Our Frugal Wedding
Since we got married in January (17 years ago!), and Valentine’s Day is in February, the beginning of each year always finds me focused on love and romance. So, just for fun, I thought I would share about our frugal wedding.
When we got engaged, we were both working full time, but we still had very little money. And we decided to buy a house, so we didn’t want to spend a fortune on the wedding. My dad bought us a brand new washer and dryer (which we were very thankful for) instead of footing the bill for the wedding, so we were very motivated to keep it simple since we were paying for most of it ourselves!
I say we paid for “most of it,” since so many friends and family members chipped in to help us. I’m especially grateful to my mom and my aunt for all they did. We couldn’t have done it without them!
First of all, there was the dress. THE DRESS. The one I had been dreaming of my whole life! I didn’t want to spend an extravagant amount on it. And I’m still not sure how this happened, but I went to one store and tried on one dress. Seriously. I don’t know what I was thinking!
I had just gotten off work, and I was tired and hungry. I met my mom at the bridal store (which I picked because it was closest to my office and easy to get to!), and I told the lady there what I was looking for. I knew I wanted white, I didn’t want bare shoulders, and I didn’t want long sleeves, because I am always hot (especially when I’m nervous) and I was afraid I would get hot during the ceremony (even though our original wedding date was in March, which isn’t usually hot!).
I had been told that short women shouldn’t have a full skirt, as it will make them look shorter. So there went the full ballgown-style skirt I had always wanted (now I know that I should have tried one on just to see what it would look like before I made a decision). So, I figured an a-line silhouette would be best for my petite frame, since I’m only 5′ 2″.
The lady didn’t have very many options with sleeves that weren’t long and pouffy, so she brought me this dress. I tried it on and fell in love with it (except for the open back with the big bows–I’ve never been a bow type of person).
I decided to go with this dress, which was around $300, and then I still had the veil and shoes to buy. After we moved our wedding date up to January 24th, I decided to add some gloves for a bit of warmth, even though I’ve never been a gloves type of person, either.
The dress was a size 4, but I still had to wear a bustier with it to help fill it out! And they had to take a lot of the length off and re-hem it for me.
So, the dress was probably the biggest expense we had. And also the photographer, although she was less expensive than most. We also had two high school students do the video for us, and they did a really great job.
We asked our church pianist to play the piano for us, and she asked her cellist friend and a soloist to also help with the music.
My mom and aunt made the bouquet for the bouquet toss. My mom made the bridesmaids’ dresses. We found a fabric color called “eggplant,” and we based the colors of the wedding on that. One of the reasons we had such a small wedding party was to save money.
We also rented tuxedos for the guys, and we bought the fresh bouquets of roses (cream roses for me, and lavendar and cream for the bridesmaids) from a local grocery store florist. We also rented the candle holder things, and my mom and aunt decorated them for us with ribbons and flowers.
We asked our two brothers to be ushers, rather than having them in the wedding party, since my husband’s brother was traveling from out of state, and my brother had several small children and was also traveling from another town.
We bought our wedding cake from the same grocery store where we got the flowers. It was just a very small, basic white cake. My aunt is very creative, and she dressed it up a bit with some extra roses and ribbon. We had homemade sheet cakes in the kitchen to help serve all of the guests.
I think my aunt also made the punch, and then we just had nuts and mints. It was a very simple reception at the church.
I got some inexpensive white satin shoes at Payless (if I’m remembering correctly), but they killed my feet. After the wedding I took them off, so almost every after-wedding photo I’m barefoot (but the dress hid my feet)!
The day of our wedding was sunny and beautiful. I’m so thankful for everyone who helped to make our day a success, especially my mom and my aunt.
Of course, after the fact, you always think of things you would do differently (For instance, I wish I would have asked my sister-in-law and cousin to be bridesmaids, even though they were both expecting! I also wish we would have had our brothers be groomsmen. And I definitely would have had my little niece and nephew be part of it, too, as flower girl and ring bearer).
Sooo many things I would do differently, but one thing I wouldn’t change, and that’s marrying this sweet guy! ♥
Love this! You are gorgeous and so is your dress 🙂
My hubby and I have been married for 3 1/2 years and we also had an inexpensive wedding. Friends and family helped with EVERYTHING. Someone made the cake (which turned out gorgeous, yummy, and didn’t cost us a cent thanks to our sweet friend), we made all the food for a full dinner reception, flowers were done by a friend of a friend, and so was photography. We were so amazingly blessed! Just thinking about it makes me so glad for the friends and family we have!
Thank you, Rachel! Your wedding sounds wonderful! It makes the memories even more special when friends and family take part in it. 🙂
This is just lovely, what a blessing to be able to do it so frugally. When our daughter got married 2 1/2 years ago, our biggest expense was the reception and everything else we did ourselves, even to our daughter making all the dress. Thanks for sharing this. Blessings (If you haven't already I would love you to share at good morning mondays.)
Thank you, Terri! I think that is so neat that your daughter made her own dress!
What a beautiful story! My wedding was very inexpensive also, but Jesus gave me a man who is priceless! 🙂
Christina
Aww, that's sweet, Christina! I love what you said about your husband being priceless!
How lovely!!!! I loved the dress story. My daughter bought her own wedding dress for her wedding this summer and paid only $45 for it!!! And it is a wedding dress. She is such a wonderful shopper!! Much better than I am.. All of our money for her wedding is going into the reception. We are doing did southern bbq style, even though we are northerners. :0) I am making most of the food. (I must be crazy!!)
Wow, $45! That's an amazing price for a wedding dress! I'll definitely be encouraging my girls to take their time and look at all of their dress options when/if their time comes to marry.
And I can't believe you're making most of the food for the reception!!! Southern bbq sounds delicious. I think that's great that you're putting most of the money into the reception. That's when so many special memories are made with family and friends (and that's another thing I wish we had done, is actually had a meal at our reception!).
Enjoy your wedding planning! 🙂
I think you always think of things that could be done differently (especially now when we see all sorts of cool ideas on Pinterest) but who we marry is really the important thing. You had a lovely wedding and your dress is very beautiful! I find that interesting that you only tried on one. I made my dress which is what I wanted to do but afterwards I thought it would have been kind of fun to go dress shopping anyway and see what styles I might actually like. I never went at all. I ended up following advice of others on the making of my dress (the type of fabric, etc.) that I wished later I would have gone with what I really wanted but truly it doesn't matter.
How neat that you made your dress, Abbi! I always thought that would have been so special. My mom made her own wedding dress and veil.
You're right about Pinterest having so many inspiring ideas–I've seen so many things that are absolutely beautiful. But, yes, you're right–the most important thing is really who we marry, and I'm so thankful for my amazing husband! ♥