Sorry for the intermittent blog silences over the last few weeks, folks. Things have been a little crazy at the Casa de Budget Savvy. I will fill you in more over in the Life section soon. I am happy to be back today with a lovely December South Carolina wedding that I’ve had in my queue for bit and need to feature before we get in to full-blown summer mode! I am in love with the little chalkboard signs (I personally still love this trend) especially the rustic, wintery feel of them along with the added detail of the fleur-de-lis puts a sweet spin on it. I love their mardis gras theme and how subtle and classy it is- they really pulled it off! Thanks so much to longtime reader Kimmy and her new hubby Dan for sharing their special day with us!  -Jessica

Kimmy & Dan

Dec. 11, 2010
Walker Hall @ South Carolina School for the Deaf & Blind, Spartanburg, SC

 

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

We had a budget of $8,000 that my parents graciously gave us. That made us want to be even more wise with our money. We did go over that some, but was able to stick to that budget pretty closely! A general breakdown:

$2700 on photography

$2100 on venue

$2000 for catering, florals, decorations, and rentals

$400 ($520) for wedding dress, $220 for alterations

$200 on coffee favors for our guest

$250 on invitations, programs, and children’s books

How many guests did you have?

We had around 125 guests for our rather large day.

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

We loved being able to add personal touches throughout our wedding weekend. We handmade all of our invitations, programs, children’s activities books, and coffee favors for our guests. I also wore some very special items that I brought back from living in Northern Africa such as my earrings and my wedding shoes. Wearing those items reminded me of my sweet friends who I wanted to be at our wedding but who couldn’t be because of the distance. Our reception was a little bit different. We decided on having a coffee and dessert bar and putting out board games for our guests to play. The desserts that we chose were important to us like the king cake which reminded me of my time in New Orleans. We wanted a relaxed and fun atmosphere that would allow us to spend time with our friends and family and also would give them a chance to mingle and have fun together. My bridesmaid, who currently lives in New Orleans, also brought quite a few things from there to make it a special day. Who doesn’t love beads, boas, and masks??? It was a lot of fun to use those in our first dance and as we left the wedding. My Bridal luncheon was also different than the traditional “Bridal Luncheon”. I was able to treat all of my gals and some special ladies with a morning of painting pottery, which was LOTS of FUN!

What was the biggest thing you did to save money?

We set priorities and goals from the beginning and revisited those often as we planned our wedding. We decided the proprieties would be on photography and on the venue. We also decided on the look that we wanted and set out to find ways to make that happen for “less”. We asked our families to pitch in and help with many of the personal touches that we added to the wedding, which reduced a lot of the cost. The biggest thing we did to save money was to put together all of our printed items and many of our decorations. We had our invitations printed at a local print shop and then we assembled them. We knew from the beginning that invitations and stationary could get expensive and it’s only used for that day and then thrown away. We set out from the beginning to create and bring together our invitations and programs for as a cheap as possible, yet still classy. That saved us LOTS of money! We made our decorations by buying small chalkboard and staining and putting a fleur de lis applique on them to match our wedding invitations and stationary. We also shopped locally – using local vendors and friends to help us put together our big day. We borrowed the burlap and lanterns (which are identical to lanterns that you can get in my North African home!) from my friend who got married this summer.

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

We only had about four months to plan our wedding – which was plenty of time. There will always be details to work on, no matter how long you have to plan your wedding. Enlist the help of family and friends. Make it personal! Add things that are a symbol of you and your hubby! Remind yourself constantly that at the end of your wedding day, “you’re gonna be MARRIED!” and that is all that matters. While your wedding day is a really important day, it’s just that – a DAY. The marriage is more important than the wedding and we set out to focus on our marriage, not just the wedding.

What was your biggest splurge?

We splurged in two areas: our photographer and our venue. Those two things were crucial for what we wanted – a special place that could be “us” and a photographer that was talented and creative and that could capture our day long after the food has been consumed, the coffee drank, and the dress put away!

What was your favorite detail?

Our coffee bar and coffee favors were our favorite part! We both LOVE coffee and wanted to include that in our rather large day. We spent many nights sippin’ coffee together on dates and couldn’t imagine not having coffee and our love for coffee as a part of the day. We had our friend Amy, a former Starbucks Barista, there to help! She made us special coffee drinks for our first drink. We had several flavors of creamer and locally roasted coffee. Our favors were handmade burlap bags with coffee – which we loved to give to all of our family and friends!!

What is the most memorable moment of your day?

Seeing Dan and spending some one on one time with him before the wedding ceremony was hands-down my favorite moment. Our “first look” time was super intimate and calmed my nerves and reminded me to just breath and focus on us during the day. We were able to talk and have a conversation without anyone interrupting us or pulling us to the “next” thing. It also gave us some time to pray together before our ceremony. It gave our photographer some amazing photos and it saved lots of time after the ceremony for pictures, which made all of our guests happy!!

 

VENDORS

Photographer: Chris Isham Photography

Venue: Walker Hall

Hair: Randi (friend) at Magnolia’s A Salon

Catering, Flowers, Decorating, Directing: Brenda Rogers (friend)

Coffee Favor & Coffee Bar: Little River Roasting

Dresses and Tuxes: David’s Bridal & Men’s Wearhouse

Invitations: Una Print Shop (local print shop)

Our Website has more pictures and more of our story.

