC that spoke Cantonese/Mandarin. She was the MC of a previous wedding we attended. She had a great presence and knew how to keep the crowd going with games.
- DJ: $619
- The DJ was actually the manageson of the owner so we got a discount when we hired him.
- Photobooth: $500
- We rented a photobooth for four hours. The package included unlimited use, custom artwork/templates, onsite attendant, CD/cloud download of all photos, props and delivery/setup/tear down.
- Sweetheart Table Decor: $173
- This included flower row from Aliexpress, candles from Ikea, various sizes of vases from Dollar Tree, Ikea and Burlington Coat Factory.
- Table Center Piece: $291
- These were completely DIY and we made 25 of these. I bought candle holders and glass bowl from Dollar Tree, fake flowers from AliExpress and glued them all together. As much as I love fresh flowers, I couldn't bring myself to spend thousands on them for them to wilt in a couple of days. It's been a couple of months and I still see my centerpieces at my guests homes!
- Wedding favors: $205
- I ordered 250 wedding favor boxes from AliExpress and put two ferror rochers into each. The ferror rochers were on sale at Costco. The downside was we had to fold all 250 boxes ourselves. This gave us something to do during those Netflix nights.
- Card box: $21
- Since this was an Asian wedding, all our guests brought card gifts (e.g. checks, cash, giftcards).
- Sparklers: $28
- I highly suggest doing an exit with sparklers. It made for awesome pictures/video.
- Cake topper: $35
- My husband and I are into anime instead of ordering a typical take topper from Etsy, we opted to order a couple of bootleg Nendoroids off of AliExpress to customize figures that look like us.
Photography + Videography: $9,161 - Photography + Videography: $9,100
- When my husband and I started planning our wedding, we agreed that if we were to splurge on anything, it'll be the photo/video. They were such a dream to work with. Everything went so smoothly because of them. They've worked with Asian weddings before so they knew the ins and out of our day/tradition. They'll tell me if I had a stray hair, if my husband had to move his hand an inch, or to fix my wedding dress. I have absolutely no regrets.
- We paid for 14 hour coverage. It was a realllyyyy long day. I think there were about 8 of them with us the entire day.
- We also paid extra to have them compile a 3-4min video of the wedding day. This was a great idea because instead of going through 14 hours of footage from multiple cameras, we already have a video to look back on to relive this special day.
- City Hall Permit: $61
- Some places require a permit for wedding photos. Double check yours!!
Attire: $2,228 - Wedding Dress: $1,098
- I ultimately decided to rent my dress instead of purchasing it. The rental included the wedding dress (obviously), alterations (two sessions), veil, earrings, hair accessories and dry cleaning. My wedding dress was Perla by Kitty Chen (MSRP ~$2.3k).
- Bride's Shoes + Inserts: $97
- I bought two pairs of Jewel Badgley Mischka that were both on sale/clearance ($65 + $26) at Nordstroms and Macys. One for the wedding day, and another shorter, more comfortable one for the evening. I highly recommend buying inserts ($6). I was standing, walking and dancing all day (14+hrs).
- Evening Dress + Alterations: $275
- Something to change into since the wedding dress was so heavy. Plus I wanted to wear something super sparkly and glittery and gold. This was the best time to do it.
- Garter Belt: $3
- I just bought a cheap one from AliExpress since it was gonna be thrown around in the evening anyway.
- Bridesmaid/Groomswomen dress: $208
- I bought them the infinity dress so they can be creative and customize it to however they like. In the end, they all ended up looking the same anyway lol
- Grooms Suit + Alterations: $179
- From the Fashion District in DTLA. This includes shirt, jacket, pants, tie and vest.
- Groom's Shoes: $85
- Get Ready Pajamas: $58
- I bought 6 satin pairs from AliExpress. Funny story, the pants tore on the butt area while taking jumping pictures. It just couldn't contain this booty. I recommend buying something stretchy.
- Traditional Vietnamese Outfit- Bride (rental): $75
- Includes the traditional hat, alterations, and cleaning fee
- Traditional Vietnamese Outfit- Groom (rental): $35
- My husband actually rented the groomsmen style. He didn't like the groom's style or else it would have been $75.
- Flower Girl Dress: $47
- Flower Girl Basket + Ring Pillow/box: $29
- Ring Bearer Suit: $22
Makeup + Hair: $1,235 - Makeup + Hair Trial: $130
- Makeup + Hair + Tip: $865
- There were two MUAs. This includes bride + five other girls. We started getting ready around 4:30AM till around 9:30AM.
- Nails: $155
- I paid for my mom and I's nails. It was our first time getting mani professionally done so it was such a treat.
- Hair Extensions: $85
- I have pretty thin hair so I needed the extra volume.
Misc: $609 - Wedding Invitation + Postage: $256
- Marriage Certificate: $91
- Sheraton - Junior Suite: $262
- I actually used my Chase points for this. The bridesmaids and I slept overnight in the room. We also rented this suite to get our hair and makeup done.
Thank you if you've made it this far! Feel free to ask questions, if any :)
submitted by tinaul to weddingplanning [link] [comments]
Budget Wedding Advice & Tips
I (25 F) got married in March and wanted to share some advice, tips, and things that worked out really well for our rustic wedding and that fit our 10k total budget!
1 All Inclusive Venue: We booked an all inclusive venue for our ceremony and reception. This included the ceremony set up with wood chairs and a wood arch and our reception set up. Finding an all inclusive venue is amazing because you don’t get nickeled and dimed on chairs, linens, silverware, and glassware. It was all included with a day of coordinator and they even set it all up for us. We figured it was worth it to spend a good amount of our budget on the venue because of everything it included! In one fee we took care of the ceremony, dinner, and the reception! When we first started looking at venues we thought it would be cheaper to book a ranch style venue but the costs to bring in all of the rentals and food was crazy.
2 Sit Down Dinner Option: For some reason, our venue was cheaper for the sit down dinner option versus the buffet option. They said it was because they had to prepare more food for the buffet. We went with the sit down option and even though it was more planning for guest’s meal choice and seating arrangements, it saved us money and was easier for our guests!
3 Hobby Lobby Deals: Hobby Lobby became my go to place for wedding supplies. They have a wedding section that would be discounted 50% every few weeks. If items were not on sale that week, I could purchase one item at a time with a 40% off coupon that can be found online. They have so many things from signs, decor, guest books, unity candle ceremony candle holders, etc. Most of the wood signs I bought for our welcome table & guest book were only a few dollars and cheaper to buy than to make!
4 Amazon: Amazon was another great place to get wedding supplies. We had a rustic theme, so I purchased our table numbers and holders, greenery, and a special tablecloth for our sweetheart table off of Amazon. Compare pricing with other stores because sometimes sellers jack up the prices, but there are very good deals and an array of wedding supplies!
5 Wedding Favors: This is my favorite tip to share with you all!!! We got married on Pi Day (3-14) and decided to have mini pies as our wedding favors. They were not only rustic looking but also were a play on Pi Day. We purchased mini pies from Walmart and rewrapped them a day before the wedding in clear plastic treat bags, with rustic twine, and a thank you tag that I purchased from Hobby Lobby! The pies are 2 for $1, so 50 cents each!! This made our wedding favors so cute and so inexpensive! Everyone loved them!
6 Simple Details: To be honest, I stressed out about so many little things for my wedding. From the centerpieces to the welcome table, I wanted everything to be perfect. No one even remembers what was or wasn’t on their table. As long as you have good food, drinks, and music everyone is happy!!! Our guests were so ecstatic to celebrate our love and our union. It didn’t matter what kind of candles and flowers were on the table. Of course you want it to be beautiful, but my suggestion after looking back is to keep it simple!!! We went with white hydrangeas with eucalyptus greenery in mason jars for our flowers. They turned out so beautiful in their simplicity!
7 Wedding Traditions: My husband and I decided early on that we wanted our wedding to feel like “us” and we didn’t want to be pressured into decisions based on Traditions. We decided not to do the garter & bouquet toss. We also entered to our first dance song and only danced to it for a short time. No one even cared!!! My advice is to use the Traditions that feel right for you and don’t worry about the others! This is your day!
8 Schedule: I had our day of timeline to the minute and on the day of, my schedule completely went out the window! My advice is to have a general idea and schedule of events, but understand that the timeframe will change!
9 Dress & Change of Clothes: My dress had a petticoat underneath and I cannot express how hot I was from it! The skirt of my dress did not breathe and I had sweat dripping down my legs. I became so overheated that I had to go to the restroom to pick my gown up and air out my legs with cool towels. My biggest regret is not having a change of clothes for exiting the wedding. My feet hurt like hell from my heels and even though I brought a pair of ballet flats, I never had time to change shoes. I was so hot that I could only dance for a few songs and then we planned our grand exit. I was so bummed about this and didn’t even realize how hot my dress would be when I tried it on at the store and for fittings. If you have a large dress, I would suggest bringing a change of clothes for the end of the evening. I was so uncomfortable during the car ride to our hotel and was overheated. I asked my husband to take off my dress as soon as we walked into our hotel room and took a shower to cool down. I never wanted to be one of those girls who had a dress change for the reception, but I completely understand why now. My advice is to spend some time in your dress and see how comfortable you are in it after some time. This is something I didn’t do and looking back I definitely would have changed out of it in order to dance and enjoy myself!
