I have been wanting to talk about this for a while and well, because I am SO proud of myself for all that I did for our wedding while staying within our small budget, going to school full time and working full time. Let me just say this, I do not know how I would have done it if I was not a very organized person. I am an enneagram 3, organization is my jam. I thought I would save ourselves room in our budget and do all of the planning by myself. Granted, I did have help gathering supplies that I needed for decor and our families came together and helped us set up our entire ceremony and reception. Thanks fam!!
Ohhhh the stress, the anxiety, the timelines, due dates and financial drags. If I could go back in time, I would 100% hire a wedding planner. What was I thinking?! If you’re a new bride and wondering if you should hire one, definitely hire one. Unless, it’s not in your budget. Then, maybe some of these tips will be helpful to you.
I have lived my entire adult life in (which is not very long, but still LOL) living by my planner. I have a notebook planner that I carry almost everywhere. It’s 9″x12″ and that is why I cannot carry small handbags. I carry totes specifically for this reason. If you do not have one, buy one. If you say you will not use it, you have to train yourself to. Make a habit of writing things down. It will only help you stay on task and get things done. I am such a monster that I color code everything in my planner, even my doctor appointments.. I know, I know. It’s a disease really. Anyways, having a planner during the wedding planning time was my saving grace. I had all of our appointments written down, our vendor financial due dates, etc.
Dylan and I did not want to spend an outrageous amount of money on our wedding. We love weddings and we have been to some pretty cool ones. We just did not want to break our bank and start off our marriage in debt, so we had to compromise on a few things. Me and my lovely cousin made almost all of my signage and decor (shoutout to Cheyenne, I do not know what I would do without you!!). We made the signs with pieces of wood and mirrors we had laying around our homes. All we did was use our cricut for the lettering. This saved us sooo much money!!
For our guest book, I painted a globe that I bought from goodwill and also added our names in vinyl. I LOVED the way it turned out!
I bought sparklers in the store while they were out for the Fourth of July. I customized and made signs to slide on the sparklers on powerpoint and bought striker strips that had an adhesive on the backs of them. You can find the striker sheets here.
Luckily, my aunt is a photographer and had greenery walls that we used as our “photo wall”. I bought balloon garland and customized wooden letters off of Etsy to hang from the walls.
For the bridal table we had chargers for the seating with real magnolia leaves used as name plates. I loved the look of them! I wrote the names on with a gold sharpie.
I collected what seemed like millions of gold candle holders and put them EVERYWHERE! Literally everywhere. They were so pretty though and I’m obsessed with black candles, so, of course we had to go with those. Instead of adding on separate floral centerpieces for the tables at the reception, I just had my florist bring empty vases for us to sit on the tables. I had my bridesmaids put their bouquets in the vases at the tables after we took pictures. These vases were already filled with water prior to and reusing the bridesmaids bouquets saved us hundreds of dollars!
I bought my bridesmaids and I matching robes to wear while we were getting ready and you can find those here. Aren’t they the cutest?!
One thing that I recommend for ALL brides is that you pick a day before your wedding to get your bridal portraits done. That way you already have those out of the way on your actual wedding day. I had a timeline for our wedding day, and as strict as I was staying on schedule, there are things that you cannot control. If you can get anything out of the way beforehand, do it. Plus, I have amazing shots from my wedding photographer during my bridal portraits!! You can check out here Facebook page here.
Listing all of our wedding vendors below. They were all amazing and great to work with! if you’re looking for any vendors, definitely get a quote from them if you are in the north Georgia area.
Florist – Ten Point Floral Design
Photographer – Lindsey McKinnon Photography
Videographer – Truevision Productions
Catering – The Master’s Table
Bartenders – Kim’s Kocktails
Venue – Cotton Mill Event Venue
No matter how stressful it was, our wedding was the best day of my life. All that mattered was getting to marry my soulmate and have our friends and family witness our special day.