I’ve been getting lots of request for more diversity in our BS-WOWs in terms of geography, so I am pleased to share this lovely wedding from Seattle, Washington! Of course with bigger cities we also might have some bigger budgets but I think that this couple definitely found ways to cut costs in their planning and deserve some recognition for that. I love the fun umbrellas they used for their pictures! Hope you enjoy this wedding as much as I do!

What was your budget? If you are able, give us a rough breakdown of how you spent your budget.

23K

Dress/Alterations $1800
Flowers $1000
Venue/Alcohol: 15K
Photography $2500
DJ $1300
Hair/Makeup $500-including bridesmaids hair
Officient $250
Cake $400
Towncar $50

How many guests did you have?

135

What creative or personal aspects did you include in your wedding?

We wrote our own vows which was very emotional and very special for us.

What was the biggest thing you did to save money?

Flowers and Photographer. We also saved quite a bit on venues fees by being able to purchase our alcohol separately and have the venue serve it.

What’s the best advice you have for planning your wedding now that you’re on the other side?

Enjoy it and don’t over think things! Find a style or feel from a magazine and go with it. I loved planning my wedding and I did some details myself like place cards, but I didn’t want to do too much that made my wedding felt like a task.

What was your biggest splurge?

My dress, I didn’t expect to spend so much on my dress, but when I found it I knew it was what I wanted.

What was your favorite detail?

My dress was probably my most favorite aspect of the wedding. I loved wearing it, I loved how I felt and it made the day so much fun.

What is the most memorable moment of your day?

Taking photos at Gasworks before the wedding it was freezing cold and started hailing. My husband and our bridal party had such a great time despite the conditions. It was great to spend the day with our best friends by our side making us laugh.

VENDORS

Photographer Kaylee Eylander: http://www.kayleeeylanderphotography.com/

DJ: Joe Yamada: http://www.cascaderecords.com/

Flowers: Loves me Flowers Kendra: http://www.lovesmeflowers.com/

Dress: http://www.princessbridecouture.com/

Hair/Makeup: http://www.salonmaison.net/

I just love Sebrina– she was a longtime reader and supporter of BSB so I am so excited to share her wedding with you! I really love the black, white and yellow color scheme- especially the way she totally rocked her black bolero and the black lacing on her gown. I’m a huge fan of the sunflowers as well- which the couple got on the cheap for their bouquets and centerpieces. She picked her favorite things to splurge on and still pulled off this fab wedding for under $6k! Way to go, Sebrina– thanks for sharing your special day with us!

What was your budget?

Originally we set our budget at $5000. At the end I think we spent $5806. I was a little bummed about going over but I am happy that we stuck to our plan of having zero debt after the wedding

Save the Dates: $25 w/ postage
Ceremony Officiant: $300 donation to cover travel expenses
Reception Location: $250
Wedding Invitations: $170 w/ postage
Rings: $125
Wedding Dress: $323
Veil: $13 for supplies
Bolero: $52 for supplies
Shoes: $28 for both ceremony and reception pairs
Hair: $32
Make-up: $20
Nails: $100
Flowers: $70
Food & Drinks: $1000
Dishes & Napkins: $240
DOC: $200
Photographer: $500
Rentals: $566
Gifts: $165
Cake: $800
Linens: $362
Decorations: $365
Misc. Expenses: $100
Everything else was free through freindors and skilled family members. For instance my dad was the dj

How many guests did you have?

We invited 450 and I think we figured around 250 came.

What creative or personal aspects did you include in your wedding?

Basically, everything about our wedding was personal and mostly handmade by myself, my mom, and our very amazing friends and family. We fell in love with the Old Pumphouse because it offered the picturesque butterfly garden that was perfect for my dream outdoor wedding and the fact that it’s a museum was great for Luke because he’s a mega history buff. I kept having to drag him away from the various plaques through the course of our reception

What was the biggest thing you did to save money?

We saved a lot of money by making and doing things ourselves. My mom was able to make all our linens and table toppers for less than $10 a table. We contacted local sunflower farmers who let us pick the huge sunflowers for our bouquets for free. The smaller ones were picked from wild fields so we only had to buy the filler flowers for our bouquets. This meant we got to have floral centerpieces that only cost $.24 a table. Originally we planned on having a local restaurant provide the food but that would have been way out of budget, so we contacted a friend who used to be a caterer. He provided all the fajitas and sausage for the cost of the meat. Another family friend made the rice for a very reasonable price and we had our DOC prepare the beans in roasters on site along with the salad. Some friends gifted the mexican wedding cookies and punch and we bought concentrated tea from a restaurant supplier. So we were able to provide unlimited drinks and dinner for everyone for under $5 a person.

