It's all about the details....

I wanted our wedding to be as personalized as possible. But of course without the hefty price tag. I wanted to focus the theme around us and our personalities. So when it came to deciding what our “wedding colors” would be we simply went with his favorite color and mine…. pink and blue!

Then I searched all the popular sites to get ideas on props, favors and décor. I fell in love with etsy.com. Not only was it a great site but it was mostly handmade products. I found an adorable sign to direct our guests for the ceremony for $89.00 (this included the shipping cost).

I also found my gift card box on ETSY for $70.00 ($50.00 plus $20.00 for shipping). This might seem like a lot for a box but it was so adorable and well worth it. I figured since I had to cut a lot of the big ticket items out of my budget, I could add a little extra drama to the little things.

I ordered fans to place in each of the chairs during the ceremony. An outside wedding in Florida….you always have to be prepared for heat and rain. I had a covered patio as back-up for rain and fans for the guests during the ceremony. I found wine labels for our wines which you could easily make yourselves but I got a little lazy at this point with the crafts (http://www.myownlabels.com). I had pink labels for the white wine and blue labels for the red wine.

The beauty of Davis Islands Garden Club is all the amazing things you can do without being tied to their catering, liquor and all the other services tied in when having a wedding at a hotel. Granted, you have a little extra more work on your hands but you can turn an empty canvas into your own little masterpiece. Davis Islands also had some extras you could rent thru them. I’m not going to say I was pleased with their pricing on the “extras” but they help transform the venue. The garden club rented out draping for the back patio for $300 and then they rented out white cushions for the patio seating that wrapped around the patio….that was $400 (for pillow cushions)!! That was absurd to me; however it was a must because it made the area look empty and bland without them. The white patio cushions dressed it up nicely. So, I bit my tongue and paid the fee. I also was able to negotiate with Davis Islands for the Anastasia Chandeliers. These made the back patio look so elegant.

I then found very reasonably priced items on The Knot’s wedding shop. I ordered personalized cocktail napkins and matches. This too was a nice little detail that added a lot to our décor.

I had a “travel” theme wedding which I will touch more on in another post but I had found a 3 ft wire Eiffel tower for the escort card table on eBay. I think the shipping cost more than the actual tower.



I didn't have a picture of our Eiffel Tower but our videographer did and he used the image for our highlight video!



We splurged a bit and got a cigar roller for the reception. This was a HUGE hit with the guys. The guys had a cigar in their hand all night long….

I used http://www.weddingpaperdivas.com/ for our "Save the Dates" that turned out awesome and I used http://www.zazzle.com/ for our menu cards. These were both very reasonable and turned out great!

My purpose of this post is to relay to all you brides that you can really dress up your wedding at a much smaller cost, you just have to put the work in. There are thousands of websites with good deals, just spend some time looking for them and I guarantee you will not only save money….you may find some other great ideas for your wedding along the way.

http://www.moderndayevents.com/

Bride on a Budget

Well, this is my first post...my first blog...my first experience at doing this...so bear with me while I figure all this out! :)

If any girl knows how to plan a wedding on a budget...well....that's me!! Hubby and I got married back in March at Davis Island Garden Club. The perfect venue for a DIY bride. During my planning process, I definitely learned how to "wheel and deal" on many aspects of the wedding. We had to get creative on where to spend the money and where to cut down on things we "oh so badly wanted."

Experts always say to cut down on the guest list. That's stating the obvious isn't it? What happens when you have done that and you can't cut anymore?

Over my next few posts. I will walk you thru my real-life experience of planning my wedding. Let's look at some not so obvious ways. The first thing you and fiance need to do is decide what is important to you and what you envision on your big day. For me, it was:

1. Decor
2. Food & bar 
3. Music

Let's go ahead and jump to what every girl wants to know before getting to the other details....saving on flowers!!

Since the decor was a very important aspect for me but can be very expensive I started researching. As much as I wanted to have beautiful centerpieces from an amazing florist, I'm realistic too. There's no way I could afford $200/per table for 17 tables. I searched Tampa blogs and researched ways to transform a reception. I was able to find a floral wholesaler and ordered beautiful flowers from them at great prices (check out globalrose.com or fiftyflowers.com).

I also realized that I could have the flowers shipped to me earlier then I did. My family, bridesmaids and I were rushing thru Thursday to get all the centerpieces done....the flowers definitely lasted longer then I expected. For a Friday wedding, I could have gotten away with having the flowers shipped on Monday or Tuesday. Giving me more time to relax and get ready for the rehearsal dinner.

I already had small cylinder vases laying around that would be perfect for the cocktail tables. I found large glass cylinder vases at Home Goods for $8.99/piece and cute little garden buckets in the $1 section of Target. I had originally got this for the 4 or 5 kids who would be attending the wedding. I thought it would be great to put crayons in but as I was preparing my centerpieces, a new idea came to me:

I hung the buckets on shepherds hooks that lined the aisle.

I then decided on a whim to throw crystal garland in the vase to "bling" up the table. The garland cost a little more then I expected for how much you get but it really made a nice touch:

I ordered 6000 rose petals that cost me $149.79 to line the aisle and scatter on the tables. This really added lots of extra color. I also found small cylinders to add to each table with floating candles:

I had six cocktail tables outside that I dressed up with gerberas. These were fun, garden flowers to go with our garden wedding:

I was able to get all my flowers for the centerpieces, aisle runner and cocktail tables for $579.98. This is nothing compared to the quotes I received from florists all over town. The quotes started at $2475.00 for the bare minimum before adding the service and gratuity. I did pay for the few key arrangements. Botanica created my bouquet, the gazebo decor and a few of the reception tables. They helped add that extra "drama" I wanted. Botanica does amazing work if you can afford it:

We used the gazebo decor and placed it on our sweetheart table after the ceremony.

Botanica also provided my lighting and draping. These all made such an impact on the design and atmosphere of the night. 

To stick with our "garden theme" and cut down on more costs... I decided to give my girls parasols instead of bouquets and it was a hit:

Parasols cost me $8.99/each equaling $44.95.....bridesmaids bouquets were quoted at $96/each...that's a savings of $435.05...I was darn proud of myself and so was hubby!! :)

http://www.moderndayevents.com/