Jen's Rhode Island wedding came out beautifully and she did it with a lot of DIY projects. Check out her blog, A Girl in Pearls, for even more gorgeous wedding inspiration.
What personal aspects did you include in the wedding?
What was your biggest splurge?
What was your budget?
We never really had a hard and set figure; for us it was more about not wanting to owe more than we could pay BEFORE the wedding. And we stayed true to that; come the day of our wedding, we had no outstanding balances and $0 in credit card charges. I think $30,000 is a fair number to say I never wanted to go over, though, and we did manage to stay under that. (Now, if you add in the cost of the rehearsal dinner & the honeymoon, we did go over this number but I was okay with that as these were more than just one day)
What personal aspects did you include in the wedding?
We got married in my hometown church where I was baptized and where my family continues to go to church. We had my childhood priest say the mass, my 2 cousins serve as altar servers and our 3 parents do the readings during mass. For my “something old”, my aunt had taken a few pieces of lace from my grandmother’s wedding dress and attached it to some white satin to fashion it into a garter. This was incredibly special to me as my grandmother is no longer with us. For favors, we had made CD’s that featured special songs from the wedding. This was my husband’s idea and was how he felt he could put his mark on the wedding. He is a DJ and music is a huge part of his life. Our DJ also let him play a couple of songs during the reception. Everyone loved this part of the night and the dance floor was packed!
What was the main thing you did to save money?
Made the centerpieces! I knew I wanted “high” floral centerpieces for ½ of the tables and when I got a quote that they’d range from $100-$150 and we’d have at least 20 tables, I was like “No way are we spending $1,500 on centerpieces for ½ the tables!” We bought the 24” vases from a wholesaler, the flowers from Michaels and Joann’s and the beads from Joann’s. We spent maybe $300 total creating all 20 centerpieces.
What advice would you give to other brides planning a wedding?
Don’t be cheap about a photographer! (You will regret it; see next question for more details!) Plan everything out way early. Do not save projects that you can do months before the wedding to do the month or week of the wedding. The week of the wedding, all I had to do was a drop off to our reception site with the detail stuff (menus, guestbook, place cards, favors, table numbers etc.) one morning. The rest of the week I relaxed with my girlfriends and family. We had pool time and a pedicure party. People were calling me “the most relaxed bride”…Not because I’m laid back of course ;) but just because everything was done beforehand and taken care of. Be creative with your pictures; the style you take and the backdrops you use. We took the time to take pictures in the downtown city area as well as at the beach. We have so many different ones to choose from and they’re not your “typical” (read: boring) bridal party shots and we love them! Eat a few times in the morning, eat your dinner (and your cake) and always SMILE. You’re constantly getting your picture taken.
What was your biggest splurge?
Photography for sure! We knew it was so important because (besides the marriage of course!) it’s the only physical thing you have left of the day! Also, with how fast the day flies by, there was a lot that was captured in the pictures that we didn’t necessarily get to see. We don’t regret one cent that we spent on pictures and have so many beautiful ones hanging throughout our home and in our album.
What was your favorite aspect?
I think my favorite aspect of the wedding was just the “seeing it all come together so perfectly” as corny as that sounds. I feel like there was so much DIY and so many little details I focused on during the year and a half of planning, that to see it all come together better than I could have imagined was a dream come true.
What was your favorite DIY project?
I think my favorite DIY project was the invitations. They were a LOT of work but in the end came out so nice that nobody knew they were DIY. That made it all worth it for me.
Vendors
Ceremony Venue: St. Alexander's Church
Reception Venue: Quidnesset Country Club
Photography: Zenobia Photography Studio
Flowers: Flowerthyme
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AN - Wednesday, February 24, 2010
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