30 Best DIY Wedding Decorations - Cheap Wedding Decoration ...

Hi everyone! I got engaaaaged
I've been dead for some time now (still lurking and loving y'all from the great beyond<3)
So here's the contest:

Weddings are EXPENSIVE, and I'm trying to DIY as much as I can! Send me your best DIY wedding idea! I'll pick my favorite and gift something from your wish list hehe

useful info:

Wedding colors are going to be lavender and sage, we're going for outdoors (maybe an indoor reception? unsure) in October, probably 2022. Feel free to ask any questions beyond that or go crazy lol. Pics encouraged!

Contest ends Sunday. Winner will be notified Monday.

We are planning our wedding for September of 2022 (I know that's far off but I feel like there's so much to do!) Our budget is about 8k and we tentatively have 80-100 guests which I don't know is doable. Here's some things I'm considering so far:

Looking for a non-traditional wedding venue i.e. breweries that can do food and alcohol in house as from what I've been looking at these tend to be cheaper. If anyone knows of any good ones in the Austin, TX area please share your suggestions/tips! We have a backup option of holding it at my fiancé parents house (they live on 30 acres), but we aren't sure if that would end up being cheaper after chaitable/tent rental, booze, catering, and potentially paying for a clean up crew.
Planning on diy-ing most of my decorations and looking in to sola wood flowers
Going to get my dress online after trying some on in stores (when it's safe) and seeing what kind of cut fits best. But need some suggestions for my fiancé
Have a photographer friend who I'm going to inquire her prices for because she's new to the game

I've been digging through old posts here for tips, but if anyone else has ideas I would love to hear them! Additionally any favorite honeymoon destinations? We budgeted bigger for that because that's more important to us than the actual wedding. TYIA!! :)

First off my wedding date at the moment is September 2022 in hopes COVID will be much better so we can have 100 guests. The plan B is that if we have to postpone because COVID is still a pain we will just have the intimate ceremony and the big party later (possibly as an anniversary party). With that said I found a “venue” in Boynton Beach, Florida that is nice and only costs $1000 for the whole day. I’m really liking this idea and it comes with tables and chairs too. I would then have to rent linens and plates and silverware and napkins, a sound system (I am using my brother as an MC and then doing a playlist the rest of the day), and do catering. Oh and DIY ALL decorations. I am trying to keep the budget at 10k the max so I would love some creative ideas to do this. I am keep $500-800 as my dress budget and the ceremony will be on the beach. My FH is buying a suit from express so he can reuse it for when we go to weddings so I don’t know if I should consider that as part of the budget.
I am trying to basically make this a big party with some wedding aspects: -fathedaughter dance -last dance instead of a first dance -cake cutting (cake will only be big enough for us to do the cutting and stuffing each other’s faces, I want to do donuts or cupcakes as my dessert for everyone else)
My ideas to try to keep this budget friendly: -linens: to rent them for tables and chairs or just buy cheap tablecloths and forget about the chairs? -cake: my aunt is making it -flowers: bought fake $5 bouquets from Michaels for the girls, I would like to do solawood bouquet for mine so I can place it in a shadow box afterwards as a decoration :), skipping on bouts for the grooms and having them get a colored cloth to match the girls -food: I’m thinking taco food truck or some other food truck? -drinks: water and soda I can get from Costco, should I also get beer and wine from here? I heard with ABC wine whatever you don’t use you can return, can I do that with Costco? -Decorations: I’m going to start now and create my signs and other decoration as I see sales at Michaels and Hobby lobby then making my bridal shower into a DIY party so everyone can help out (I already asked the women in my life and they are stoked for this) I also have a cricut so I know that will help -plates,silverware, napkins: rent or go cheap and do plastic? I won’t rent cups because I saw somewhere to do mason jars so they can reuse the same cup throughout the party (environmentally friendly yay!) and then it can also be the momento (going to put a saying instead of the name and date because no one likes that) and then use the lids of the jars to be how they find their seat :) and if any get left behind I don’t mind because I can use for my plants propagation stuff lol
What else am I missing? Any advice and suggestions are super helpful and appreciated :) thanks in advanced!

