I've been saying for awhile that I'm going to continue our blog as sort of a "how to" guide for other couples to plan a fabulous wedding, on a budget, but with a little creativity. I'll share some photos from our wedding, some advice on where to look for inspiration, and also how to just enjoy the planning and creating as much as you will enjoy your actual event!
Everyone tells you to start out the wedding planning with a budget, which is great. But I'll be your only honest friend who will tell you that the budget will pretty much get tossed out the window about a month in. Anything with the word "wedding" or "bride" in front of it is priced twice as much as it's worth, and as soon as you refine your "A" guest list, it will expand twicefold out of guilt! Just keep things within reason, try to pay for as much as you can as you go along, and let your gut be your guide.
So now...where to start...flowers? That's what every bride stresses about and they are expensive! No kidding. Some florist is going to hate me for saying this but really? You hold your bouquets for photos and the ceremony, then you toss them aside. They have to look good for 1-2 hours max. When looking at my budget and deciding where to cut in lieu of having to spend more $$ on my dress than I had planned, I nixed this category first. Here's some advice: if your venue is charming and pretty on it's own, don't bother with flowers! Use other things for centerpieces (I used cake platters, vinyl records, tealights and crystals, but I'll describe those more in an upcoming piece). Don't worry about big 'ol poufy flower-towers by the alter – less is more!
Here's my one word for you when it comes to flowers: Costco. Seriously. They have gorgeous roses, I think about $15.99 for 2 dozen. You can get a cheap bunch ahead of time to practice with, but I recommend getting them 2 days before your wedding. I bought mine Friday, kept them in a big bucket with water in the cool, dark garage until working on them Saturday morning, and they were the perfect amount of open! My bridal bouquet was 15 roses. My amazing friend Kerensa and my mom practiced and finessed taping wired crystal cubes that I got from JoAnn's (going multiple times and using a coupon every time) to some of the rose stems. Then we bundled those together, taped all the stems together, and wrapped the bouquet in silver satin ribbon to match
my dress (the instructions for the pearl pins and twisty knots are in a fabulous book, I'll get the name of it later). We topped it off with a tulle ribbon bow and rose-shaped crystal jewelry charm from Michael's. Leave the bottom of the stems clear for several inches (or don't wrap the ribbon until the day of the ceremony) as you'll need to keep the bouquet in water and/or a refrigerator.Ta-da! Ahhh...mazing! The extra sparklies against the dark red just popped in the photos.
As for my maid of honor, flower girl, and the groom's girls (my husband's daughters), we did smaller versions of my bouquet. My maid of honor had 10 roses in her bouquet (with 5 crystals and darker silver ribbon), the younger ladies each had 5 flowers & a crystal in the middle. We also taped a folded over piece of ribbon to floral wire, and inserted those into the bouquets to add a little visual interest.
Our mothers had small wristlets with a piece of ribbon, an antique-looking crystal charm, and one rose that had a pearl pin in the center of the bloom. You can buy cool beaded bracelets with a plastic flower holder clip at Michaels to use as a base for these corsages.
The guys had boutto
nieres with a rose, folded over pieces of ribbon, contrasting bow and one rosebud. We only did them for the groom, our fathers, and Rev Kev. I figured the ring bearer really didn't care if he had one or not....We did all this with three bundles of roses from Costco. This allowed a few extras, just in case, which was good because some stems broke easily.
Here's a photo of my chief floral designer and wedding MVP, Kerensa. She had the nimble fingers & patience to coordinate all of the ideas in my head into actuality. And best of all, she made sure they got to the venue without me having to worry!
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