I know this list is all over the place, but I hope this helps you with planning your special day!
submitted by TheLovelyUnicorn to Weddingsunder10k [link] [comments]
Wedding Drama JNMom & JMMIL style
Once again my life drama is not your cash cow. Do not post outside this forum.
TL;DR: Mom & Mother in law played out every mother of the bride stereotype leading up to my wedding, FDH and JYDad had to step in.
So in my last post I talked about my first birth and the garbage that came out of my JNMom's mouth. This time I thought I'd dredge up my wedding, because 13 years later she still doesn't get it.
Alright so a little back story: my parents offered to pay for my wedding and any extra money saved from the $20,000 budget would pay for my honeymoon. There were no strings to be attached and my mother 100% respected my boundaries and couldn't have been happier to only offer opinions when asked..... HAHAHAHAHAHA.... Yeah if only.
Now for the play by play: my FDH and I had been talking about getting engaged for a couple years so we knew what we wanted long before he popped the question, so I didn't need to "shop around", I knew exactly what I wanted, where I wanted it and who I wanted to participate. So just for fun let's do this in boundary stomping point form (it should be noted that we were doing a medieval theme)
- I wanted a custom version the dress from the painting "The Accolade" complete with draped and lined sleeves. Nope I got the body of the dress, but she didn't want to pay for the extra embroidery on the belt and sleeves so those were trimmed down. Then I couldn't have the sleeves because I'm a slob and I'll be to hot (my wedding was in Nov in Canada). So instead I got fitted mesh sleeves. Now anyone who has worked with fine mesh they will tell you this is a bad idea, why? Because your arms move so much they shred. Any takers on how long my sleeves lasted after I put it on? We didn't even make it through photos and I spent the rest of the night holding my arms to my sides so it didn't show.
- Groomsmen: this one is all on my in-laws. My spouse has 2 brothers, and he asks one to be his best man, the other to be a groomsman. Nope the younger decides "they're joint best men" and they both give speeches making my sister feel awful because I specifically told her only the best man and maid of honor were giving speeches.
- Guest list: my mother decides that since they're paying I have to invite all this Faaaamily that I've met twice in my life (at reunions). My FDH and I had a strick rule that guests must either know and be close to us as a couple or have made a significant impact in our childhoods. So luckily my JYDad isn't a fan of my mom's side so he put is foot down.
- Then there was the bridal fair. This is a dual M & MIL one. As indicated above, and as you've probably guessed, I do not suffer from decision paralysis. So this one is at least kind of my fault. I didn't need the Moms' help, I didn't want their help, so they were feeling left out because on my side my mom figured she'd get to bully me into what she wanted because I'm the less confrontational daughter and my sister will not put up with her crap, and on my FDH side, it was unlikely either of his brothers were going to get married (they're still not and both have kids so not happening any time soon). So as a peace offering of sorts FDH and I offer to take them to the Bridal Fair in our town. A nice day out a nice lunch and they get to offer their opinion on the few things we haven't finalized. Can you say unmitigated disaster?!!! Within 20 min of being there they tried to gang up on FDH and banish him from the conversation because the wedding isn't for the groom. Yeah, I mentioned before that his spine is super shiny... They were reminded politely but abruptly that since he is also getting married if he wants an opinion he gets an opinion.
- Self-preservation kicks in: so after all this I am pretty upset and they are continuing (both sides) to come up with stuff we "should do". To let them feel involved we have each mom a task and a due date. My mom got centerpieces, his mom got guest table. The rule was simple. I don't want to know anything until the week prior to the wedding. If I don't like it we don't use it. I picked things I didn't care about/wasn't planning to do so if it was a disaster I could opt out.
- The big day: specifically the seating plan (or lack there of) we deliberately didn't have a seating plan because we always find them uncomfortable and didn't want to force people to sit together. You'd think I kicked a puppy with how they carries on. "How will people know where to sit?, How will they know who they're next to?, What will people think?". My dad's response: Are there chairs at the tables? Well, then they know where to sit. Do they have mouths? Good they can introduce themselves like normal people. What will they think? WHO THE F*#$ CARES?!
Ugh. I love my dad. My husband's pretty cool too!
Next time: the only thing my in laws are JN about, and boy is it a doozy!
Thanks for reading everyone, this is amazingly cathartic!
submitted by IceSeraphim to JUSTNOMIL [link] [comments]
Wedding Recap: 18k Afternoon Wedding in Albuquerque for 65 guests
First,
Pictures! This is a wedding I planned for my wife. She was the stereotypical bride that always dreamed of a big fancy wedding, but she had no interest in planning it. I was the stereotypical bride that did 99% of the planning, because I had no interest in a wedding for myself but I loved researching and planning and I wanted my wife to be happy. I know a lot of hetero couples have issues with this labor imbalance, but for us it worked perfectly.
Summary
- Date & Location: 2/8/20 in Albuquerque, NM
- Length of relationship/engagement: Engaged for 6 months, together for…8 years? Depends how you count.
- Estimated budget: 20k
- Final cost: 22k including the welcome evening and rehearsal lunch. Paid mostly by my father, although we could have swung it ourselves.
- invited: 120 ish
- RSVP yes: 65, 63 attended. About 98% of the people we invited were from out of town and couldn’t make it. Her family also has some born-again Christians who refused to attend.
Costs
Venue: $500
Our venue was a historic hotel downtown. We had the welcome evening, the ceremony and the reception here. A lot of our guests stayed at the hotel and commented on how convenient it was for them.
Ceremony Fee: $500 for the ceremony space. We picked the venue specifically for this ceremony space which isn’t available in the evenings, which forced us to have an afternoon ceremony. Worth it.
Reception Venue: fee was waived because we met the minimum spend!
Food & Drinks: $10.5k
$70 per adult, which included a buffet, beewine/soft drinks, and passed appetizers for 1 hour (this price doesn’t include taxes etc). The total for the food including taxes was $6,288.
We hosted a full bar for the whole night in addition to this package, which came out to $3,468.
Dessert: We brought in gelato from Frost for $810. Their standard package feeds 200 people, so at the end of the night there was a TON of leftovers. They packed it up into pint containers for us and held it at their local store for us to pick up the next day. We hosted a lovely post-wedding ice cream social and gave it all away to local friends.
Attire: $1.5k
My attire: $77 I wasn’t too particular about my dress, so I just kind of bought the first dress that I liked (
Lulus Awaken My Love in Grey). After I bought it I got a little obsessed and made
this pinterest board featuring this dress as a wedding dress.
My alterations: $80 I got it taken in to tea length and fixed the sleeves to fit better.
My accessories: $180 This includes a veil, barefoot sandals, hair vine, and gaffers tape I used as a bra. I also wore a gold locket that my mother gave me when I was a teenager.
Wife’s attire: $259 She ordered a dress from RenzRags which was kind of a hot mess. The bodice was too small and the skirt looked cheap so she ordered a tulle skirt to go over it and a shaper to squeeze her torso. It was a little stressful, but in the end it all worked out.
Wife’s alterations: $60 To alter the dress mentioned above.
Wife’s accessories: $180 She bought nice jewelry for all her body piercings and a crystal flower crown.
Rings: $612 Her ring is a dainty 14k white gold ring with a pink moissanite which I bought on etsy. My ring is a plain 14k gold band that I found while digging in the garden a few years back. They match our personalities pretty well.
Decor: $1.6k
Florals: $877 We went full DIY on the florals. This is a combination of plastic flowers from Michaels, foam roses from Amazon, Sola wood flowers, artificial boutonnieres and flower crowns from Etsy, and 200 feet of real green garlands from Sam’s Club. The garlands were $400 and well worth it; there was enough for all the tables in the reception and to decorate the chairs for the ceremony.
Non-florals at ceremony: $417 Most of this is from the $278 wagon we bought for our young son to ride down the aisle. We also bought bubbles and a round arch.
Non-florals at cocktail hour: $54 The hotel was pretty enough, we just put up a schedule sign so people would know what’s going on. We labeled it “The Gay Agenda” and everyone loved it.
Non-florals at reception: $279 We went with long farmhouse tables so the centerpieces had to be simple. I found some cheap geometric candle holders on amazon, put some flickering LED candles in them, and arranged them around the garlands on the table. There were also a lot of leftover sola wood flowers so we arranged them in the garlands too.
Stationery: $400
Save-the-dates/Programs./Menus: $0 we skipped all of these: save-the-dates because of our short engagement (we just sent out our invitations reallllly early), programs because we had a super short ceremony, and menus because we had a buffet. I don’t think anyone missed them.
Invitations + postage: $245 We just bought something off of Minted. We ended up with like 50 extra invitations somehow, so we probably could have spent a lot less here.
Thank you cards + postage: $100 Again, just something cute from Minted.
Escort cards: $82 Another DIY. We went with named tables, so I bought some nice tree illustrations from Etsy for table cards, made a seating chart spreadsheet that generated the escort cards for me, and printed out the escort cards on some nice cardstock. This seemed like a good idea until I was cutting out the escort cards at 1 AM two days before the wedding. I don’t recommend this unless you have a way to cut paper in bulk.