My partner and I are both mildly obsessed with citrus fruit, and the first time we met in person I was wearing a dress covered in a lemon print, so we both loved the idea of using lemons in our decor somehow. Do you think this would be odd for a spring wedding vs summer? Has anyone else done DIY fruit deco?
The venue we are 99% certain we're choosing allows any sort of alcohol without a bartender. We're not particularly concerned about anyone acting up so it should work just fine. My question is how do we handle this so that we don't have to hire someone or put a friend on alcohol duty? We'd love to have both wine and beer (maybe a signature cocktail, too, but that is probably too much of a headache in this scenario!). Do we just buy a ton of corkscrews/bottle openers and scatter them on tables, or??

Flowers are super important to me (we all have our things, right??) and I really want to support a local farmer. She's selling bulk buckets of 75-80 stems at ~$100 each (price goes up for color preference). I honestly have no idea how many flowers will be adequate for 5 DIY bouquets and decor for a ~100 person wedding. I also don't know how many tables we're going to have due to what covid procedures will look like for a wedding in July 2021 wedding. We're going through with the big celebration if all the elders (~60+) are vaccinated and if our local laws and venue permit it. We've decided to make the call to cancel it and move to a zoom/smaller ceremony 4-6 weeks out if it's too risky. Please share any and all advice! TIA!

First of all Weddit thanks for all the input and help and ideas. It was great to have a place of sanity to go while we were planning this day for the last 2.5 years! Our wedding was incredible and while it wasn't the day we had originally wanted, it was perfect. I am so grateful that we were able to have our closest friends and closest family there. As we navigated our options with postponing we realized that it wasn't really an option for us. Due to my husband's job if we didn't have our celebration in October, it wasn't going to happen until at least fall 2022. We'd already been engaged for 2 years and we were both ready to move on. While postponing is the right option for some couples, we realized that there are a million reasons to celebrate so we wanted to do something this year and we can throw a huge party with everyone we love for an anniversary, birthday, big life celebration, or just because we want to.
I know that having a wedding at all right now is a controversial topic. I really don't want to have the conversation with anyone about the precautions we took. Among other things, every single person that attended had to have a negative test within 24 hrs. We did not invite friends/family that would have to travel and the one bridesmaid (bff) that did travel came in with us 3 weeks early so that we could all quarantine and test multiple times. We also had ample mask wearing, sanitizer, distancing of all seating, and everything was outside. Post wedding everyone tested again and everyone was negative. I do not want to engage with anyone on if it was the right thing to do.
THE BASICS
Date: October 10, 2020
Guests: originally planning for 225, ended up with about 50 once we cut the list down. There were a lot of family and friends that weren't invited to our smaller celebration.
Venue: The Historic Thayer Hotel at West Point
Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/DpcLVeX
What went not so right:

I super sprained my ankle on the way to the venue on Friday. We were picking up lunch in the town next to the hotel and I stepped of a curb wrong. I ended up with 2 grade 3 (the worst!) ankle sprains on the inside and outside of my ankle, with significant bone bruising. This was determined at my MRI the Tuesday after the wedding. Thanks to the hotel for having a wheelchair for the rehearsal, my physical therapist for being the best and facetiming me literally hours before the rehearsal, my aunt for getting multiple boots for me on her way up, and the most amazing friends I was able to walk down the aisle and overall have an amazing night.
The flowers. They were all kinds of wrong. No one else would know that but me, but instead of a bouquet with lots of flowers the greenery to flower ratio was completely wrong. The colors were wrong (way more white than burgundy) and overall the flowers were just not what I wanted. When we went for the final she didn't have a mock up done and if I were to do this again I would insist there was a mockup so that I'd know I was getting what I wanted. There were also no cake flowers provided. I would not recommend this florist (PM me if you need details)
the cake. While it tasted fine and none of our guests knew it was also all kinds of wrong. 4 days before the wedding the owner of the bakery called me and tried to completely change our cake. We were meant to have a full buttercream cake with the bottom tier burgundy ombre and flowers on the cake. This was what we got instead There was fondant and it looked like an episode of "nailed it". Our Maitre'd also said that the overall quality of the cake was terrible (this was their preferred vendor and apparently quality has been declining) and I honestly felt like we were scammed between the tasting and presentation and what we ended up with. I would never recommend anyone get a cake from Sweet Grace bakery in NJ.
Some key family members weren't able to be there. My husband's aunt and uncle, who was supposed to be our second officiant, couldn't be there due to a medical issue (unrelated to COVID) and he was very much missed. A dear friend was also unable to come be a bridesmaid in the wedding due to the pandemic. She moved abroad and was going to come back to the states, see family and quarantine, but given current restrictions, she was nervous about being able to get back to her home so she wasn't able to be there.

