The Location

This is an area we really struggled with price-wise. I found lots of great locations, but also found that I would need a good $2500-$3000 if I wanted a decent location for our wedding and/or reception. And the gorgeous ones were upwards of $5000. Just wasn't in the budget.
We chose a local venue that is naturally gorgeous- our local Botanical Gardens. http://www.fwbg.org/fuller.htm
I'll walk down a stone "aisle" and we'll stand under a gorgeous gazebo, complete with a trickling waterfall behind us. Our guests will stand on the lush, green lawn. Up sides:
It's gorgeous and I don't have to decorate.
We paid $300 for it. :D
I only paid another $50 for the bridal room, and it's just what we need :)

Down sides:
We can only have 10 chairs on the lawn at the gardens. But then again, the ceremony will be short and we haven't even found 10 elderly people to fill those chairs yet. So defintely NOT a big deal. :)
It COULD rain. And although the gardens have a back up plan, I'd much rather get married in the garden. :)

Ceremony Venue total: $350

and then we will do the reception at our house, which is about 20 minutes away. Believe it or not, this is the part where it gets interesting and somewhat expensive. Updates to come on that :)

The Dresses

The dresses are one area we have not really skimped on, although we haven't gone overboard by any means. We bought my dress 2 years ago before a budget was even dreamed of. This is it:
http://www.davidsbridal.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplayView?storeId=10052&catalogId=10051&categoryId=-49995498¤tIdx=80&subCategory=-49999486%7c-49995498&catentryId=6097275&sort=
And this ME in it (just casual photos taken-obviously- a week or 2 ago)





The bridesmaids paid for their own dresses and ended up picking out their own as well. We did dresses from David's Bridal (which offers discounts if you got your dress there as well)

And my daughter's dress and sash also ended up coming from there (she is our flower girl). For what it's worth, I found several online for half the cost (91.00 after my 15% discount and tax), but ended up going with DB for convenience and time factors. Her dress is a beautiful and simple thick strapped dress that has decorative "buttons" in the back and a beautiful sash that bows in the back. Her sash/ bow will be clover, just like my bridesmaid dresses. I love that I don't have to tie the bow and that it velcros on! :D The bottom is tulle and looks so cute, but elegant. I'm really happy with it. I wish the David's Bridal website would let me show pictures, but it's having none of that today.


While David's Bridal is not unreasonable, there are many other options online. But then again, you don't know what you're paying for until you get it. :)

The Invitations

After spending weeks being dissatisfied with invitations I found online, I stumbled across some adorable invitations in Target of all places. Wasn't even looking for them- just happened to be walking down the aisle. Of course, I can't find a picture online of them. They're green (the color I'm doing the wedding in) with a tissue-type page that lays over the green floral design (which I thought would go great with the outdoor theme we're going for). We're having them printed at a local print shop (only because our printer decided it no longer wanted to cooperate with the tissue-like paper). They come with ribbons that we easily tie in ourselves. I paid $100 for the invitations, but would have only paid $80 if I hadn't used the first box as a test drive. Each box of 25 was 19.99 at Target, so technically we're paying:
$80 for all invitations and response cards
and just short of $50 to have the invitations printed

Grand total for cute invitations and matching response cards (plus envelopes) and professional printing: $130

The invites are similar to some of these:
http://www.target.com/Laura-Ashley-Invitation-Kit-Hydrangea/dp/B0012US6L2/ref=huc_ic_1_pn

Pretty good deal in my opinion :)

What This is all About...

I have no idea what possessed me to create a new blog about frugal wedding planning just six weeks before my wedding. Especially when I have 2 other blogs that I hardly maintain. But it seemed like a good theme that might help other women- So here I am. Here's my story: I'm married. I'm a mother. And yet I have not gotten to have my formal wedding. I have had my dress since before my husband and I got married at the courthouse in August of 2008. So it may be a big factor as to why I am at today- chest deep in wedding planning, while balancing an at home business (as well as another part time job tutoring kids), being a stay-at-home mom to our 2.5 year old, and going to school full time (and taking the hardest semester of my educational career). Fun times.
Because this is not "the beginning of our lives" together, my husband Jeremy and I have no desire to go into debt or even stretch ourselves thin over this wedding. However, we do want to enjoy the formal celebration we never got originally with our family and friends. That's what *our* wedding is all about, so we're doing it on a budget. So no matter what your wedding is all about, or even if you're just reading for fun.. I hope you'll get some fun and thrifty tips from how we've done so far.
I see these advertisements saying "You really CAN have a wedding for under $10,000!!" and I'm going "HUH? How about the woman who wants one for under $5000? $3000? $1000?? What about THAT girl?" I know they're out there in this economy... and I'd love to help some of them if I am in such a position. So here goes. :D