Other Vendors: 3.8k
Coordinator: $0 The venue includes a venue coordinator and I think that was all we needed. I wasn’t super stoked about the whole wedding thing, but I love planning things. I think if we had an event coordinator I would’ve enjoyed the day less.
Music: $1371 We hired a string duo for the ceremony and a DJ for the reception. I’m really glad we got the string musicians.
Photographer: $1882 This includes 7 hours of shooting, with a second shooter for about 5 of those hours.
Hair Stylist: $8 We didn’t want anything super fancy, so my sister-in-law did both of our hair. The only thing I had to buy was some hair wax (which I will probably never use again). She did a great job!
Make-up Artist (+ trial): 250 This includes two trials and one day-of face. My wife found a local mua who came out and did a trial for us both. I ended up hating it even though she did a great job, so I did my own makeup day-of along with our brides’ maids.
Officiant: $0 Our lovely friend of 10+ years did the ceremony for us as a wedding gift.
Tips: $300 I took out this much for tips and I’m sure it all went to that, but I couldn’t tell you who got what.
Gifts: $150
Wedding party gifts: $150 for bridesmaids boxes. Everyone also got sweet thank-you cards.
Additional Events: 3.7k
Rehearsal Lunch: $1000? I got a reservation at a cafe down the street from the venue and we just all walked over after the rehearsal. I wanted to pay for this, but my dad got to the check before me so I have no idea how much we spent.
Welcome Party: 2.7k Since everyone was coming from out of town, we had a little cocktail party at the venue the night before.
Additional Info
Timeline
We fell in love with this ceremony space but it was only available before 2 PM, and my wife really wanted to have the standard dinner & dancing reception, so our timeline was a little non-traditional:
1:30 Ceremony (we put 1 on the invitations and one of her cousins still missed it, lol)
1:45 Receiving line into cocktail hour+
2-ish to 3:30 Cocktail Hour+
3:45 First dance and parent dances
4:00 Prayer and dinner (we had a buffet)
4:45 Speeches/Toasts, dance floor open
6:00 Dessert, more dancing
10:00 Late night Loteria to finish the night
What Went Well
Pretty much everything. I originally didn’t want a wedding, but in the end I’m glad my wife convinced me into it. I was worried about so much stuff not working out (like our last-minute welcome evening, wonky timeline, super-short ceremony, non-traditional dresses, the seating chart, the dance floor) but all of it turned out perfectly fine. I’m also really glad we played Loteria (mexican bingo) at the end of the night once the crowd had thinned out and everyone was very drunk. Her family plays it a lot at family gatherings so it was a nice way to bring the two sides of our family together!
Things I Would Have Changed
I definitely wouldn’t have DIY’ed the escort cards, it was so much work at the very last minute. We did have some trouble getting people to RSVP, but I think this was mainly cultural, so probably unavoidable (her family’s weddings are usually much more casual and folks just kind of show up).
submitted by weddingrecap02082020 to weddingplanning [link] [comments]
Budget/Breakdown: $30k MN July wedding, 100 guests, Long engagement
First of all, PHOTOS! Background info We live in Minnesota, were high school sweethearts, and are in our mid-20s. Of the 10 years we’ve dated, we’ve lived together for 5 years and were engaged for 2.5 years. I planned everything myself, and we paid for the wedding ourselves.
Pros of a long (2+ years) engagement: - It felt right for us and allowed us to leisurely enjoy being engaged
- Plenty of time for research and venue visits
- Most vendors were available on our date
- Costs were spread out and thus easier to afford
- Months at a time with nothing wedding-related to do (helped mitigate burn out)
- No cold feet. We both felt VERY ready to be married when the day finally came
Cons of a long engagement: - DH’s grandpa died two months before the wedding. If we had a shorter engagement, he would have been able to attend.
- With nothing else to do for months, I overthought and doubted decisions
- I got bored and created things for myself to do (which resulted in blowing the budget)
- The month leading up to the wedding was still stressful and crazy, despite how much I planned ahead
Budget and Gifts Initial budget: $20k
Final cost: $29k
Our parents/grandparents gave us $17k in total, and gifts from guests totaled $3k.
Guest List If I had to plan a wedding again, I might elope, only to avoid the guest-list drama.
My guest list: 80
Parents’ guest list: 200+
Guests invited: 125
Guests RSVP’d yes: 101
Guests invited late due to parents begging: 7
Guests who actually attended: 98 (2 of whom RSVD’d no)
Theme My vague theme was "royal wedding in the park." My inspiration words were, "Colorful, elegant, simple, and classic."
Final Costs Day-of Coordinator: $1175 If I could only give one piece of advice, it would be to hire a coordinator. Nothing major went wrong, thanks to our coordinator. Neither me nor my family had to lift a finger to set up or tear down. It was an entirely relaxing, wonderful day.
Attire: $4430 In my experience, buying my dress two years before the wedding was great. I recommend waiting to buy your accessories, though. I thought I needed this $500 belt, but by the wedding day, I liked my dress better without it. I only wore it for the reception.
3 bridesmaids skirts (DIY): $230
My dress: $1200
Accessories: $700
Alterations (hem, take in the bust, bustle, add straps): $550
Groom tux and attire (rented from The Black Tux): $200
My ring (excluding engagement ring): $900
His ring: $650
Hair and Makeup: $1200 I let everyone choose whether they got hair and makeup done and how they wanted to look. Everyone but my mom opted in. I disliked the hair stylist I was assigned. Even after after a second trial, my updo was frizzy, sloppy, and coming out before the ceremony. Bridesmaids hair also came out before the ceremony.
My hair and makeup (including a trial): $400
2nd hair trial: $65
3 Bridesmaids and MOG haimake up: $600
Tip: $150
Stationary: $328 I designed and printed our invitation suites myself, which was stupid. The paper I bought wasn’t made for printer ink, so although they looked beautiful at first, most of the ink rubbed off in the mail. In hindsight, I should have had them professionally printed on good paper. I spent hours on those invites--even doing calligraphy for every name and address--just to have them smudge.
STDs from Minted: $118
Invites (DIY): $100
Thank You Cards: $25
Postage: $85
Venue: $3480 Both the ceremony and reception were at a local park with a lovely indoor space.
Counseling: $160 In hindsight, we should have skipped pre-marital counseling. We have a fantastic relationship, but I thought we should try it. We did Prepare-Enrich, which reported we had no weaknesses, and had an hour of therapy. Afterward, the therapist said we could continue but didn’t think we needed to.
Dance Lessons: $80 This covered four dance classes. It was a group class designed for engaged couples practicing for their first dance. We had so much fun! The weekly lessons were like date nights. We had no prior dance experience and learned a ton.
Officiant and License: $515 Food for the drama llamas: Shortly after we got engaged, I asked my distant cousin (a pastor) to marry us and he agreed. Two years went by. I struggled to get him on the phone or talk about logistics. When we did finally talk, he wouldn’t let us get a word in and talked for two hours about how we needed more pre-marital counseling. Two months before the wedding, he said he didn’t feel comfortable marrying us because we live together and aren’t religious. I was annoyed but relieved, and we hired an officiant.
Officiant: $400
Marriage license: $115
Photo and Video: $4575 For videography, I wanted raw footage because I dislike modern wedding videos. Before hiring him, I told our videographer I didn’t want to see things the photographer was already capturing. I wanted him to film stuff I would miss. Candid moments. Family arriving, groomsmen goofing off, my sister carrying my train, my little cousins playing. But instead, he stuck to the traditonal script and filmed bridal party posing for pictures, the ceremony, speeches, and the dance floor. In hindsight, I should have just “hired” a friend to be the videographer. On the other end of the spectrum, our photographer was incredible!
Photography: $3800
Videography: $775
Food and drink: $5815 Many people doubted my decision to have tacos for dinner and donuts for dessert (no cake). (At least DH was super excited about the food I picked!) I defended my decisions, and it turned out great.
Appetizers and buffet dinner: $4155
Donuts: $220
Open bar (beer and wine only): $1440
DJ/entertainment: $1125 In addition to a DJ, we had ping pong and a retro arcade cabinet (both borrowed from DH’s uncle), which people enjoyed. I’m sad DH and I never got a chance to play.
Decor: $1370 I won’t go into the saga that was finding cylinder vases and pillar candles for a reasonable price. The lesson is to do all DIY as early as possible. Just do it now because it will not go as planned and you’ll have to resort to plan B (or C or D.)
Chair rental cost surprised me. We needed 100 basic chairs for 20 minutes, and most vendors quoted me $1k. My friend’s dad rents chairs for graduation parties but was willing to do weddings too, so I got a deal. If you’re looking for basic chairs, try searching for grad party rentals instead of wedding rentals.
Vases and candles: $50 and my sanity
Blue goblets from eBay: $540
Ring box: $40
Ceremony arch (DIY): $45
Place cards (DIY): $20
Paper cranes (DIY): $5
Fake greenery for headtable: $100
Chair rental for ceremony: $570
Floral: $2440 Flowers on ceremony arch: $400
Floral centerpieces: $100 each
Greenery centerpieces: $50 each
My bouquet: $300
Bridesmaids bouquets: $150 each
Boutonnieres: $15 each
Corsages for moms: $30 each
We had some random buds scattered on other tables too, which were $50 per table. The rest is taxes and delivery fee.