What went right:

literally everything else.
I walked down the aisle to "Storybook Love" from the princess bride. The ceremony made me cry. My husband's vows were the most romantic and I felt like our ceremony was a perfect blend of us. We are an interfaith couple and we wrote our ceremony with the help of our officiant, my aunt. We used both a reading from the bible and followed many cultural jewish traditions. More than one person told me that they loved how we did a modern secular reading of the seven blessings and we had descriptions of all of the rituals and traditions in our program. If anyone wants a link to the rituals and traditions in a jew-ish wedding i'm happy to pass along.
Streaming was amazing. We hired someone my mom found (PM for info, he was seriously great) to set up streaming for our ceremony. The stream was high quality, our website worked well, putting the program online and making a virtual guestbook were great touches. It was streamed through youtube live and it was so nice that it auto records so that we could see it right away! I'd recommend kudoboard for anyone that is doing a virtual ceremony. We loved reading all of the notes and I had the board printed to put with our untraditional guestbook
the food! Omg the food. We had a cocktail hour with individually plated apps, a 5 course dinner, dessert, and a farewell station. Our venue also wrapped up all of the food my husband and I couldn't eat and it was just delicious. Food, photo, and overall vibe were the top things for us and we definitely achieved it.
photo and video-- i'm obsessed with our photographer, PM me for the details because I didn't ask about posting. Our videographer was also amazing and he actually stuck around for like 20 min after his scheduled end time so he could see us attempt to cut the cake with a sword. I would highly recommend both
My veil and makeup! My veil was made by the incredible Morgan from Cicada bridal in Seattle and Makeup was perfect. Our makeup artist (PM for details) did a great job of keeping us on a schedule and overall made the morning vibe perfect. She stood up for me when I needed it the day of the wedding as well. Those two things really made me feel like my look came together and my bridesmaids all loved their looks.
Mismatched bridesmaid dressed. Honestly I'm just obsessed with the burgundy to blush look and i'd do this again in a heartbeat. I am so glad that everyone picked their own dresses. I gave all bridesmaids $100 to get a dress.
the band! everyone had a great time and they did a really good job reading the room on when it was time to eat vs when some people wanted to dance. They never called everyone to the dance floor and we had an amazing night. Even my aunt who had been beyond a hermit for the last 8 months felt safe during some of the slow songs to dance with my uncle, away from everyone.

BUDGET BREAKDOWN
I am doing my best to break down the budget as detailed as possible. We got married in a HCOL area and our original budget reflects the plan for a more traditional Jewish wedding, where parents were allowed to invite friends. It was important to us that everyone was there with us, our whole proverbial community and we knew there would be a premium paid for that. Once we downsized and added streaming I know there were ways to do it for less, but the quality of the virtual experience was important to us. I don't regret for one second what we spent on things, and we could've easily spent more.
I am putting this budget breakdown in because the two in my budget range that I saw when I was planning made me feel more sane. I really do not appreciate the budget shaming that often happens on this sub. It was hard planning in such a HCOL area where the national averages are not representative, so I do hope this can help anyone who is looking for what things really cost for a wedding of this size in and around NYC
One thing to note is that we got engaged in June 2018 and while we spent a lot of money, a lot of it was spread out over nearly 2.5 years. Day to day, the amount spent on the wedding didn't impact our budget and we did not go into any debt.
My parents contributed a set amount to the wedding and my fiancé's parents covered the rehearsal dinner. I am not including my engagement ring or the honeymoon in this because I have a rough idea of how much my husband spent on my ring, but I've never asked for sure and our honeymoon is not going to happen until the world opens up. We are planning on taking 2 big trips to double celebrate our honeymoon (and because since we're waiting, why not?) to Japan and then to South Africa and Namibia.
totals:
all totals include gratuities
initial budget: 80k
planned budget pre-covid: 100k
Total spent (including things that were not really in the budget) ~50k
Breakdown:
****Ceremony and Reception: ****