What’s the best advice you have for planning your wedding now that you’re on the other side?

All the wedding blogs can get overwhelming so don’t feel like you have to catch up on every post from every single one but don’t rule them out either because I found life-saving inspiration from one barely 2 weeks before our wedding. Also account for about double the estimated time for diy projects and call in as many friends and family to help. There’s no way I would have been able to get through without my amazing support system. And don’t pick vendors hastily but give yourself enough time to do your research while booking early. We probably saved nearly a thousand dollars by booking our photographer and venue a year early.

What was your biggest splurge?

While planning we discovered that my mom and I are cake snobs. So we ended up spending nearly as much on the cake as the rest of the food. But it was so worth it because it both looked and tasted amazing. Unfortunately we ordered way too much and ended up with nearly 150 pieces to take home.

What was your favorite detail?

Looking back it’s really hard to pick one favorite detail because I absolutely love how everything came together. However, we both agreed that the Old Hidalgo Pumphouse is what really made the event. Luke loved the museum part of it and I couldn’t imagine finding a more beautiful venue.

What is the most memorable moment of your day?

Our first dance was very special to me because it was a surprise I planned for Luke. I took a song he had written for us called “Let’s Grow Old Together” and gave it to my dad to play for us. He took the original lyrics and matched it with a melody he had written 20-some years before for my mom. So it made the whole moment really sentimental and unique especially since we had to keep it a secret from Luke right up until my dad announced the song.
Please also include a list of all your vendors including any website links.
Venue: Old Hidalgo Pumphouse
Save the Dates: Vistaprint
Wedding Dress: David’s Bridal
Photographer: SixFourteen Photography
Rentals: All Party Rentals
Cake: Honey’s Cakes by Nancy Cortez

Monique & Timothy’s relaxed outdoor affair just brings me joy! Even though this wedding is on the larger side of budgets that we feature, there’s still some great takeaways from the bride’s experience. Her helpful tips: find a venue that will let you bring in your own alcohol and sometimes doing all inclusive can save you money! I definitely love the ‘green’ aspect of this wedding as well, and with a guest count of 200 those costs add up quick! And while the bride paid to have her flowers professionally done, the laid back wildflower arrangements are totally easy to recreate on the cheap so I hope you find them inspiring! I also love that their sweet dog is all-up-in the wedding action- so adorable! Hope you all enjoy this wedding eye-candy as much as I do!

What was your budget?

We had one vendor provide food, staff, tent, tables, chairs, linens and more! It was the bulk of the budget at $14,000 plus gratuity!

We spent the rest on amazing flowers and photography and the cake!

Oh and Alcohol! The Bryn Du allows you to bring in you own alcohol! It was so nice to keep the left over wine and etc. And it was better the paying $5 a pour that other venues and caterers tried to charge us! In total we spent around $25,000.

How many guests did you have?

200 of our closest friends and family!

What creative or personal aspects did you include in your wedding?

We tried to be as “ Green” as possible. By forgoing the traditional wedding invitation, we had a casual vibe from the beginning. We had our rsvp’s done on our wedding website and other directions for the wedding weekend. The caterer sought out biodegradable plates, cutlery and cups for our backyard North Carolina style BBQ/picnic reception. We also had yard games available as well! Everyone loved being able to play corn hole or crochet during the reception. We also requested our cards and gift wrapping to be as creative and reused as possible.

What was the biggest thing you did to save money?

By finding a venue that allowed us to bring in our own vendors and alcohol!!

What’s the best advice you have for planning your wedding now that you’re on the other side?

Hire a day of wedding planner. Or have someone designated to ‘work’ your wedding day making sure everything is in place and people are where they need to be and vendors are paid.

What was your biggest splurge?

The food!

What was your favorite detail?

My trees! I had aspects of trees in everything!

What is the most memorable moment of your day?

When I turned and looked at all of my friends and family once I met my husband at the end of the altar. So much love that day!

Vendors

Caterer: Weilands Gourmet Market

Florist: Flowers on Springtree Lane

Venue: The Bryn Du Mansion

Cake: Bakery Gingham

Photography: Kevin Keefer

What was your budget? If you are able, give us a rough breakdown of how you spent your budget.