Gifts: $75 I gave my bridesmaids silk butterfly clips from Etsy to wear in their hair. DH gave his dad and groomsmen custom flasks. To each of the parents, I wrote heartfelt notes.
Bridesmaids gifts: $25
Groomsmen gifts: $50
Parent gifts: $0
Honeymoon: $2300 Four days in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We’ve been there several times before, which meant we didn’t have to plan or research anything. DH grandparents offered the use of their timeshare, so hotel was free. We waited too long to book flights, so they got expensive.
Hotel: $0
Flights: $1800
Food/activities: ~$500
What Went Well When we started planning, DH and I had a conversation about expectations. I asked, “What makes it a wedding to you?” His answer surprised me, and it helped me prioritize things while planning.
Hiring a day-of coordinator was the best money spent.
I was worried about being sick with anxiety all day. My mom told me if I expected myself to be anxious, I would be. I took her advice and actively corrected my thinking. I pictured myself calm and happy as often as possible. In moments of stress, I focused on things I was excited about. In the weeks leading up, I told myself over and over I would be at ease and carefree. And it was so! I couldn’t believe it!
If it’s going to be hot and you’re doing photos outside, bring cooling towels. Our bridal party loved them in between pictures.
If you don’t want to do something, then don’t. No one will miss it. We skipped a lot of “traditions” and no one noticed. We had no guestbook, cake cutting, father-daughter dance, bouquet toss, garter toss, grand entrance, or grand exit.
We did a receiving line, and it was the best. It got the hugs and congrats done right away and ensured we greeted every guest. It only took about twenty minutes. Then, at the reception, we were free to mingle with whomever we wanted to talk to more. No one pulled us aside or interrupted us during the reception.
Instead of a father-daughter dance, my dad played accordion and guests participated in a group folk dance. It meant a lot of my dad. It was also a sneaky way to get a lot of people on the dance floor for when the DJ started.
I was surprised by how much power the bride has. I realized this when people on the dance floor mimicked my moves and responded to everything I did. If I clapped my hands to the beat, so did they. If I left the floor, they stopped dancing. If I pointed at someone across the floor, they pointed back and we sang lyrics together. As a shy person, I’ve never experienced anything like this. Once I realized my power, I used it for good. I made a point to dance with people who had no date or knew no one. I thanked and complimented people profusely. I visited more tables than I normally would have.
What Went Wrong The list below is nitpicking for the sake of this post. I mean it when I say the day was absolutely perfect and nothing on the list below affected our happiness.
- My dress was too long, which made it almost impossible to walk without holding up my skirt. The only time this really mattered was walking down the aisle. Every time I tried to look up at my DH and enjoy the moment, I would trip on my skirt. It kind of spoiled the moment.
- We only registered for gifts at the insistence of our moms. It wasn’t worth the effort because most people gave us cash anyway. I wish we hadn’t bothered.
- The DIY invitations smudged in the mail (see above)
- I forgot to give my beautiful, sparkly belt to the photographer to include in the details shots. Oops!
- In the morning, while steaming my dress, my brand new steamer malfunctioned. My mom had to run out for a new one with only 30 minutes to spare.
- During the ceremony, holding back tears made my nose run. The officiant handed me a tissue, but I wasn’t going to blow my nose during our beautiful ceremony! I couldn’t even give it a good wipe because that would look gross and smear my makeup. I dabbed a few times, but the snot just kept coming! These are the thoughts that occupied my mind throughout our ceremony. By the time of our first kiss, the snot had trickled onto my upper lip, and I felt sorry for DH having to kiss me. I brought it up later and we both laughed. Now it makes for a hilarious memory!
- The expensive floral centerpieces, which I had carefully planned to be on VIP tables, ended up on the wrong tables.
- The videographer didn’t film the “behind-the-scenes” moments like I wanted (see above)
- My grandma, who is in early stages of dementia, got lost and didn’t arrive early for family pictures. She arrived just in time for the ceremony, luckily. We took pictures with her during happy hour instead.
- I had my period on the wedding day. I think I earned some kind of female achievement award for changing tampons in a white ballgown! My sisteMOH was a rock star.
- I couldn’t eat more than two bites of dinner. This was a combination of being too hot, the very tight bodice of my dress, and adrenaline. I felt like Scarlet O’Hara at a BBQ.
- My poor bouquet was neglected at the end of the night. I put it in a vase during the reception and forgot about it. The next day, I found it stuffed in a box (with no vase or water) where it had sat all night. It was heartbreaking to see it so wilted. I put it in water, which perked it up, but it could have lasted so much longer. I should have designated someone to take care of my bouquet.
- The beautiful silk blue ribbon wrapped around my bouquet was lost (likely thrown away during clean up.) Even now, seven months later, I still think about my lost ribbon sometimes and feel sad.
Finally, I just want to say thank you to this wonderful community. I got a lot of ideas and support from this fantastic group. This place is unique among subreddits and online communities. Please never change, Weddit!
submitted by mr-pockets to weddingplanning [link] [comments]
Wedding Recap: October 12, 2019, Ventura, CA—Vintage Chicano theme
It’s been 6 months since my husband and I got married! I always loved reading through wedding recaps because it helped me establish budgets and I found so many cool items/ideas I was able to incorporate into my own wedding! I know this is a difficult time for those that have had to reschedule their wedding or are thinking about having to do that, but I hope it gives you more time to create the wedding you and your partner wants.
Here are some photos:
Blog from my wedding photographer Rodney Ty My personal favorites:
Us and the
Details Overview: My husband and I knew that we wanted to have a wedding that reflected our style as couple. Our goal was to have our guests think, “this is definitely Kat and Angel’s wedding!” We have a lot of friends who are talented artists or own their business so we asked for their help (if they were able to) instead of purchasing a gift for us. I put an * to signify items that these were made/created/discounted by friends and family because some of the prices may seem unrealistic.
Our theme: Us aka Vintage Chicano
Colors: Hunter green, orange, and yellow
Top 3 most important things for us: Food—We love Mexican food and we’re Latinx. I’m vegan and he wanted to have the taco truck that he grew up eating.
Alcohol—Our family and friends love to party and we love to throw parties! We wanted to make sure we had most liquors available so we purchased a wide variety. We had craft beer and our friends brewed a beer in our honor—PS I love craft beer and weirdly my husband has never had a drink in his life!
Music—A common theme throughout our decor was music (records and boomboxes). We also needed a really good DJ because we love to dance and knew we wanted to spend most of the night doing that. We got that and spent the night having and awesome time!
(Photography was pretty high as well. We love taking photos together and have had some great ones over the years--wanted to add some to our collection.)
Favorite/Memorable Things Support of Our Friends and Family: People were so excited for us to get married! Leading up the wedding people offered their physical labor, time, energy, or craft. This allowed us to have a high guest count, but not spend a ton of money. I’m forever grateful to these people and have the privilege of having special memories from our wedding.
Our Own Beer “Love on the Radio”: Strawberry Hazy IPA brewed by our best friends. I love hazy IPAs and he is from Oxnard (strawberry city) and loves boomboxes, which is how they came up with the concept. They created a label and made glasses for our family and close friends. They did a pouring at our rehearsal dinner since our wedding party would most likely not be able to try it during cocktail hour.
Signature drinks and Pouring Shots: We had fun creating these with our friends and personal tastes in mind. “La Ramona” is our cat who is a lil nutty. At one point towards the end of the night, the bartender allowed me to get behind the bar and pour
shots for all my guests who wanted to participate. It was epic!
Dedication hour: We love Art Laboe and listen to his dedication show on the radio. We wanted to incorporate this into our wedding somehow. During cocktail hour, we had our friends and family write “dedications” that were read throughout the night. It was super fun to randomly hear our friends tell us how much they love us!
BUDGET BREAKDOWN Initial Budget: $20,000 Total Spent: ~$30,000 (a little less, but I assumed we are missing some items)
Attendees: 196 guests
Venue/Rentals/Catering/Beverage: $12, 996 - Venue ($3,005):
- Olivas Adobe This is a local historical park that allows you to rent the property for an hourly rate, which is pretty affordable. We chose this venue because they allow you to bring your own food and we wanted to bring in a taquero and vegan food (a majority of venues in our area require the use of their caterers). We did have to bring everything to the venue because its run by the city, but it wasn’t a deterrent because we had a vision of how we wanted it to look. I learned about this venue from a family member, it was not listed on any of the wedding sites!
- Rentals: E-Rentals--Great company that allowed us to negotiate with them. They were great with communication and made a layout of the ceremony and reception area that we were able to use for planning. They did everything from chairs and tables to stringing lights.
- Caterers:
- Cocktail:
- Family friend/caterer* ($800): We asked our family friend to make a cut up fruit and tajin station for cocktail hour. Think LA fruit street vendor. We also paid her to serve the vegan food and cut our wedding cake, which is why the cost is so high.
- Dinner:
- Husband’s Favorite Taco Truck ($2,000): $10 per person for unlimited tacos, rice, beans, and all the salsas.
- Norte Sur ($170): Vegan nachos, pastor tacos, rice, beans and salsas for 50 vegans and veggies.