Venue and Catering: $14,005.18 This included the fee for the ceremony ($1500), AV setup (hardwired internet), breakfast/lunch the day of, all wedding food, open bar, matire'd fee, gratuities/taxes, all linens, china, table setup, staff, cake, etc. this also includes the cost for the bride and groom's hotel room for 1 night as it was comped the other night.
Officiants: $600, we had my aunt officiate and did the legal bits in a count house months earlier so she did this for free but we paid for her hotel room (2 nights) as a thank you so
Ceremony Streaming: $750. This was a last minute cost and while we both think it was a bit high, the streaming was perfect and paying to not have that stress was incredible. I'd highly recommend the guy who did our streaming as he set everything up well and we got so many compliments on the stream.
Ceremony/Cocktail Hour Music: $700 this included a flute/violin duet for a prelude and ceremony and then a jazz trio for cocktail hour. They were great.
Flowers: $3,906.76 . We are in discussions with the florist that we did not get the things we asked for and are looking for a refund in some part of this. Our original estimate pre covid was aver $5,000 for flowers to give some context. we had 7 bridesmaids bouquets, 1 brides bouquet, 7 table centerpieces, chuppah rental and florals, and placecard table flowers.
Cocktail Hour Decor: ~50. I am so glad I did this myself since our flowers generally sucked and they wanted to charge me $35 per bud vase. I thrifted bud vases and bought some from a bride on reddit, then I got 2 old atlases from half price books, some floral wire, and then tiny black rocks from amazon. Overall this DIY cost me like $50 and it was perfect. Also in this cost are some cool votive candles I bought from amazon.
Photography: $6,000. incredible would 100% recommend. PM me for the name. This included 10 hrs of shooting, over 800 photos, and an album
Videography: $2,000 incredible would 100% recommend. PM me for the name. This included a full day of shooting, all raw footage, a ~5 min highlight video and a full ceremony video.
Sabers for Saber Arch: $100 donation to the West Point Hostess Office
Photo Booth: $350 total. $250 deposit lost due to covid. Once we moved everything outside we didn't have a good place for the photo booth or to run electricity to it. So we cancelled that and instead spent $100 on a big cutout frame we hung from the ceiling. Originally the photobooth was going to be another $400 so I'm just counting it was coming out ahead.
Tents and dance floor rental: ~$3,500 this was an additional cost that we took on as a covid precaution and it was perfect. This includes rentals (2 tents with walls that we ended up keeping up), having tent heaters on standby (they weren't needed), and the dance floor. My mom did a great job working with the venue and the rental organization to get a great setup and flow with the tents.
Party Entertainment: $8,500 this includes 10 musicians and live continuous music for the entire party. Also includes their travel fee and they MC'd our entire reception. They were wonderful!

****Appearances ****

Gown/Alterations: $1400 for the gown, $895 for alterations - I felt incredible and I hope some of the photos I posted help any bride who is size conscious to know that even at my heaviest I felt amazing and your size shouldn't stop you from having an amazing time.
Bridal Hair and Makeup: Hair $300, Makeup $325, bridesmaids/moms - hair $100-$150 depending on style, $125 for makeup. Both services were optional for bridesmaids and my mom decided the week of the wedding to help subsidize the cost for all bridesmaids who elected to have the services.
Bridal Accessories: $610 Veil ($500), party earrings ($45), ceremony earrings ($0), and party headpiece ($65). All other jewelry (hat, diamond necklace, diamond bracelet, other rings) were all family pieces
Bridesmaids Dresses: $600 - $100 per bridesmaid. Note: this wasn't necessary for groomsmen because they were all in uniforms, except my brother and my dad covered his tux
Groom's outfit: ~80, $70 for a special uniform belt for his saber an then $10 on socks with our cat's face on them
Wedding Rings: $1850 for both rings, his was from Costco, mine was made from diamonds I got at an estate sale by a local. jeweler. I am obsessed with my ring. there was an additional cost to polish/dip our rings and watches and jewelry but I'm not counting it in this budget because it's regular maintenance.