Our budget was $10,000. I searched a lot to get the best deals and I did a lot myself too. I paid for a large portion of the wedding myself.

Photographer – $1,000

Chapel – $500 (student/employee rate)

Videographer – $600

Save The Dates – Free (only paid postage – done by friend in the printing company)

Cake – $1.50/ slice (Made by a lady out of her house)

Groom’s Cake – Free! (Gift from a friend!)

Flowers – $1,100 (Used all daisies and kept it simple!)

DJ – $450 (local radio DJ –does weddings just for fun!)

Favors – $.75 (boxes from Dollar Tree and discount bulk M&Ms)

Invitations – (Postage only – Same friend as the save the dates!)

Reception Site- free with the purchase of food

Food – $6,000 (included reception for 275 & rehearsal dinner for 50)

How many guests did you have?

275

What creative or personal aspects did you include in your wedding?

I love to do crafts! I enjoyed making a number of things myself. Even though our guest list was a whopping 500 people I still wanted it to feel personal. I made our monogrammed cake topper. I also made our initials to display on the chapel doors. I made our guest book on blurb.com with pictures of us from while we were dating and our engagement photos. I also made all the paper cones used to throw our Ecco-fetti. Also, one of our groomsmen designed our Save The Dates, Invitations, and Programs which brought an even more personal side to them.

What was the biggest thing you did to save money?

Tons! We tried to save money everywhere without it being cheap. I bought all the centerpiece vases at Goodwill on the first Saturday of the month because that is half price day. I used 40% off coupons from the paper at Michael’s almost every week. Instead of buying expensive ribbon sashes at David’s Bridal my mom made them from ribbon from Michael’s. I purchased my dress at a place that did alterations for free. We have a lot of family and friends that are very talented and we used them!

What’s the best advice you have for planning your wedding now that you’re on the other side?

Don’t swoon over things you can’t have. I read tons of wedding blogs and wanted to take all these ideas and put them to use. But, I had to realize that on a budget you have to be selective and choose the things that are important to you. I also had to look at my personality. Just because it was a good idea for one wedding didn’t mean it was a good idea for our wedding. We wanted to feel like we were at our wedding and not someone else’s.

What was your biggest splurge?

The food is what cost the most but it was for both the rehearsal dinner and the reception. The photographer was the next thing. And, what was even better is that our photographer had an intern with her so we got even more pictures! It was great!

What was your favorite detail?

I liked the sentimental pieces of the day that no one else knew about. I carried with my bouquet a tiny Bible that Tyler’s Mom gave him when he was born and a handkerchief that my great Aunt gave me when I was born. I had my Grandfather’s (who I never met) and Grandmother’s wedding bands sewn into my dress. I had a sixpence in my left shoe that has been used in over 30 other weddings that was lent to me from a family friend. And, just outside the chapel we were married in is where he proposed to me.

What is the most memorable moment of your day?

It had been a running joke for years that Tyler could never remember what hand the rings went on and I would always have to remind him. We were at the altar exchanging rings and I remember being so nervous. I was trying to put his ring on and he kept telling me it was the wrong hand. I thought he was kidding at first but then I realized it really was the wrong hand!

Vendors

Florist: Jenny Stephen at Flowers N Things

DJ: Gene Lovin with 410 Productions

Invitations: Designed by Groomsman Daniel Hunley;

Photographer: Shelby Demory of Shelby J Photography & Amanda Urso of Urso Photography

Videographer: Colt Helton of Clean Pony Productions

This week we have another awesome Two Bright Lights submitted wedding from Simply Knot Photography! I am thrilled to share this $3,000 backyard wedding from Phoenix, Arizona. This sweet bicycle themed wedding has a sunny yellow color scheme that I just love. They couple saved by having their wedding in their backyard on a Sunday, keeping their guest list low, and having a potluck! I love the intimate feel of this wedding and it just goes to show- you don’t have to do anything expensive or elaborate to have an amazing wedding! It looks like it was a wonderful day and you can tell that they had all that truly mattered to them! Thanks Katie & Justin for sharing your lovely day with us!

What was your budget?

