What was your total budget? Please share your budget breakdown.
- Venue: $2000
- Food: $2200 – family friend
- Cake: $200 – friend
- Decor: $500
- Flowers: $150 – DIY paper flowers
- Bride: $1100
- Groom: $200
- Hair/Makeup: $0 – friends/family
- Favors: $200
- DIY Music: $30 – iTunes
- Bar: $190 – deposit
- Games: $0 – rental from our college outdoor rec-center
- Linen/Chair Rental: $1000
TOTAL: $7,740
We wanted to spend as little as possible and planned as if we were paying for everything ourselves. Two kids right out of college did not lend itself to an expensive wedding. We started with a total of what we had: what we saved, would save, and help from people. We then went through that grand total and noted what we wanted to spend on what was most important to us: big venue and food. We continued with this process for the next most important things: cake and dress, etc. Whenever we were able to get something on sale, for a good deal, or a better option came along we just adjusted our plan.
How many guests did you have?
We planned for 130 people but had something closer to 100. While that did mess up the budget a little bit, with extra cost for more linens, favors, and food, it did leave us plenty of extra cupcakes!
How did you meet?
We met in high school our freshman year but began dating our senior year. We were soon engaged during our freshman year of college and waited to get married until we graduated from college four years later.
What is your proposal story?
After dating for over a year he secretly asked my parents for my hand when they came to visit us at college and that’s when the months of planning began. He knew I loved elephants and started putting the proposal into action in November when he bought the elephant box I so loved and regretted not getting while on a trip to Texas. Little did I know my ring would go in that box. That following December he took me to the zoo and had a surprise backstage pass to visit the elephants since it was snowy and cold. After getting to feed the elephants and see them paint, he asked for a photo of both of us. That’s when he pulled the box from his pocket and asked me.
Tell us a little about your wedding vision.
We wanted a getaway for us and for our guests. With both of us growing up in Colorado and about to move to Mississippi with the Air Force, we wanted a mountain wedding in Silverthorne to enjoy the beauty we’ve always known. We planned for a rather large wedding but wanted it to be stress-free and easy on everyone involved so we did a lot of stuff ourselves and on a low budget. We chose Air Force blue and burgundy red with accents of dusty pink. We had lace, brown craft paper invitations, wood slices, antlers, lanterns, mason jar drinking glasses, and wood flowers.
Tell us about your attire choices.
He wore his Air Force military mess dress with his dad’s saber from the Air Force Academy. I wore an ivory lace dress with an invisible neckline that had floating-lace long sleeves and buttons all the way down the back. I had a plain, long veil with a flower crown of burgundy, pink, and white wooden flowers and dusty pink suede heels.
What was most important to the two of you while planning? Was there anything you chose to splurge on or skip?
The most important thing to us was having a place big enough to have both our large families so we could say goodbye to them and still be a place we thought was beautiful and relaxing. We also chose to splurge on the food with a full brunch style buffet and mimosas, thinking that if all else failed the food would be the one thing we and everyone else remembered. We also splurged on our guestbook. It was a mason jar-shaped plexiglass frame that held signed wooden hearts, which we ordered off of Etsy.
What were your favorite parts of the day?
Our favorite parts of the wedding were the groom and I handing out communion to our guests. It was a very special and personal way for them to be a part of our lifetime commitment to each other. We also enjoyed getting to see our guests enjoy themselves over the good food, photo booth, and outside yard games. It was like a big family get together in fancy clothes. Another favorite was inviting all the moms, since we got married on Mother’s Day, to come to take a flower from the tulips we bought for them. It was a small but sweet gesture to thank them for sharing their day with our wedding.
Tell us about your wedding flowers.
Our bouquets and flower crowns were handmade by myself and my mother. We ordered the flowers wholesale from Sola Wood Flowers in our wedding colors. My mother built the bouquets and I built the flower crowns for myself and the flower girl. We added eucalyptus leaves for the greenery and lace with Air Force blue ribbon to hold them together. Sales on floral supplies at Hobby Lobby made this a breeze.
Tell us about your wedding cake.
Our cake was a single 6-inch tier lemon poppyseed with raspberry filling that we got from a friend of mine who owns a bakery in Greeley. It was a simple design of pale pink transitioning to white, topped with two small paper airplanes. We also had 130 cupcakes of vanilla, chocolate, and lemon poppyseed. Each was topped with a small paper airplane that we made out of Colorado and Mississippi maps.
What did you do for favors?
Our favors were little glass jars with custom stickers on the top that we ordered wholesale. We filled them with spicy trail mix, sour gummy bears, sweet trail mix, or a nut mix that we bought in bulk from Sprouts.
Please describe any handmade, DIY, or personal items.
We did a lot of DIY. We had a family friend do the catering, another friend do the cake, we made the favors and flowers. We even built and painted our cake stand and made the paper airplane decorations. The centerpieces and aisle markers we made from on sale greenery from the craft stores and sales on mason jars and lanterns. The invitations/programs we printed and cut ourselves. We had a friend DJ the music we purchased and MC for us. We rented the games from our college outdoor recreation center and used some of our own stuff for decorations.
Did you include any family heirlooms or special traditions?
The family heirlooms we had were the saber Seamus wore, my pearl necklace from my mother-in-law’s grandmother, and the blue sapphire pins that I received as a gift from Seamus’ grandma; one went on my flower crown and the other on my bouquet.
Do you have any advice for couples planning their wedding now?
We stressed so much over pleasing our moms that we let go of some of our desires when we should have put our foot down. Also, don’t let other people make you feel guilty for wanting what you want. Who cares if they call you a bridezilla even when you’re trying to consider everyone else’s feelings. They don’t know what all went into making those decisions, so don’t let them hurt your feelings. They may not get what they want, but that way you won’t have any regrets after the day has passed.
VENDORS
Photography: Taylor Nicole Photography • Ceremony Venue: Silverthorne Pavilion • Reception Venue: Silverthorne Pavilion • Floral: Sola Wood Flowers • Wedding Cake: Batter Up Cakes • Catering: Joey Smith • Linens: Colorado Tents & Events • Hair: Lacey Rand • Makeup: Jessica Padilla • Wedding Dress: The Moss Rose • Groom’s Attire: USAF • Bride’s Shoes: Dillard’s • Bridesmaid Dresses: Davids’s Bridal • Veil: Bella Rosa Bridal • Headpiece: Sola Wood • Submitted via: Matchology
