Real Wedding: Ashley & John

Ashley & John got married on March 13th in Jacksonville, FL.  She was a very active bride in the Project Wedding community and DIYed a lot of the projects for the wedding.  She's another Cricut lover and was able to use her Cricut for a few of her wedding projects.  Ashley also tapped into some of her friends and families talents and they helped her pull off the wedding of her dreams with a very small budget.

What was your budget?: $5000

Describe your wedding in one word: DIY

What aspects of your wedding were most important to you?: Photography and reception decor

Did you splurge in those areas?: No

What did you do to help save money on your wedding?: Talked with family/friends about providing services as wedding gifts

What was your favorite DIY project that you did?: Flowers and uplights

What was the most memorable part of your wedding day?: Seeing John as I walked down the aisle and the garter toss -- which was definitely unique =)

Do you have any tips to share with other brides?: Don't be afraid to use friends/family as your vendors. don't be afraid to DIY ANYTHING! Try it -- you never know it may be perfect. If there is something you want out of your price range, see if it's something you can do on your own.  If you vision has to change due to budget constraints, just remember the importance of what your wedding day represents -- your marriage.  Do your best to not stress about whether things will be perfect, they won't technically but it will actually be your perfect day =)

Vendors

McGee Entertainment -- (reception DJ) www.mcgeeentertainment.com

Global Rose -- (flowers) www.globalrose.com

Bulb America -- (uplights) www.bulbamerica.com

Oscar & Jorge Hernandez (photographers) -- family friends

Starr Vavrek -- (ceremony DJ) -- friend's husband

Steve Wessel (Ceremony performer)

Cards and Pockets -- (paper for DIY) www.cardsandpocket.com

David's Bridal -- (Dress/veil/tiara/alterations/BM Dresses) www.davidsbridal.com

Naval Air Station Jacksonville Officer's Club (venue/catering/linens)

Total Wine -- (toasting wine) www.totalwine.com (they give 10% discount for case orders)

 

Giveaway Reminder

 If you haven't already, you have 8 more hours to enter the towel set giveaway hosted by CraftTherapea.

Enter here!

I'm working on a real wedding post for later today.  It features a gorgeous DIY budget wedding from a fellow Project Wedding bride.  Look for that later in the afternoon.

Make It Yourself Monday

It's time for another edition of Make It Yourself Monday.  We're still kind of scarce on the link-ups, so if you recently completed a DIY project, please link it up!  I'm sure everyone would love to see it.

Our Day by Design linked up this adorable "Thanks for Being My Bridesmaid" cards. 

My DIY Wedding Day shows you how to make adorable photo wine bottle labels.  These are sure to impress your guests!

Craftzine shows you how to DIY your unity candle.

My Four Monkeys shows you how to craft your own hair adornments.

Miss Frog on Weddingbee shows you how to make gorgeous hangers for your bridesmaids.

Sponsored Post: Blooms by the Box

 I want to give a welcome to Bride on a Budget's newest sponsor, Blooms by the Box!

About Blooms by the Box:

Flowers are an essential part of your wedding day. They can set the tone of the day, create color and fragrance, and leave a lasting impression. However, their cost can also be a huge part of your wedding budget.

More and more brides-to-be are considering arranging all or part of their wedding flowers themselves. Blooms By The Box will provide you with instruction, creative ideas, and the best prices on premium wedding flowers. We will also guide you through the process of deciding if arranging your own wedding flowers is the right decision for you.

BloomsByTheBox.com shops the world to provide the finest quality and greatest selection of wedding flowers and floral supplies available to you online. We offer the lowest minimum quantities and your flowers ship the same day! Now every soon-to-be-bride is able buy the freshest, highest-quality bulk wedding flowers and floral supplies at wholesale prices.

With Blooms by the Box, you can create gorgeous wedding arrangements yourself, with just a fraction of the cost of hiring a professional florist.  Blooms by the Box offers the lowest minimum qualities of any wholesale flower seller, can ship the very same day, and offers free shipping to most of the Northeast USA.

You can either buy each flower individually or you could buy their wedding packages.  The wedding packages combine the flowers you need to create all the arrangements for your wedding.