- Beverage
- Bartender ($1,565 including tip): Our bartender brought the physical bar, all the ice, cups, mixers, and garnishes. The bartender brought another person to help during the cocktail hour to keep the lines down.
- Alcohol ($1,200): We purchased all the alcohol from Costco and we still have sooooo much! We had three signature drinks, almost full bar, wine, and 2 kegs from a local brewery.
- Liquor License ($173): Required by our venue.
Photography: $2800 (including tip) Rodney Ty Photography: He was my friend’s wedding photographer. I love his pictures and the mood he is able to set. He is great at candid shots and uses film and digital photography.
Florist*: ~$680 - Centerpieces and bouquets:
- Maciel Flowers* (~$500): Close family friend owns this company and is a wholesaler. They put together our centerpieces (16 tables) and my bouquet. My friend put together the bridesmaid’s bouquets (10 bouquets) from the flowers we purchased directly from them.
- Cactus and Succulents ($180): Local business who put together centerpieces in terracotta pots and small glass bowls I purchased. She also allowed me to borrow cactus/succulents for the aisle.
DJ/MC/Photobooth* ($2,300): - Vendor: Provision Entertainment •
- Our nephew (full blown adult) started his own entertainment company that provided us with sound for the ceremony, amazing music during cocktail and the reception, a bilingual MC, and a photobooth during the whole reception. I would have paid them all the money because they were amazing, I received so many compliments on the music and MC alone! We partied hard that night.
DecoMisc (~$2,941): This is where we went a little crazy, but we wanted to ensure that the idea of Us came through. We wanted our family and friends to come to our wedding and recognize that it represented us to our core. Here are all the details we are super proud of!
Desserts ($853.50): - Vegan Wedding Cake* ($400): 2 tier cake, vanilla/strawberry/almond on top and oreo cookie chocolate cake on bottom. 1 sheet cake of red velvet. There was a total of 125 pieces. People loved it!
- Vegan Donuts ($328.50): 100 chocolate sprinkle donuts and 100 strawberry sprinkle donuts.
- Sugar Cookies (free): Our other friend who is a baker surprised us and brought them the day of!
- Cake Topper ($125): VW Bugs in our wedding color (see picture of cake)
Bride’s Attire ($1,566, including alteration): - Vendor: Wear Your Love Zoey Top ($500), Bhldn Clarke Skirt ($600), Veil from Etsy ($153), Emerald Earrings from eclectic ($56), huarches from Ethnic Heritage ($32).
- I knew exactly what I wanted so I DIY my dress by buying a top that was made for me and a skirt that I loved! I have large breasts, but I love A line shape so I knew I needed to find a lower waisted skirt so it didn’t delete my waist.
Groom’s Attire (~$655.00): - Vendor: Hockerty (green velvet suit custom made), Undandy (custom wing tips), and boutonniere and engraved tie clip from Etsy.
- My husband is a very fashionable dude so I’m not surprised he wanted custom everything!
Wedding Bands ($2,500): • Vendor: Sueno Jewelry Studio
- My engagement ring is my mother’s wedding ring. My father passed away 15 years ago so she hasn’t worn it much and wanted one of her children to have it. When my husband spoke to my mother about us getting married she unexpectedly gave it to him. When he proposed, I immediately recognized my mother’s ring.
- We worked with our jeweler to make custom engagement rings. I love emeralds and more dainty jewelry so I wanted that be reflected in my wedding band.
Miscellaneous Attire ($360): 3 flower girl dresses from Bhldn for our three nieces (one didn’t make it down the aisle because she was too nervous).
Makeup/Hair ($100/2 $50 gift certificates for my friends): - My two grad school/forever friends did my makeup. I love how they do their own hair and makeup so I asked for this in lieu of a wedding gift. I do not wear any makeup regularly so I knew I wanted to look like myself. We practiced 3 times and I love how it came out. I asked for Chicano pin-up style to match my personal style and wedding.
Paper Costs: Save the Dates, Invites, and Postage ($883) - Save the Dates Postcards--Vendor: Minted ($132.55) for 120 pieces
- Invites o Vender: JP Stationary ($622.43) for 120 invites. This included papel picado themed invite and info card (Electronic RSVP)
- Postage (97.95) o National park (we love camping) stamps for save the dates and papel picado for the invites
- Personalized VW Bus Stamp from Etsy ($30)
Bridal Party Gifts (~$450) - We had 10 groomsmen and 10 bridesmaids so everything cost a lot in general, but we tried to keep is reasonable.
- Groomsmen: Tie, engraved tie clip and tie bar, and boutonniere.
- Bridesmaids
- Initial ask gift: homemade candle, engraved beer jar, and swatch of color for bridesmaids dresses (hunter green)
- Final gift: engraved cactus tote with water bottle, snacks, tissues, and small emergency kit.
Rehearsal Dinner ($634.28) - Vendor: StoneFire Grill: Full dinner and dessert for 50 guests. This included our bridesmaids, groomsmen, families, and their partners. We had a great time!
Please feel free to reach out if you want any further details on anything I purchased or general questions!
submitted by chingona_nerdo to weddingplanning [link] [comments]
~$55k NYC "South Beach meets Brooklyn", black tie, 100-person wedding recap
OK team *cracks knuckles*.
I've been itching to do a recap since the wedding because they were SO helpful to me in the planning process, so I'm hoping I can offer some folks similar help.
10/13/19 was the best day ever and super balmy weather in the city. If any of my other NYC brides are gambling on a mid-October wedding, may our good juju be with you!
First: PHOTO TAX, DUH. Second: Obligatory BEST DAY EVER. I was prepared for so much to go wrong, and it was end to end a total dream. Bless!
Third: Getting married in NYC is absolutely NO JOKE, so despite the hefty price tag we saved absolutely everywhere we could, and also wanted to make sure the wedding represented our values.
Which is why we:
- Split tasks fairly equally, playing to each other's strengths. Husband took care of DJ and AV, rehearsal dinner, and coordinating with our DOC, and I took care of decor + flowers, cake, image capture, etc. It worked out beautifully - but also drove me a little nuts that people assumed I was singlehandedly planning the whole wedding, even AT the wedding. Like, give the modern man a little more credit y'all!
- Prioritized working with small businesses, mainly women-run (I'm a business owner myself, so this felt great)
- Ditched the bouquet-toss and garter toss (I gave my bouquet to my aunt and uncle, as it was their 35th wedding anniversary). No judgement AT ALL to those who do it, but we were limited on time and those two traditions didn't really line up with us.
- Focused on finding photographers who prioritized candid photos over posed, because we come from a hilarious group of people who are sometimes uncomfortable in front of the camera, LOL.
- Going with not-quite-traditional wedding music. We're indie/blog rock kids, but we managed to do a mix of old school and new school and everyone was boogey-ing down!
- We wanted to represent the city we met (Miami) in the city where we fell in love (Brooklyn). Hence the neon signs and tropical florals!
- We loved the idea of "mix and match" bridal and groom parties, so bridesmaids were given a color and so were groomsmen, and we were all off to the races
OK here we go!
Original budget: $40k (we could've swung this, but my dad came in with an extra financial assist at the last minute, so we were able to include a few more trimmings!)
Actual budget: ~$52,000
Not included in this total: my dress, incidentals, groom's gift, etc. So I'll include those details further down.
Invited: 112 (including a number of family members we knew wouldn't be able to attend)
Attended: 100 on the nose, I believe.
What went right: Uhhh pretty much everything.
I was having wedding nightmares for MONTHS leading up to the big day so I was ready for anything, but it all went so smoothly! Even the weather cooperated, and we had a beautiful harvest moon on the night of.
What went wrong: Two slight snafu's.
One was the speeches, and this wasn't really anyone's fault - my sister went MIA due to my nephew getting sick and so the order of speeches went completely haywire.
The other was with returning one of our rentals. I felt TERRIBLE about this, but The Box House ended up sorting it out and paying extra to have them picked up, as no one had sent them back. We were on our honeymoon through most of this so I'm not sure what went wrong or where wires got crossed, but it is what it is. All's well that ends well, I hope.
Budget breakdown: Venue, The Box House Hotel: $35,322 + $550 additional tip
This was obviously our #1 expense, but ah, The Box House Hotel, they were a god damn dream and worth every penny.
Aside from the beautiful hotel itself and the gorgeous roof and views, their all-inclusive rate was what sold us.
For the uninitiated, in NYC there's this whole thing about renting venues as "raw spaces" and then bringing in eeeverything. This can be budget-friendly for some folks but for us with our schedules, it would've meant hiring a planner, DOC, and all the things to do the heavy lifting for us.
The Box House provided all the food, top shelf bar, wait staff and furniture, DOC, set up, break down, etc. All we had to do was roll up, party, and roll out. The food and drink was AMAZING and the set the space up beautifully. Krista our DOC was incredible and had everything taken care of for us, I still shed a slight tear just thinking about it!
Also the sommelier was VERY patient with my wino dad, who also wound up bringing 10 bottles of "birth year wines" aka wines he's saved from 1989, the year I was born. He's done this with all the sibs. It was SO GOOD.