****Gifts and things people kept****

Stationary: ~ 350 + invitations this includes: save the dates ($175), invites, thank you notes, & invitations to our virtual celebration (honestly I don't know my mom just paid directly to the invitation lady), ceremony programs ($70), menus ($30), place cards ($30),
Wedding Party Gifts: ~$550 for 6 bridesmaids, 5 groomsmen and 2 jr groomsmen. bridesmaids got a zip up for getting ready, a makeup case and a faux fur shawl in case they were cold. Groomsmen got a yeti bottle opener and a six pack of their favorite beer. Not including the gifts we gave when we asked them to be in the wedding
Welcome gifts and Bathroom Basket: ~$300, 25 bags we included 2 new mexico soaps, costco snacks and drinks in a canvas bag. the bathroom basket stuff was all free and leftover things we used from my cousin's bat mitzvah
Favors: $241.51 we had the cutest little globes we filled with gummy bears! The shipping on the gummy bears was dumb but weddings make you do dumb things.
Flip Flops : $30 for 30 pairs of flip flops. My mom bought the baskets from Marshalls, not sure how much they were but assuming under $20 each. We ended up selling the ones we didn't use.

****Misc****

Wedding insurance: $636.00 this includes the liability insurance required by our venue and full cancellation insurance in case my husband was unexpectedly deployed. We didn't want to take any chances with this and losing deposits/full amounts, even though in the contracts we ensured there were military clauses throughout. This was purchased in 2019 and gave us incredible piece of mind as we opted for full full coverage.
Misc Decor and things: $500 This includes: photo frames (we did pics of us in the tub as kids on the bathroom doors) and a photo table, placecard holders, ribbons so we could do a socially distanced hora, a Mr. and Mrs sign for our table, alcohol for our suite afterparty, chargers for the tables, kudoboard (unlimited), website domain

****Not counted in this budget ****
Dance Lessons: ~$600 This money would've been super well spent if I hadn't hurt myself. we still did dance a bit but it wasn't what we planned. One day we can use those skills. I actually had a great time at the dance lessons and I'd 100% do it again.
Pre Marital Counseling: ~$500 very much money well spent. We did 4 sessions with a counselor online in the weeks before the wedding. We both felt like we got some great tools and it was a fantastic outlet for conversations we needed to have. I liked that it was virtual which made it accessible and I feel like we could go back to that counselor if we ever needed it.
Ketubah: ~400, this was a Hanukkah gift in 2019
Smashing Glasses: ~200 this was a gift from my aunt who officiated the wedding.
Engagement Ring
Honeymoon
Post-Wedding Brunch - My parents paid for this, it was casual
Wedding Shoes: ~$400, I bought these incredible something bleu shoes Navy kitten heels and then glitter keds for the party. I ended up in a boot and a sneaker so womp. But luckily both pairs of these shoes aren't very "bridal" and i'm definitely planning on wearing the glitter keds to the next tech conference I go to. I don't consider these "wedding budget" things because I'll wear them other times as well.
Rehearsal dinner - MIL paid for this
I'm glad I can post this and happy to talk to any other brides/grooms who are in the midst of planning!