This is the cheapest package they have and it gives you enough flowers and greenery to create one bridal bouquet and five bridesmaids bouquets.  Or, you could use this package to create 10 centerpieces.

This is one of their more expensive packages, but you can make one bridal bouquet, five bridesmaid bouquets, and 5 centerpieces with it. 



Here's some of the gorgeous arrangements that customers have created with Blooms by the Box flowers.

These are perfect low centerpieces, created with Rose Esperance, white Hydrangeas, green hypericum berries, and white dendrobium orchids.

Want something taller?  This centerpiece was made with white hydrangeas, mini green hydrangeas, and some filler greenery.

You can also make gorgeous bouquets with Blooms by the Box flowers.  This bridal bouquet was made with blue hydrangeas and cream roses.

So, if you're looking for gorgeous flowers on a budget, try making your own arrangements with flowers from Blooms by the Box.  If you're not sure if DIYing your flowers is for you, Blooms by the Box offers free floral design advice to help you along.  Good luck and have fun designing your own flowers and saving money!

Thrifty Thursday

Discounts

 Canvas on Demand: 25% off your order, Code: SUMMER25 (Expires TODAY!)

Doie Designs: 20% off your order, Code: BRIDES20

Modest Peach: 20% off your order, Code: SNIPPET

Giveaways

Bridal Gown Blog is giving away a wedding banner (Ends 06/30)

Love and Lavender is giving away a LilaFrances hanger (Ends 06/26)

Happy Hour with a Housewife is giving away a customized parasol (Ends 6/27)

Sharon Naylor Wedding Books is giving away 10 one time use cameras (Ends 7/15)

Sweetheart Table vs. Head Table

A lot of brides debate whether they should do a sweetheart table or a head table at their wedding.  I know I did during our wedding.  Here are some of the pros and cons of each one.

Source

We had a sweetheart table at our wedding.  I really enjoyed it because I was able to sit with just my husband during dinner and not have to worry about chit-chatting with everyone else.  It gave us a quite moment alone with our guests.

Pros

- Allows you and your new husband to have some alone time

- Make it easier for you to seat your wedding party with their dates and friends

- You and your new husband are the center of attention

Cons

- Guests are all looking at you while you're eating

- You don't have anyone to talk to other than each other

- You don't get to spend as much time with your bridal party

Source

A head table normally seats the bride and the groom in the middle, with the rest of their bridal party on the sides of them.  Traditionally, the bridal party's guests did not sit at the table, but lately it's becoming more and more common.

Pros
- You get to spend more time with your bridal party (especially if they are from out of town)
- You are not the only center of attention
- There are plenty of people to talk to

Cons
- Family may feel slighted because your friends are sitting with you and they're not.
- Bridal party members aren't sitting with their guests (ignore this one if you're thinking about sitting their guests at the head table too)
- No alone time for you and your new husband
- Always people around you.


Are you doing a sweetheart table or a head table for your wedding?

Aisle Dash Blog Awards

Aisle Dash is hosting their Wedding Blog Awards and there are twelve different categories that you can nominate blogs in.  You can nominate up to 3 blogs.

So, head on over there and nominate your favorite wedding blogs.

Trash the Dress Debate

Tonight at 8pm EST, there's going to be a debate on whether you should or should Trash the Dress, hosted by Smart Bride Boutique.  The panelists (who I will introduce in a minute) will debate first and then you can join in after them.  There will also be some prizes that you are eligible to win if you're one of the first to RSVP.

The panelists on the trash end of the debate are Kyle Perison from Free to Flaunt, Julia Allen, and Melissa Lui from Wedding Obsession.  The panelists on the treasure side of the debate are Jessica Bishop from The Budget Savvy Bride and Lisa Horton from Get Married.

So, head on over to Smart Bride and RSVP for the event.  

I'll be there supporting the trash side.  You're most likely not able to get as many shots as you want on your wedding day, so why not have a fun session afterwards where you can do what you want?

Which side are you on: Trash or Treasure?

Bridal Shower Gifts and a Giveaway!

Kelly, my wonderful boudoir photography also has an adorable etsy business on the side.  At CraftTherapea, Kelly makes tons of items that would be great for a shower gift.  All her items are custom made and reasonably priced.

