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Colorful Intimate Summer Wedding in the Great Smoky Mountains

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Sydney + Logan met in a very peculiar way: she almost hit him with her car! They hit it off right away, dated through college, and decided they wanted to have a budget savvy wedding. Read on to get some DIY decor tips that they used for their special day.

Sydney + Logan

Sevierville, Tennessee
- 09/10/2022
Total wedding budget $13,500

Budget Breakdown

Below is an estimated wedding budget breakdown provided by the couple.

  • Stationery
    1%
    $108
  • Music/Entertainment
    1%
    $150
  • Flowers
    1%
    $200
  • Partner 2 Attire
    3%
    $350
  • Miscellaneous
    3%
    $400
  • Alcohol/Bar
    3%
    $415
  • Cake/Dessert
    4%
    $500
  • Rentals
    6%
    $750
  • Partner 1 Attire
    8%
    $1100
  • Photography
    9%
    $1260
  • Catering
    12%
    $1600
  • Venue
    50%
    $6740
  • Total wedding budget
    $13500

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

Since we had a smaller-sized wedding, we wanted to include as many people that we hold near and dear to us in the day as possible, and we also wanted to keep it fun. We had our college roommate officiate the wedding ceremony and another college friend was our flower “dude” – which everyone loved! As we don’t consider ourselves very traditional, we opted for a post-reception piñata full of silly things like bubbles, stick-on mustaches, and even custom tattoos of us and our dog Jynx.

Did you do any DIY projects or create any handmade items for your weddings?

We are both very fortunate to have incredibly talented siblings that helped with many aspects of the decor, florals, and jewelry for our wedding. Sydney’s sister used Sola Wood Flowers to create a beautiful wedding arch as well as all of the centerpieces for the reception.

Sydney’s brother carved and stained the oak cake stand that looked amazing with the cake and cupcakes on top, and his partner did Sydney’s hair and makeup!

Logan’s brother and his partner designed and created our acrylic wedding signs as well as custom peony earrings and cufflinks.

What was the biggest thing you did to save money?

Having the ceremony and reception at an Airbnb with a ceremony deck saved us a lot of money because we were able to keep everything in one place without worrying about transportation. We were even able to have the majority of our guests stay on the property with us for the weekend. It also allowed us to have total control over who we wanted for catering and wedding cakes/cupcakes, and saved us a lot of money by not having to pay for an alcohol vendor or bar.

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

Make sure you’re doing whatever makes you and your partner most happy when it comes to every wedding planning decision. We emphasized making our wedding fun for us even if it strayed from the average wedding.

What was your biggest splurge?

We kept to our budget pretty well so it wasn’t a huge splurge, but honestly all of the cakes we tried at Fox Den Baking Co. were so good that we couldn’t decide on just one flavor! So instead, we went with a wedding cake in one flavor and two different sets of mini cupcakes – and indulged in all of the sweets with zero regrets.

What was your favorite detail?

We wanted to keep a color palette and theme to our wedding and really emphasized florals as an important detail. Therefore, we suggested that our guests wear floral dresses or ties and provided a sample color palette to have a unified style that was also flexible for each individual. It was fun and brought the pop of color to our wedding that we wanted!

What is the most memorable moment of your day?

The most memorable moment of our day were the toasts (and a few roasts) that our closest friends and family shared with us during the lunch reception after the ceremony. The heartfelt words they shared brought both laughter and tears with their reflections on the important moments of our relationship.