I should also add that we got married mid-October on a Sunday over a 3-day weekend, which was still technically off-season and they honored the Sunday rate. We also very much got on the "ground floor" with TBH, which is another reason why the rate was comparably still so good. They'd only been open a year when we found them, and only had a few reviews on The Knot and Wedding Wire, but this is often the key in NYC - do the research to find somewhere relatively new or in an up and coming neighborhood, and jump on it when you find it. We did this with our apartment too, hahaha!
Florals, VZ designs (@veezeyfloraldesign) + Foliage Garden: $3,058
So Kelly is a one-woman show who only does small events, and is FABULOUS at what she does. I came to her with a super modest budget ($1,500) that she was able to work with, and was willing to do things like reuse bridesmaid bouquets for centerpieces, all that stuff.
Due to my dad's help, we were able to avoid that happening and up the budget at the last minute.
SHE DID SUCH AN AMAZING JOB ON EVERYTHING, especially my bouquet. I was so-so about most wedding florals so I wanted my bouquet to represent my life (calla lilies because my MIL carried them, small white blooms that looked like orange blossoms to represent the state I was raised, and white roses to mimic my mother's wedding bouquet). Because my dress was form-fitting I also didn't want a giant circle to be covering my waistline, so they worked beautifully cradled in one arm.
We also ended up re-using the bridesmaid bouquets on the sweetheart table and it worked out beautifully.
To save some money and add a bit more lushness, we also rented ferns for the aisle/additional decor! We rented 10 plants, two 5-foot and eight 3-foot, for just over $500. They really added to the space and didn't create a ton of waste, which we loved! Foliage Garden was fabulous to work with, they dropped 'em off and picked 'em up, no problem.
Decor (custom signage, flamingo neons, etc.): $3,000
Our custom neon sign + rentals from NameGlo ate up a lot of this, but we also picked up the neon flamingos for about $16/pop on Amazon and they worked BEAUTIFULLY. The only problem was, they were basically out only wedding favors and were gifted to one person at each table - and people got drunk and kept stealing them from one another, hahaha. Whoops!
Also, bonus: our cats Ham and Eva featured as our signature cocktails!
Image capture*:* $3,750
We got REALLY LUCKY to have photographers (@earthmarkphotography) and wedding videographers (don't have the video yet, will link when I do) who were willing to work with us on price in exchange for some of my own professional services. Turned out to be a HUGE win/win, and they did a beautiful job.
Dana and Vince - photographers - were BEYOND fabulous. We wanna be their best friends. They hail from Gettysburg, PA and made us feel so comfortable. They were worth every penny and so much more!
Bridal Suite: $1,970
We wanted to be on-site for the day and The Box House Hotel has a huge penthouse with two bedrooms, two wrap around balconies, an on-site kitchen, etc. Was perfect for all of us getting ready, both bridesmaids and groomsmen!
It was so, so nice to be on-site the entire day, no one was ever rushed or panicked. If you're getting married at/near a hotel, can I just say: location, location, location.
Wedding DJ, Stylus DJ Entertainment: $1,125
Big ups DJ Karin! We found her via Stylus DJ Entertainment (women owned and operated!) and we absolutely loved her. She did a fantastic job with our eclectic taste, and we boogeyed all night.
Cake, Lucky Bird Bakes: $800
LUCKY BIRD BAKES I CAN'T EVEN HANDLE IT. I used to live around the corner from Amy's shop so working with her was a no brainer. We did one big 3-tier that was lemon vanilla creme fraiche with raspberries in the center, with two satellite cakes of fig and dark chocolate. So yummy. Would eat it every day if I could.
AV guys: $1,458
These were required vendors with The Box House Hotel, and did a great job!
Invitations, Minted: $312
We did realllly simple ones with cut-away RSVP postcards from Minted, I think? They looked so great and classy, and didn't break the bank!
Additional expenses: (This is stuff paid for by myself or other family members that weren't part of the budget)
Dress + alterations**:** ~$1,600
The dress was a Maggie Sottero and I picked it up from RK Bridal in the city for around $900.
My experience there was so-so, but I actually found the dress itself at a boutique in Florida where it was $1,400. Weird to find something LESS expensive in NYC compared to FL, but I count ma blessings.
Alterations were from Tailors Atelier who were WONDERFUL. I went down two dress sizes during the planning process and they made it fit too the skin, and added wonderful removable sleeves. 10/10 would use again.
Jewelry: $300
After scrolling Etsy for WEEKS I wound up going with an amazing Indian designer named Reena, of Reemat Designs, who just happened to my my MoH's mom's best friend. She's pretty famous with the Indian wedding and Bollywood set - which I didn't know! - and is so so so so sweet to a lil' white girl like me.
She hooked me up with some seriously show-stopping jewels that I full intend to wear again. Local girls - she's got a showroom in NJ, hit her up!
Reena did my necklaces and earrings, my cousin Tracey lent me the bracelet and the tiny fancy clutch.
Wedding rings: $1100 together
Mine is vintage and cost about $700 courtesy of Alison from Reverie NYC who we also sourced my engagement ring from! His is solid silver from a jewelry spot in Manhattan that I forget the name of, but was $400.
Hair and makeup**:** ~$700 plus tip
I paid for myself, my mom, and my sister who was my Matron of Honor. Tatiana Li was our HMUA (
https://www.instagram.com/tatianalimua/) and was SO AMAZING OMG. So sweet, such a wonderful team, and so efficient. We were actually done EARLY. Insane.
Bridesmaids paid for their own glam!
Bridesmaid gifts**:** ~$400
I had a Matron of Honor (sister), Maid of Honor (bestie), and 4 bridesmaids. They were gifted with robes and monogram clutches on the day of, courtesy of Etsy!
Groom's gift: ~$1,000
Since my husband got me such an amazing ring I wanted to return the favor with a "commitment gift" of sorts. My ring is vintage so I wanted to get him something vintage as well. I wound up settling on a vintage Omega watch in the Emerald line which was only made from 1971-1973.
It's fully restored (though fun fact, in the watch collection world, having all original parts fetches the highest price) and just stunning. Since most Omega watches are 3x as much, I felt great about my choice. Purchase was made through the Connoisseur of Time store on Etsy.
Polaroid table + flamingo centerpieces + guestbook + table numbers + various sundries: ~$400
We couldn't afford a photo booth, but a polaroid table ended up working even better than expected!
We already had a polaroid camera of our own and borrowed a couple more from friends, and thew down on on enough film for ~120 shots. Didn't end up using them all, but people took snaps and glued them in the guest book!
Flamingo centerpieces were something like $16 each for 10 tables, we ordered around 14 just in case.
Guestbook was $40 on Amazon.
Table numbers were $6 each on Etsy.
Rehearsal dinner @ Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club: N/A
Had to add this one even though the in-laws paid because it was GENIUS.
Husband suggested we all go somewhere that's not just a dinner but a group activity, so we headed to Royal palms Shuffleboard Club in Gowanus to play a little shuffleboard with the parents, grandparents, and wedding party. They catered with food truck food and it was F A B U L O U S. Such a great way for everyone to meet and bond.
Also we set up an Uber code so people could charge their rides to us. Not too many folks too advantage but the ones who did loved it too.
OK. I think that's it? Any questions - get at me y'all!
I now have so much useless wedding knowledge that can be put to good use, hahahaha.
THANKS FOR READING MY RECAP. AND THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP ALONG THE WAY, REDDIT!
Edit: Some details!
Edit edit: MOAR DETAILS. + then some MOAR.