Dress/Alterations – $450
Katie’s Shoes – $10
Justin’s Outfit – $200
Photographers – $900 (special discounted rate)
Florist – $280 (bike arrangement, bouquet), Free (chuppa, aisle, driveway)
Officiant – Free
Rings – $500
Invitations – $50
Table/Chair Rentals – $250
Decorations – $200
Food – Free (Potluck)
Cake – $70
Champagne – Free
Wedding night dinner – Free (Thanks to La Grande Orange/Chelsea’s Kitchen)

That totals to be just under $3,000.

How many guests did you have?

30 Family members + wedding party. We hosted a friends reception the night before.

What creative or personal aspects did you include in your wedding?

Our wedding colors were inspired by 2 items: our vintage baby blue bicycle & a yellow floral arrangement already in our living room. The remaining color palette came from our green garden and dark brown furniture. We wanted to be sure yellow was the main color, so we used it in important details: the flowers, the centerpieces, the groom’s and best man’s attire, and the bride’s shoes. We brought yellow to other unsuspecting objects by simply tying a muted yellow and brown ribbon.

Our wedding was on a Sunday morning in our backyard. Our intention was to have the atmosphere of a garden party. Men wore sport coats; women wore sun dresses. We used vintage accents whenever possible, like mason jars as glasses, eclectic second-hand silverware, and lace napkin rings. We hadn’t intended to have a theme, but when it came to the tables we didn’t want to use plain old numbers.

We named the tables after different bicycle styles (e.g. cruisers). The kids table even had a special name – training wheels! This theme made our old blue cruiser (aka Big Blue) a welcome addition to our decor. Our florist arranged fresh flowers in the basket. We also tied ribbons from the bike for guests to write warm wishes, which made a unique guest book.

For favors we gave away custom CDs filled with ceremony and reception music. The CD label was designed by the bride’s sister and used many of the same elements from the wedding invitation. Our other favors were boxes filled with mini brownies, which doubled as table seating cards. We used store-bought white boxes and wrapped them with a muted yellow and brown ribbon fastened by a round name tag. We used first names only for a more intimate feel. Not only did we write out own vows, but our brother-in-law was our officiant. He brought a whole new level of intimacy to our wedding.

The wedding was kid friendly by making a kids table full of toys and games. Later in the reception we (the bride and groom) hosted a jeopardy trivia with questions written with our families in mind (especially the kids). I had been planning our wedding music since before I had met Justin. Because we had put so much thought into the music already, we were able to choose songs special to us for the different parts of the ceremony. For Justin’s processional we chose Boomshakalaka from the Dumb and Dumber soundtrack, his favorite movie. Katie’s processional was carefully chosen to be Everyday by Buddy Holly, a childhood favorite. The rest of the playlist was a combination of Katie’s favorite movie, Singin’ In the Rain, and other favorite artists like Etta James and the Beatles.

What was the biggest thing you did to save money?

A tight budget meant attention to detail. We purchased a cake for $70 from a local restaurant that we decorated with extra flowers (for free) from the florist. When shopping for my dress I looked for a dress that would need minimal alterations. Many of the decorations were handmade, e.g. the lace napkin rings were printed on vellum paper at home using a free template. It was important that most of our decor could pull “double duty” when the wedding was over. So we purchased, not rented, our silverware from Goodwill for a total of 35 sets for almost $10. We ended up with a mixture of “vintage” silverware that can be used for parties or family get-togethers. We purchased mason jars in bulk from a local hardware store to use as glasses during the ceremony. For Christmas/Chanukah we gave the jars to family and friends filled with goodies. The groom’s attire was also carefully planned and purchased, not rented, so it could be worn again.

What’s the best advice you have for planning your wedding now that you’re on the other side?

Start your planning early, especially if you are on a strict budget. Typically, the less money, the more planning. Talk to your family and friends for advice.

What was your biggest splurge?

Our photographers. They gave us a great deal that we just couldn’t pass up. So we increased our budget & tightened our belts. They were worth every penny!

What was your favorite detail?

The chuppa. So many wonderful details went into the final chuppa. First, Justin made the chuppa himself. Then, our neighbor florist donated and decorated the chuppa with tons of flowers and accessories. The chuppa was then draped with Justin’s grandfathers’ tallit. In the end, the chuppa represented everything we valued about our wedding: family, generosity, and resourcefulness.

What is the most memorable moment of your day?

Some of our favorite moments from the day happened during the most unconventional times: – When the music didn’t start as planned before the ceremony – Giggling and crying alone when it was time for me to walk down the aisle with only one of our photographers (Ryan) to see me – The first moment alone as husband and wife. I burst into tears while we hugged and laughed