Sewing Kitts: Wedding Under $1500? Try $1300!!!

My wonderful husband Justin proposed to me in late April of this year. After being friends for three years we decided to get married sooner rather than later. Sooner happened to be four months later on September 16th 2012. We chose this date for several reasons. One was that September 16th was our anniversary, we wanted to be married in the morning and t we wanted to start off our marital relationship with God. So Sunday the 16th was perfect for us!

You were probably pulled into this post by the title. Yes our wedding was UNDER $1500 and yes we did pull it off in under six months. It was a lot work but we had a lot of help. Before you read any further you need to realize a few things.

Things to Realize:

My mom, grandfather, aunts, and brother are all professional photographers so we didn't have to pay for a photographer. Most of the photography was by my awesome aunt Kara Beth Brunner of Brunner Studio.
My grandmother officiated so we didn't have to pay for an officiant.
My mom and I made all of the bridesmaids dresses, grooms and groomsmens vests and ties, the flower girls tutu, and my wedding dress(es).
In May my mom and I planted tons of ferns, pansies, cockscomb, antler fern, cosmos, and many other plants in purples and oranges to decorate her yard and use for the wedding.
Our neighbor is a florist at the local florist shop so he was able to get us extra flowers a the Thursday before the wedding to supplement what we had planted in the spring.
We made my bouquet, the bridesmaids bouquets, corsages, and boutinerres.
My family is super duper crafty.

Picture Time!

First off LOCATION: Laurel Cove at Pine Mountain State Resort Park in Pineville KY. As a kid our mom wouldn't let us go the bathroom anywhere but at the park while on road trips to my grandparents house because it was so clean (a plus for the reception). Laurel Cove is a natural amphitheater with literally tons of seating (on the other side of the pond from where we are). Don't worry, it is an amphitheater so people could still hear. I've loved this place since I was a little girl and Justin loved it as soon as I showed it to him. See those flowers? We grew those and the ferns to decorate! We decided that we wanted to stand side by side and that we wanted our parents to stand with us too.

LOCATION: $750

This included the shelter that we used for our brunch reception.

Seating

CEREMONY DECOR : We used the natural beauty of the area for our decorations other than our potted plants. Instead of a unity candle we used two bonsai that my mom gave to us as a wedding present. My grandmother made allusions to trees throughout the bible. She also talked about how we both had our own separate roots (families), trunks (personalities) and branches (life experiences) but that they now were going to be intertwined by marriage. As our marriage progresses we are going to train the bonsai to intertwine their branches to become two trees that can not be separated.

MUSIC: Two of my very best friends throughout middle school and high school that were on my dance team played for our wedding. Andrew Taylor and Becca Miller are two of the best musicians that I have ever had the pleasure of hearing play. We also had two of the sweetest girls sing for us, Lydia and Isabel Escobar.

The Dress: Here is my wedding dress! We used a pattern from Marfy IT, which if you don't know is a pattern company that will make you cry. You get a packet in a ziplock bag that is already cut out and then you don't get any instructions or even pictures other than the fashion drawing. I knew this in advance but it was still SUPER HARD to make, especially out of that heavy french vanilla satin! We made a short dress (tea length for the reception) out of the pattern and then made a floor length lace-up skirt to go over the dress for the ceremony. It took a bit more fabric to create but it was SO worth it!

Back

Hair and Jewelry

Veil and Flowers that we made.

DRESS FABRIC COST: Let us say $120 just to be safe. That includes the crinkly chiffony netty stuff (wrinkle resistant ;) ), satin, thread, zippers (we went through a few...) and the net for the veil.

Next up, BRIDESMAIDS DRESSES: A whopping 40 bucks for five bridesmaids and two junior bridesmaids. AWESOME! I just love sales at Hobby Lobby.

GROOMSMEN:

This fabric is called Purple Passion Fruit! How cool is that? We searched EVERYWHERE for a fabric that would match our earthy theme but didn't find anything until it was almost go time. These cost $90 for the shell and lining/ties.

RECEPTION:

The reception was a brunch held in the shelter literally a few feet away from the ceremony site. My mom, aunts, and grandmother took care of food. We had mini quiches, ham biscuits, chicken salad, fruit kebabs, and of course CAKES! On each table we had a bucket full of waters and flavor packets. My sister made the grooms cakes, she is so talented!