This adorable kitchen personalized kitchen towel set is only $10 and would look great added to a basket of kitchen supplies.  Brides often register for small kitchen utensils on their registry, so pick up a bunch of those and add them to the basket.  You could also make a small recipe box of some of your favorite tried and true recipes.  Make sure to include blank cards so she can add her own.

The monogrammed microfiber towel is only $6 and would be a great addition to a bathroom in the newlyweds house.  Pick a pattern for the monogram that will coordinate with the towels they registered for and tie them all up with a ribbon.  They will love the extra thought you put into their gift.

If you're looking for a cute gift idea for your children attendants, check out these adorable children's aprons for only $15.  You can have them personalized with their favorite colors and their initial.  They'll love to wear these while helping their mother cook in the kitchen.

~*~ Giveaway ~*~

Kelly  has generously offered to give away one of her custom towel sets to one Bride on a Budget reader.  

Mandatory Entry: Go over to CraftTherapea and pick which pattern you would choose for your towel set.  If you click on one of the towel sets, you can see the options for the fabrics in the extra pictures.

There are multiple extra entries that you can get for this giveaway.

1. Follow Bride on a Budget (1 extra entry)

2. Follow Bride on a Budget on twitter (1 extra entry)

3. Tweet about the giveaway.  Include @brideonbudget and a link to this giveaway. (2 extra entries)

4. Blog about this giveaway (2 extra entries)

5. Place an order from CraftTherapea (5 extra entries)

I'm going to keep track of the entries differently this time.  I have created a spreadsheet and will put every entry into that.  So, you don't have to worry about leaving a separate comment for each entry you do.  You can include them all in one entry and I will put them into the spreadsheet.  I figured I'd try this out and see if it worked better than leaving separate comments for everything.  Please make sure to leave your email in your comment so that I have a way to contact you.

Good luck!  Oh and this giveaway is only open to US residents.  You have until June 30th (my hubby's birthday) at 5pm EST to enter.

Wedding Album

I've been working on our wedding album for over a month now and it's hard!  It's definitely one of the hardest DIY projects I've done so far in the wedding planning process.

As some of you know, I'm DIYing my wedding album using Mpix.  You download the software from their website and you can design as many albums on your computer as you want.  Then, you upload them back to their website and order them.  It's really easy to do.  You can also upload the album halfway through your process to get feedback from others (I'm going to post the link to mine at the bottom of the post).  

The software has multiple backgrounds and templates that you can use.  You just transfer all the pictures you want to the software and plug them into your template.  You can alter the pictures in multiple ways.  You're pretty much free to do whatever you want with your album in their software.  It's one of the easiest and one of the most personalized album making softwares that I've used.

The whole point of this post though is to show you what I've come up with so far.  I would love to hear your feedback because I'm still iffy on parts of the album.  Like, I said, this is one of the hardest things I've done, because I keep second guessing myself.  This album is going to help us remember the wedding for the rest of our lives and I want it to be perfect!

http://share1.sendtoprint.net/bshare.php?hashid=98de8c906d3c04a00dbf

Make It Yourself Monday

Thanks to everyone that commented on the reader satisfaction survey that they enjoy the new feature.  I will be sure to keep it around because I think it's a great way for bride's to get new project ideas.

We only had two people actually link up to their blogs last week.  Linking up will allow you to get more exposure for your blog as well as share your ideas with other brides.  I decided to try out inlinkz instead of Mr. Linky this week because it shows pictures as well.  That will give you an idea of what you're going to see before you click on the link.

The Fit Bridesmaid shows us her "Will You Be My Bridesmaid" cards.  She was actually one of the two people who linked up last week, so I thought I would feature her project.

Judy Cat Crafts was the other person who took their time to link up last week.  She beaded gorgeous champagne flutes for her and her husband to use.

Offbeat Bride has step-by-step directions on how to make a unique bouquet for you to carry down the aisle.  A lot cheaper than using flowers!

A Little Tipsy has directions for a gorgeous wreath on her blog.  This would look wonderful on the outside of your church doors.  Can you believe all of this was from the dollar store?