submitted by brooklynbride19 to weddingplanning [link] [comments]
Twin Cities historic mansion wedding recap and budget breakdown
| https://preview.redd.it/954omvhha0641.jpg?width=4556&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f019b0c2875805af32b7c23f939d6ad4784d76a7 TL;DR our wedding was awesome, here's an Imgur post: https://imgur.com/a/xu3GYJb I've been meaning to do a recap of my April (😳) wedding for about seven months now! Weddit was an amazing resource during our 17 months of wedding planning, so hopefully this helps someone else. I apologize for the epic novel :) We were originally hoping to spend $15-20k total on the wedding and ended up at just over $27k, including Friday night festivities (and just about every other wedding-related cost, as you’ll see below) but excluding my engagement ring and the honeymoon. We invited 150 and had 90 attend. Venue and Catering - $10,800 I'm from the Twin Cities, but my husband and I live in Oklahoma, so we planned the whole thing from out of state, and had a large number of out-of-state guests (he's from Pittsburgh, and we have friends from all over). It would have been SO much more stressful without my mom and my sister--they were amazingly helpful in visiting venues for us in the early stages, so we only made one special weekend visit 14 months before the wedding to check out the top three venues ourselves. We had a few venue priorities: - Making it easy and "worth it" to attend for our many out-of-state guests--so we really wanted to do a full dinner on a Saturday, and be in St. Paul or Minneapolis to maximize the vacation aspect for people (didn’t want them stranded in the suburbs)
- A venue where we could bring our own alcohol--both to save money, and because we're beer nerds and had a **vision** for our beverage menu that beverage caterers couldn't deliver
After extensive research I ended up with a list of BYOB venues in St. Paul and Minneapolis, if anyone wants that. Our venue ended up being a great choice--the fact that it was such a full-service venue (they also handle the catering, some coordination, and most decor) made long-distance planning much easier. Their pricing was also really a la carte, so we were able to tailor it to our budget. Staff were great to work with, the food was great, the venue was gorgeous and it has a really good "fancy house party" vibe that was perfect for us! We were hoping it would be warm enough to have the ceremony outside by April 27th, but even if it hadn't been a forecast of wintry mix that day (!!) the yard was still pretty bedraggled by then. We had the ceremony in the living room instead and it was beautiful. The room flip afterwards was so perfectly executed I don’t even know when and how it happened—it was as if by elves 😊 Dessert - $300 I was all about mass-produced pies (Bakers Square, if you're familiar), but apparently my mom and husband had strong feelings about cake 🤷♀️ I'm glad they took over most of the decision-making on this! My mom suggested a bakery near her office, and my husband really wanted to do a small cake and cupcakes in a mix of flavors. It ended up being affordable and everything was insanely delicious (and I'm NOT a cake person). Picking out the different cupcake, frosting, and filling flavors was weirdly fun. This category also includes the super basic cupcake boxes I ordered from Oriental Trading Company for people to take home leftovers (a pretty awesome idea, if I do say so myself). Alcohol - $1,500 This category includes bartender service through our venue and all the beer and wine (we didn’t have liquor). We had a little leftover beer, which my family drank, and a lot of leftover wine, which we were able to return (so that’s subtracted from this cost). My planning spreadsheet indicates 12.5 cases of beer and 6 cases of wine to be purchased, but I can't remember if that aligned with reality or how much wine we returned (but I'd guess maybe 3 cases). A lot of thought went into this category, especially by my husband! We wanted our menu to represent the three states that have been important to our relationship—Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma—so we bought from a bunch of places and schlepped a lot of beer on our drive up. We ended up with five beers on the main menu and three “special selections” that we only had 10-12 of each—those were New Glarus Serendipity and two limited-edition beers from Oklahoma. We had planned on Victory HopDevil for our Pennsylvania beer since it’s one of my husband’s long-time favorites, but found out on our drive up on Wednesday before the wedding that it was no longer distributed in Minnesota or any of the other states we usually stop for beer in (Iowa and Missouri). My husband had the great idea to call the excellent Casanova Liquors in Hudson. They didn’t have it, but could order it in for Friday pickup, when he was planning to go there for the New Glarus anyway. I’m STILL delighted that this worked out! Highly recommend Casanova for any of your weirdly specific beer needs in western Wisconsin 😊 We bought all our wine from Total Wine. We had a vague idea of what we wanted (a dry red, a dry white, and a less dry white), but they were super helpful with specific wines and amounts. As mentioned, we actually ended up having to have my family return a lot of the wine (apparently we have a beer crowd?) and they made that easy too. Ceremony - $450 This includes the cost of our marriage license, a Prepare-Enrich inventory, and the amount my mom gave our pastochurch. I think my husband thought the Prepare-Enrich was a little unnecessary, but we had some good conversations come out of it. My husband is very much non-religious and so is his immediate family. My family is a mostly religious mix of Lutherans and Catholics. I attend a pretty theologically liberal but liturgically traditional Lutheran church regularly, and having God’s presence in our ceremony was important to me, but I also didn’t want it to be over-the-top all-about-Jesus to where people who know my husband would be like, “umm, I KNOW he had nothing to do with this ceremony.” I was planning on just hiring a secular officiant, but asking the pastor from my mom’s church (which I grew up in) to officiate was my mom’s idea, and it was great. Like most in the ELCA he was super flexible on the actual wording of the ceremony, so we ended up with something that I think fit both of us. We wrote our own vows, and our ceremony was modified off of our pastor’s suggestions. I think we were both nervous about coming up with the ceremony details, but sitting down and reading through example vows together and noting wording we liked and didn’t like was actually a really fun experience. I will say if you’re planning on repeating your vows after the officiant, they feel MUCH LONGER than you expect, especially in front of an audience… I was surprised by how long ours felt to me and it was almost hard not to laugh. I'm a monster. Photography - $3,200 The photographer was the second big choice we (actually I, my husband didn't really have opinions on photography) made and one of our bigger splurges. I realized as I started researching that I apparently have STRONG opinions on wedding photography 😂 I really wanted a photojournalistic style that captured the feeling of the day, and less focus on wedding party shots (since we weren't actually having a wedding party) and Pinterest-y details (since we weren't really planning any). I found our photographer on Instagram and fell in love with her work. She and her assistant were so much fun at our wedding, and I loved our photos! She also shoots 100% in film now (and did for our wedding), so that was pretty cool. We didn’t do engagement photos, since our photographer was in another state and we didn’t feel like we needed them. I used other photos of us on our website, and we took photos with a tripod and remote in the backyard for our super dorky and homemade Save the Dates that I am still EXTREMELY proud of. I don’t regret that decision at all. We’ve been together nine years, so we have lots of photos together 😊 It literally never crossed my mind that we might need a videographer. I don’t regret that either. Floral - $475 We ordered bulk flowers through FiftyFlowers and Costco, and my mom, sister, aunt, and I assembled them ourselves the day before the wedding. Not having wedding party bouquets made this easier! We made my bouquet, centerpieces for 10 tables (since ours were long rectangles, we did three small vases per table), and boutonnieres and corsages for family. I practiced my bouquet and centerpiece with grocery store flowers in advance, but wish I had practiced corsages--those got stressful and my sister had to save the day and take over so I could leave and finish up other wedding stuff 😂 but overall I'd still recommend this route! It was fun, they turned out great, and we spent $475 total including the practice flowers, all supplies, and vases from Facebook Marketplace. Guestbook and Other Décor - $520 This category includes décor rental through our venue, our guestbook, supplies for our cake topper, and a few random frames for menus and table numbers. We made our own cake topper because my husband had access to a laser cutter and I liked the idea of having all my fonts match even though literally no one else would ever notice. This was unusually crafty for us (well, for me anyway) and and actually fun to work on together! One of the only super unique touches we did (that we both LOVED and were super proud of) was our guestbook. I wanted something we’d actually see regularly, unlike a traditional guestbook, but most of the décor options were really not to our taste. We do love to listen to vinyl together, however. I got this idea somewhere else on the internet so I can’t take credit, but we ordered a one-off lathe-cut vinyl record from American Vinyl Co. We each picked songs for one side, and I designed the gatefold cover with pictures of us and our dogs and a lot of white space for people to sign. I’m still obsessed with it TBH. Stationery and Website - $520 This category includes basically every paper good and related item… Save the Dates, return address labels, pens, invitations, escort cards, programs, table numbers, wedding thank you cards, bridal shower thank you cards, and postage for everything. Our Save the Dates were ordered through Vistaprint, as were our thank you cards. For invitations, we used Ann’s Bridal Bargains—they are so cheap (especially with a 30% off coupon), quality was great (I think I upgraded the paper thickness), they looked classy, they ship you extras, and the fold-and-send invitations with integrated RSVP postcards were a hit! I also decided to learn hand-lettering (thanks Youtube) and address our invitations, which was surprisingly fun and got many compliments. We used Joy (withjoy.com) for our website and I can't say enough good things about it! Very nice-looking, easy to use, and free. We offered our guests the option of either online or paper RSVPs, and it worked very well. I also splurged and bought a domain from GoDaddy for $20 so we had a fancy redirect address 😂 I designed the programs and got those printed through CatPrint. It’s kind of weird that we somehow managed to use three different printing services for this not-that-complicated wedding, but each just offered the best price and/or the exact product I needed for that particular item. I’d use any of them again! (but I do always make a point to tell people about Ann’s Bridal Bargains because I feel like they don’t get enough love) Photo Album - $300 I splurged on this through Artifact Uprising. They have some guidelines and tools that make it surprisingly easy to sort through all your pictures and design a nice album. It turned out beautifully and I love it! Bridal Attire and Beauty Services - $1,400 I bought my Lillian West dress as a sample—it was originally $1,500 and I paid just under $1k after tax. I currently have it on consignment, so we’ll see how that goes. I didn’t have major expectations for "the dress", but I fell in love with this one at the second store I went to and it fit me perfectly. Still love it! This category also includes my alterations ($100 for hemming, a one-point bustle, and getting push-up cups sewn in because I have super small boobs and needed a little more space taken up!). I should have had my seamstress sew the bustle a little higher—it ripped out while my husband and I were upstairs practicing our first dance, and he had to safety-pin it a few more times before our DOC sewed it up higher and saved the day. So that’s something