 

I am thrilled to share this beautiful beach wedding with you after taking a week off from the BSWOW last week. I know you’ll love this uniquely fabulous casual wedding. Thanks so much to Amanda for sharing her special day with us!

What was your budget?

Our budget was $10,000 and we were about $3000 over
(I should mention that this did include a week's worth of rent for the six-bedroom beach house that we used for the ceremony/reception! So it was like a mini vacation before the wedding… and no hotel rooms needed for immediate family members!)

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

As far as personal aspects go: My family is big into doing “Low Country Boils”, which is basically a big pot of shrimp, crab, chicken, sausage, potatoes and corn boiled with yummy seasonings. When everything's finished cooking, you dump it onto newspaper-lined tables and everyone grabs a plate! It's so much fun and I was so thrilled we were able to share that experience with all of our friends and family. It also worked out great with our casual beach theme (and we were — afterall — in the Low Country!).
We got really creative with a lot of the details: our favors were these cute little mismatched bottles filled with sand from right outside the house, we printed the escort cards and tied them to crab crackers, metal buckets filled with bibs doubled as trash receptacles for guests' crab and shrimp shells, one of my bridesmaids created little flower arrangements in mason jars (we bought the flowers earlier in the week from the local grocery store… 3 bouquets for like $12!), etc.

What was the biggest thing you did to save money?

Providing our own food really saved us TONS of money. We spent about $1,000 at Sam's Club and that fed 50 people for the cocktail hour and reception (and we're talking about 50 lbs of crab legs, too!) and about 20-30 at the rehearsal dinner and morning-after brunch.

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

Be yourself. Don't be afraid to take risks. Everyone kept saying over and over how unique our wedding was and how it was totally us. We just did what felt right… We had an abundance of guys in the bridal party so I put my brother on MY side (he was such a trooper, he didn't even sweat it when somehow my bouquet was handed to him to hold during the ceremony). I couldn't decide on a bridesmaid dress so I picked a color scheme and had the girls choose their own styles. We didn't want to pay all this money for a cake so we got cupcakes instead! And who thought having people eat shrimp and crab legs with their hands while all dressed up was a good idea? But it was fun! I think if you let your personalities really shine through, don't be surprised when everyone keeps telling you it's the best wedding they've ever been to!

What was your biggest splurge?

The house was definitely our biggest expense ($5,500 for the week) but I don't really see that as a bad thing… We had an amazing master bedroom all to ourselves for a week (when will we ever get the master on a family vacation again, right!?). Plus, family members trickled in throughout the week and didn't have to get hotel rooms. And we all got to spend some quality time together as a new family (but don't think we didn't put everyone to work!).
But other than that… The second big thing would be photography. I'm a photographer so having amazing pictures to look at years from now was definitely really important… so we didn't skimp in this area!

What was your favorite detail?

The tables really turned out SO much better than I ever dreamed! I bought all the pieces from different places: brown craft paper from Walmart (Low Country Boils get a little messy!), buckets and water carafes from Cost Plus World Market, table runners from a favors website, silverware and seafood crackers from a restaurant supply website, wood frames for centerpieces (that we filled with sand, shells & candles) from Michael's, glass mosaic plates from Big Lots (my mom stopped at every store between south Florida and our place in Atlanta to find the 14 we needed!), etc., etc. Ok, seriously? I can't believe all that came together as well as it did! When we first walked down into the reception, I was just floored! All that hard work and bargain shopping really paid off!
Also, we were planning on having the reception on the deck out back but earlier in the week we noticed it got really windy and chilly at night. Plus, we figured out it would be pretty tight if we crammed all the tables we needed into that space. So we made the last minute decision to move the reception area to under the house… Ugh, I'm having my reception in a GARAGE??? I thought. But everyone chipped in (this was an awesome project for the dads!) and wrapped Christmas lights (that we got discounted after the holidays were over of course!) and tulle around the wood beams. They also strung lanterns across the ceiling. The total effect was just perfect.

What is the most memorable moment of your day?

One of my cousins stepped up that week and basically became my day-of coordinator… she thought of EVERYTHING including having a bottle of champagne and glasses ready to go in the master bedroom. So right after the ceremony, the bridal party went in, gathered in a circle and everyone toasted us. Because we did everything ourselves, we were constantly on the go both the week before the wedding and the day of. Even during the ceremony I couldn't believe it was actually happening. So I think that moment was the first real moment because we were finally able to stop, breathe and just enjoy it. And how amazing to look around the room and be surrounded by your very best friends and to see how truly happy they were for you… it was just amazing and it's bringing me to tears just thinking about it!
Vendors:

Photography: Kelli Nixon Photography
Cupcake: Fresh Cupcakes
Florist: The Greenery Florist
Rentals: Snyder Event Rentals
Service Staff: Culi Events & Staffing
Music: Palmetto Strings
Accomodations/Event space: Avocet Properties (“Palmetto House”)