Tatertots and Jello has another gorgeous wreath for you to try.  This one is made out of cupcake liners!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the dad and dads-to-be out there.

Here's a picture of me and my biological dad at our wedding.  My parents got divorced when I was really young and my dad has lived in Wisconsin most of my life.  I have seen him more in the past couple of years than I have in my entire life.

Here's a picture of me and my step-father at our wedding.  My mom and him got married when I was younger.  We don't get along the best, but he still helped raise me.

Survey Results

I really appreciate everyone taking the time to fill out the reader satisfaction survey for me.  I got 50 responses and I really appreciate every single one of them.  It really helped me get a grasp on my readers wanted to see from the blog.

Since you spent your time doing the survey, I wanted to provide you with some of the results.  

The majority of people said they wanted to see more DIY projects and Real Weddings.  91% also said they loved the new Make It Yourself Monday feature, so I think that will help curb some of your appetite for DIY projects.  I'm also going to try to get more guest posts and try to find time to do some projects myself to show you.

Most people said they preferred to see the Real Weddings on Wednesday (need to have something to get you through the rest of the week), so I'm going to keep featuring them on that day.  I'm planning on trying to get my new layout to allow bigger pictures, so I think a lot of readers will enjoy being able to see that with these features.  A good bit of readers said they might send their wedding in to be featured after their event.  I would love to see them, so please don't be scared to send them my way! 

The majority of your said that you have never used on of the discount codes featured on Thrifty Thursday.  Some of you said you did though, so I'm going to keep featuring those.  Even if only one person can put a code to use, it makes for the time I spent collecting them.  One of my readers commented yesterday about how happy they were with the Picaboo code because they can now get 50% off their wedding album.

60% of the people who responded said they do like blog posts on the weekend.  I will try to schedule more posts for these people.  I'm not on my computer too much during the weekend because I like to spend time with my husband, but if I can knock some posts out during the week and schedule them to post on those days, I will definitely try!

I definitely take all your comments to heart and I can't wait to implement them into the blog and make it even better for my wonderful readers!  Thanks again!

Thrifty Thursday

Discounts

Walgreens: Free 8x10 collage, Code: GOBIG8X10 (Expires TODAY!)

Picaboo: Up to 50% off photo books, Code: SUMMER (Expires 6/30)

Minted: 3 free invitation samples, Code: SAMPLES

Giveaways

Random Reflections of a Perfectionist is giving away 100 4x6 postcards.  (Ends 06/21)

Style Me Pretty is giving away 100 thank you cards, 1 wrapped canvas, 12x12 photo book, 100 we've moved cards, and 100 prints from Shutterfly to 5 winners! (Ends 06/25)

Real Moms Real Views is giving away a $35 gift card to Fantasy Jewelry Box (Ends 6/23)

Happy Hour With a Housewife is giving away 500 premium business cards (Ends TOMORROW!)

Cookies and Clogs are giving away 20 invitations from Vistaprint (Ends 6/20)

 

"I Do" It Yourself is giving away a pearl necklace and a $50 gift card to their shop (Not sure of ending date)

Style Me Pretty is giving away a wedding site and domain name from Nearlyweds and also an item on your registry up to $100 (Not sure of ending date)

The Knot is giving away a destination wedding in Jamaica (Ends 6/30)

"I Do" Budget Weddings is giving away 5 monograms and a customized 2 page printable program design (Ends 6/26)

Piece of Me is giving away a personalized BBQ set from Things Remembers (Ends TODAY!)

Liz Has a Life is giving away Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD (Ends 6/24)

Reader Satisfaction Survey

I'm going to be doing some changes to Bride on a Budget in the next month.  These changes include tweaking and changing around some of the features on the site, as well as getting a brand new design (squee!).

If you can spare a few minutes, I would really appreciate it if you could answer this short 10 question survey.  

Click here to take survey

Thanks everyone and I hope to make the blog even better for my readers in the future!

