I know that I have been depriving you lovely readers of our favorite weekly feature, the Budget Savvy Wedding of the Week!! Glad to announce that we are back with quite a lovely feature for you today! Love love love the yummy light in these gorgeous photos of this Montana budget wedding from Amber Murphy Photography! I also love the rich purple she chose for her bridesmaids dresses, flowers, and shoes and the way it plays so well with the rustic red on the barn! Such a sweet, fun wedding that truly focuses on the important things and people!  Hope you enjoy this feature and look forward to sharing more with you in the future! xoxo- Jess

Jason and Megan

June 4, 2011
Bloomfield, Montana

What was your budget? Give a breakdown of your spending if possible:

Our Budget was: $9,000

Rough budget break down:
Food/reception/workers: $3,000
Flowers: $300
Photographer: $1800
Bridesmaids Dresses: $650
Invites/Save the dates: $200
Wedding Dress: $1300
Decorations: $300
Cake/pedestal cake domes: $275
Silk Flowers: $100
Table and Chairs: $300

How many guests did you have?

130

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

Each table at the reception had it’s own cake as the center piece. We made all of our own invites, as well as our guestbook using pictures from our engagement session. My mom was a florist before she got married so she did all the floral arrangements. Our reception was at a family friend’s yard, where we spent almost every sunday evening at growing up. I also hand painted signs to the wedding using old barn wood. The venue was back in my home “town”, which is a small farming community, so makes for a very creative venue!

What did you do to save money?

Bought flowers from Costco, and the cake pedestals were given to people who helped out as gifts,
We used some silk flowers and candle sticks from my sister’s wedding that was 56 days before mine! I’m blessed with a artsy/crafty mother who made all the floral arrangements and decorations, and a family friend did hair.

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

Just enjoy the process and be flexible! Simple can truly be better. And listen to your mother

What was your biggest splurge?

I would say my dress, as we spent more than we had planned on. I also would say we splurged on photos as I was able to have two photographers, but they were very reasonable!

What was your favorite detail?

I wore purple heals with my wedding dress and my husband wore converse. That just describes us perfectly!

What was the most memorable moment of the day?

So many! Getting ready with my good friends (bridesmaids and one of my photographers), seeing Jason for the first time, the outdoor reception (we had perfect weather )….

VENDORS

We did most of the work ourselves, but we did use a caterer for the food and bought my dress at Angeliques and the bridesmaid dress at David’s Bridal. The flowers were from Costco.

Catering: Lady J’s Catering
Gowns: Angeliques Bridal | David’s Bridal
Costco

Please give a warm BSB welcome to one of our newest sponsors, Untamed Petals! Owner and designer Amanda Judge creates super chic wedding accessories that are sure to delight you!

As a part of their 2012 collection they have created a line of under $100 headpieces, belts and combs for the bride on a budget. Amanda feels that every bride should have an amazing accessory regardless of your budget! Just scrolling through the page of under $100 items I found dozens of pieces that were totally drool-worthy!

Here’s a few of my faves:

Love this statement necklace and this peachy headpiece is so dreamy!

Love these chic crystal ribbon belts!! What a lovely extra touch of sparkle!

Love these headbands– so ethereal!

Such feminine, sparkly touches!

It’s much more budget-savvy to go with a simple dress and then customize your look with accessories. Accessorizing your wedding dress can really be a budget-saver, and give you the perfect wedding day look! Be sure to check out all the lovely options at Untamed Petals if you’re in need of some extra pretty for your wedding day!

I love bold colors, crisp images, and interesting architecture and angles in photographs. Photo credit to Jay Crihfield Photography.

So in my last adventure, I was freaking out about selecting a photographer. Most of the places we can afford seem to be the “big boxes” of photography, meaning that they may be cheap, but at the cost of being impersonal, unpredictable, and experts and nickel-and-diming people.

As I mentioned in my last post, the photographer is the one vendor I most value–besides the value I place on the pictures that he or she would take, I also know that I need to get along well with the person who is going to be glued to my side the whole day.

Over winter break, I discovered that the one photographer we could afford was suddenly booked, and I saw no other options in sight. There was some major panicking.  Jon, the man with the unrealistic budget, had not been an active participant in selection the process because, according to him, “anyone can take a picture!” It was at this point that I—very firmly—told him he needed to be involved.

In typical Jon fashion, he declared “Fine. Let’s get this shit done today” and proceeded to spend about 4 hours on the Internet shooting me links for anyone and everyone he could find who was within our price range. Most of them were immediate rejections from me, for reasons ranging from “their website sucks” to “I don’t like their pictures” to “they seem too corporate,” but one—and only one—made the cut.

Her website was promising, with playful colors and an extensive online portfolio. The photos were fun, bright, and sharper than most any I’d seen. The promise of an included “e-session” was also a bonus, along with two-photographer coverage. We might, it seemed, have our place.

The amazing colors and interesting backdrops in this image make me swoon. Photo credit: Studio 1147.

I gave the studio a call one night to ask a few questions, and I ended up talking with the photographer for over an hour. The studio is just one person who has a few backups when necessary. This is a plus for me, as a single photographer seems to typically be more dedicated to the quality of their work than someone working for a big studio.

The phone call was as much a fun conversation as it was a business call. She chatted with me about all kinds of things, including centerpiece ideas, color combinations, and the like. She even said that she is planning to have an event for all the 2011/2012 brides to have a “meeting of the creative minds” and share ideas. I of course have no way to determine whether that will actually happen, but it is an awesome idea, and I think it’s really cool that she would spend her own time and money to put together something like that. I’m lucky in that I have three friends who were married recently or who are in the process of planning their weddings now, but it would still be cool to meet more people who are in the process!

I also jived really well with her general style and philosophy. For example, she not only includes an engagement session as part of the package, but she sees it as a vital part of the process. It’s an opportunity for her to get to know us as people and to experiment with what kind of pictures work for us and whether there are certain photo styles, poses, etc. that we don’t like. She also does save-the-date designs and somehow knew that I was a bit of an offbeat bride after guessing after about a half hour of talking that I probably hadn’t looked into many reception halls.

I also love that there’d be two photographers and that she always seems to work with the same person, so they’ve got a good system and are used to each others’ styles. She’s also got 15 years of experience and is, she claims, a master at lighting, which is something we could really use. Even some of the little things she does on her website tell me something I like about her and her company: she’s got bright colors on there, a ton of different photos, a big variety of photography styles, fun names for each of the photography packages, neat blog posts, video slideshows, and more.

So all in all, she’s pretty awesome. I went from having no possible photographer—or so it seemed—to having one that seems like exactly what I’d want if I designed it myself. So, barring any terrible reviews or anything from another bride, we may have our photographer!