to watch out for! I also recommend going to your regular tailor if you have one rather than some fancy bridal person—I feel like I saved a ton of money compared to what I was seeing on a Facebook page for local brides. I was super happy with my hairstylist and how she handled my curly hair—it ended up looking like me, but better, which is what I was going for. I'm not a big makeup wearer, and having had my makeup done for other weddings I was nervous about not looking like myself. I did my own with my own drugstore eyeshadow and beloved Sephora mascara. I don't think I look washed out in pictures :) Groom Attire - $475 This category includes my husband’s suit from a local shop, alterations, shirt, tie, cufflinks, and shoes. He’s pretty low-maintenance 😊 Day-Of Coordination - $1,500 The single best wedding-related decision we made was hiring our DOC. Venue staff had told us most people there don't end up hiring a DOC because the venue provides so much service, and initially I felt like we had so few vendors to coordinate we didn't really need one. However, the venue end up having quite a bit of staff turnover during our planning and it just made me nervous. I also know myself and I've worked in events and I'm a stressed out, raging bitch when things are going wrong and people are asking me lots of questions--and I did NOT want to be that person on my wedding day. I'm so glad we decided to spend money on this! Our two-month-out call with our DOC came at a time when I was starting to get super stressed about planning and all the details I was sure to forget, and she immediately put me at ease. On our wedding day, my hair appointment ran late but arriving at the venue to see her and the venue staff already setting everything up perfectly was the greatest feeling. She not only saved my bustle but also probably put out countless other fires throughout the night that I don't even know about. In short, if you are wondering whether a DOC is worth the money, think about how much you're spending on everything else--the DOC is who you pay so you can ENJOY all those other things you're spending money on! 10/10 would do it again. DJ - $850 For the LONGEST time, I planned on DIYing our music with Spotify and rented equipment. I was really trying to save money, and I've always loved putting together party playlists so I figured it would be fun. When the time came to actually dive into that part of the planning, I started to realize there was more to think about than I had anticipated (how do I normalize the volume across all my tracks? how do I eliminate gaps between songs?) I'm a perfectionist about weird things and it was starting to stress me out. We also didn't have a great family/friend candidate to be the point person on music and sound system issues. I ended up finding a super reasonably priced DJ who seemed normal and experienced, and he was willing to go very a la carte (we started with JUST music for dancing and then eventually I ended up just having him do the ceremony too, which was totally worth it and still affordable). He ended up being a lot of fun at the wedding (weirdly he was a former pastor and he and our officiant knew each other) and he picked the PERFECT song off of our guestbook album to make me not sad when the lights came up and the night ended ("Oh What a World" by Kacey Musgraves). Welcome Dinner - $1,000 Since we didn’t have a wedding party or a particularly complicated ceremony, and DID have a lot of out-of-state guests, we skipped the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner and invited everyone to a brewery within walking distance of the hotel for pizza, pierogies (to rep my husband's Pittsburgh/Polish heritage), and beer on Friday night. My in-laws paid for this, which was super sweet, and it was a lot of fun to have that extra time to hang out with our guests! We also had a few in-town people who brought their kids to the welcome dinner but not to the wedding (even though all kids were invited—they just wanted an adult night!) which was super fun. Rings - $675 This is mostly my wedding band and getting it resized and soldered, since my husband’s titanium ring was $15 on Amazon 😊 I struggled for a while with what to do for a wedding band and even considered not getting one at all. My engagement ring is antique and a fairly unique shape, so I initially thought my only option was getting a new band custom curved to fit the shape (which I worried wouldn’t match the antique look). I actually ended up finding a straight antique band that goes super well with the engagement ring. There’s a gap, but I totally dig it. Happy to share pictures of this if it helps someone else, because I know I really struggled with visualizing what the options would look like (although once I gave up on the online search and just went to an antique jewelry shop in town, the decision was easy, so I highly recommend that!) Name Change Costs - $180 Yes, I kept track of this, because I’m insane. Dance Lessons - $180 I’m so glad we both wanted to do this! We kept it pretty simple and just did three lessons to learn a basic step and a couple of spins. Our first dance song was “Come Rain or Come Shine” by Ray Charles, which has a slow beat that can be tough to hear, and neither of us really knew the first thing about dancing, so the lessons were super helpful and a lot of fun. Highly recommend doing something like this! Hotel Shuttle - $740 We had a couple of hotel block issues that were totally my own fault, but I had no idea what I was doing so want to share and hopefully help others not make the same mistakes! I used Kleinfeld’s hotel block service to research hotel options, and ended up choosing our hotel based on price, location, courtesy block size, and availability of an affordable shuttle. However, when I went to make a shuttle reservation two months before my wedding, I was told that the only shuttle had already been reserved for another wedding at the same time. In retrospect, I should have requested much earlier, and maybe even if I hadn't had my timeline ready yet I could have asked them about shuttle availability and found out they only had the one, but had multiple wedding groups blocked for that weekend... it was my mistake not asking for more info earlier, but it ended up being an expensive one (I think the hotel’s shuttle was only about $150, and I ended up having to use an outside company for $640 plus tip). The second issue was that I did not carefully review the block info that was sent to me at the time of confirmation, or I would have noticed that although they reserved the full courtesy block for me on Saturday, they had only reserved five rooms on Friday. I think this was actually Kleinfeld's request, and it was my mistake to not look it over more carefully! I ended up freaking out shortly before the wedding when one of my guests mentioned that the block was already full. The hotel worked with me to add on as many more rooms as they could, and even switched me to another employee when I basically destroyed my relationship with my initial contact (my only bridezilla moment 😂), so I really appreciated that! Miscellaneous - $2,300 I know that’s a lot for a miscellaneous category! This includes a lot of expenses related to getting married in another state (airfare for our one planning trip; airfare for my bridal shower; expenses for the road trip up for our wedding), plus our two nights at the wedding hotel, welcome bags for our guests, and a few other truly miscellaneous expenses. Honeymoon - $5,800 I didn’t include this in the total above, but we did eight days in Paris and the Loire Valley immediately after our wedding and it was glorious. We watched numerous flight price trackers for a cheap flight somewhere in Europe that sounded fun, and ended up with two tickets to Paris for $500 each (and then I got $500 cash back on my Capital One Venture card). How We Paid For It I feel like this is helpful info, because I know I personally was curious about what a realistic budget was for my own situation when I was planning. I’m 31 and my husband is 40, and we did not anticipate using any family funds for the wedding, although our parents ended up generously surprising us (mine helped us out with a few thousand dollars and his paid for our Friday night event). The primary source of funds was a $20k nest egg of our own that I had set aside specifically for the wedding when I worked in a much more highly-paid industry in my first few years out of school, and cash-flowed the rest (I’d say we make pretty average money, but we also live in a very low COL area, which helps). What We Skipped We didn't have a wedding party, favors, a videographer, a bouquet toss, a groom's cake, a unity ceremony, professional makeup, or probably some other common things that I’m forgetting. My best wedding planning advice would be to a) remember that it's a party, not a photo shoot (this was my mantra and guided MANY decisions) and b) leave something out if you and your partner don't care about it! Don't feel like you have to do something because everyone else does. We focused our money and effort on the things that mattered most to us and it worked out perfectly. We literally couldn't stop saying to each other that night and the next day, "I can't believe how perfect everything was!" You guys know what you like, so you do you! submitted by lambchop235 to weddingplanning [link] [comments] |
wedding table centerpiece ideas on a budget video
Even if you end up using the services of a professional, there are ways to reduce your centerpiece costs. Read on for our tips on keeping those costs down—and discover some of our favorite wedding centerpiece ideas on a budget. Simple wedding centerpieces don’t mean they look cheap, they actually can look anything! It goes to show you that you don’t need to spend a few hundred dollars per arrangement to get wedding flowers that look like a million bucks. Simple wedding centerpieces will often do the trick and save you a lot of cash. What’s more, they can match Jul 17, 2019 - Explore Vfranjul's board "Budget wedding centerpieces" on Pinterest. See more ideas about wedding centerpieces, centerpieces, budget friendly wedding centerpieces. This gorgeous DIY branch wedding centerpiece will make the perfect addition to your wedding, event or home table. Use silk flowers and manzanita branches for a DIY centerpiece that will last. Matherials: Manzanita branches, your favorite silk flowers and greenery, hot gun & glue, and wire cutters. For dollar store wedding ideas, this floral arrangement looks amazing, doesn’t it? 9. Wine Bottle Succulent Garden Centerpiece. moncheribridals. Are you tired of the usual floral wedding centerpiece? Display gorgeous greenery in your wedding table by repurposing an old wine bottle into a succulent planter. Explore Unique and Inexpensive Wedding Table Centerpiece Ideas. 1. Fish bowls filled with bouquets. With or without water, a variety of fish bowls added to your tablescape adds a touch of fun and the unexpected to an event. Fill them with clear fish tank rocks, flowers, candles, and so much more. There are so many different things that you can do with candles for centerpieces, but one of my favorites is to get a glass bowl, fill it with water, and light some floating candles. It is simple, elegant, and romantic. Candles can really set the mood if you want a classy wedding reception. 10. Use Lanterns. Here's a unique wedding centerpiece design that uses citrus fruit as a vase for flowers. Simply cut a small circle into the top of a grapefruit or an orange, remove about two inches deep of the flesh, and replace it with a piece of craft foam. Then, stick flower stems into the foam for a centerpiece that smells amazing with citrus and floral notes. Wedding decoration ideas can still be incredibly unique on a budget. Your guests will love the extra-special care you gave to having their names spelled out in elegant calligraphy. Fran Johnson House laser cut table names for wedding parties, from $1 each, Etsy.com Modern Cocktail Napkins Try out any of these chic and affordable wedding centerpiece ideas! No matter your budget, you can have stunning centerpieces for every season both with and without flowers. Now that you know the decor for your reception tables, take a moment to think about whether you want to sit at a sweetheart table for just the two of you or a head table complete with the wedding party during your reception.
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wedding table centerpiece ideas on a budget
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