Real Wedding: Kelly & Brian

Kelly and Brian got married in Indianapolis on March 20, 2010 (Mine and J's original wedding date).  They had some problems with their original wedding plans and ended up having to change EVERYTHING about 3-4 months out.  Even with these huge changes and losing money on their original reception site, they still came in under $10,000 for their budget.  The wedding was gorgeous and it fit Kelly and Brian's personality perfectly!

Kelly and Brian are absolutely in love with their 3 pugs, so they tried to incorporate them into the wedding as much as possible.  With all the DIY projects that Kelly took on, she was able to include her babies in their special day.

What was your budget?: We roughly budgeted $10,000 to start. We pretty much stayed under that, but it got tricky because we lost money on our reception venue. Including the $900 we lost from letting our reception venue go, I have our budget as $9,887.85 for what WE paid. However I'm sure there are a ton of smaller things that would get us up to the $10,000 mark if I remembered them. A few things were contributed by family, but we paid for most of it ourselves.

 What did you do to make your wedding unique?: Adding our pugs! We had pugs in a lot of things. I think the riskiest “pug” item was our pug RSVP card. Since we had to change our wedding plans drastically without warning, I kind of gave up caring what people though and just tried to have fun with it. I am so glad I did because of wedding was very “us.”

What was your biggest splurge for your wedding?: Photography. But we made it work by paying about $1,200 up front (hello tax return) about a year before our wedding, and then paid $150 a month after that. It was nice too because after the wedding, we felt like we had an extra $150 a month.

What aspect of your wedding did you save the most money on?: Cake. My friend Laura made cupcakes for us as a wedding gift (and two big cakes as well! We ate like kings!) and it was F-R-E-E FREE! The biggest bargain aka something I paid for but got a deal would be our cake toppers. They cost me barely anything to make since I had the paint, all I needed was to buy the little ceramic pugs. I bought them in bulk and have used them for fun gifts/ornaments. 

What was your favorite DIY project?: Making them, the most fun was the cake toppers. I love painting and artistic things. (I bought the ceramic pug figures, then painted them with acrylic, and then sprayed them with clear gloss. I hot-glued some tulle (leftover from a little jewelry gift bag) to one as a veil.) But the best visual impact was our programs. I HATED making them. It was a pain in the you-know-what and way more complicated than little ole me thought. I almost strangled my printer. But in the end I was so happy with how they looked, it was worth it. I was really proud of my DIY outcome. 

Any advice to give to other brides?: Do what you like. Don’t care about if it’s “trendy” or “weird” (aka my birdcage veil, or having pugs on everything.) On the same token, don’t do something because it’s trendy (if you hate candy buffets, why do one?) or because someone else wants you to. Your wedding is yours. Also I was surprised how much my invitations cost even though I "DIY-ed" most of them... I should have just had some done professionally and saved myself some time! 

Vendors

Ceremony location: First Meridian Heights Presbyterian 

  Reception location: Buca di Beppo

Photography: Erin Hession 

Florist: Meridian Floral Design 

Dress: Ella Park Bridal 

Bridesmaid Dresses: J. Crew

Tuxes: Mens Wearhouse 

To learn more about Kelly and her life and wedding, you can check out her 2 blogs.

Miss Pug's Pawfect Wedding & Ordinary and Indiana 

Wedding Channel Blog Awards

The Wedding Channel Bridal Blog Awards are upon us again.  I won the category for Best Budget Wedding Blog last year and I hope to do the same again this year!

So, head on over to Wedding Channel and nominate your favorite blogs in each category.  You have to be a registered user of Wedding Channel to leave a nomination though. 

And if you think I am the best Budget Wedding Blog, I would love for you to nominate me for that category!

Boudoir Album Opening

Wow...this is a really late recap, but I just realized I never showed you these pictures.

I got boudoir pictures done back in January and I got an album with my package.  Most brides give their husband their boudoir albums on their wedding day, but I figured I would wait until the honeymoon so I could see his reaction.  Plus, that way I wouldn't have to worry about someone else possibly seeing it.

He absolutely loved the album.  Here's some pictures I took of him flipping through it.  I gave it to him the very first night of our cruise.

All in all, I think he loved it!  

I highly recommend doing boudoir pictures if you're thinking about it.  It was a lot of fun and made me feel great about myself.  Plus, my husband loved his gift.