Oops, I’m a covid bride...
A picnic wedding reception wasn’t my original ~vision~ but I’m rolling with the punches. Postponing our wedding has made us realize how expensive our original plan was, so we’re rethinking everything as we try to find a celebration that will fit our budget.
Side note: We‘re not planning to do this until the pandemic has calmed down. My inner bridezilla hates all the waiting but I’m not willing to risk anyone’s health.
THE VIBE
I’m going for “garden party” as opposed to “rustic farmhouse chic,” but I also want things to feel laid-back and easy
THE LOCATION
A public park in the middle of my city
THE TIME
11:00 am following the 10:00 am ceremony at our church
THE DETAILS
• The menu consists of brunch-y finger foods like fruit skewers and bagels, mimosas, and cupcakes for dessert
• To save on a DJ, we’ll replace music/dancing with lawn games and other activities (croquet, hula hoops, a wedding cake piñata, a photo scavenger hunt with prizes)
• Seating will consist of picnic blankets, with chairs/tables provided for those who are physically unable to sit comfortably on the ground
• Flip-flop sandals as party favors will give people the option to change out of their heels
• A Selfie Spot instead of a photo booth will save so much money it’s actually OBSCENE
WHERE I NEED HELP
• A timeline. Will guests eat and immediately leave if there’s no dancing? I‘m hoping that if we schedule the scavenger hunt prizes and the piñata for an hour or so after brunch is served, there will be something keeping everyone here.
• Seating logistics. For the original wedding, I created a seating chart (which is suuuuper necessary for this group) that had 8 people per table—which, in this case, means 8 people per picnic blanket. How big should each blanket be to comfortably accommodate 8 guests? I’m also providing a pillow for each guest to sit on...anybody know where to get like 60 pillows for real cheap? My mom is sewing pillowcases to help everything match.
• Decorations. I’m keeping these to a minimum: a couple of signs with directions, props and a backdrop for the Selfie Spot, and centerpieces. I’m planning to buy small wooden boxes I can put in the middle of each picnic blanket to hold table numbers and centerpieces; any ideas on where to get boxes like that? Suggestions for decorations I haven’t thought of?
• Set-up logistics. Someone needs to go set everything up the morning of the event and babysit everything while the ceremony is going on—it’s a public park, and while we’re allowed to reserve it for the wedding, the park doesn’t provide security to keep people away from our stuff. Has anyone done this before? I can’t ask my MOH because whoever is in charge of this will have to miss the wedding itself.
Sorry this post got so long. I love love love this stage of the planning process and now that I’m over the initial disappointment of postponing, I’m excited to start it all over again. Let me know if you have ideas/critiques/suggestions—I’m super open to brainstorming, I love to DIY, and my Pinterest app is OPEN!

^{We already got our} ^{sneak peak} ^{from our 9.5.20 wedding (what you’re all really here for and I thought I'd share a budget breakdown (including our original estimates from our wedding! We were engaged in September 2019 and had a 12 month engagement. Our original plan was to invite 200 people and had already sent our save the dates when COVID-19 blew up. When we sent our formal invitations out we cut it down to 75 people (our immediate family, wedding party and their SOs, grandparents and aunts and uncles knowing that there were quite a few that wouldn’t be able to attend as we wanted to keep it closer to 50 for safety reasons. We sent everyone else a virtual invite to watch via Facebook.})))
^{I used The Knot for keeping track of our guest list and gifts and created a budget spreadsheet for tracking all our wedding costs and making checklists for things to be completed as we got closer to our big day.}
**Numbers:*\*
^{Invited: 75}
^{RSVP’d Yes: 45}
^{RSVP’d No: 30}
^{RSVP'd yes but did not attend: 1}
^{Our original plan was to invite 200 people and had already sent our save the dates when COVID-19 blew up. When we sent our formal invitations out we cut it down to 75 people (our immediate family, wedding party and their SOs, grandparents and aunts and uncles knowing that there were quite a few that wouldn’t be able to attend as we wanted to keep it closer to 50 for safety reasons. We sent everyone else a virtual invite to watch via Facebook.})
**Budget:*\*
^{Original: $21,295}
^{Actual: $16,350}
^{I figured after we had to gut our in person invites we would save a lot of money – but in reality there were a lot of set costs regardless of how many people were there (venue, photographer, etc. We did still come in a little under 5k under budget which I was happy with because I never thought I would be one of those people to spend this much on a wedding. Prior to getting engaged I always said I could do it for under 10k but after finding the venue, photographer we wanted (pictures were very important to both of us I knew that wasn’t going to happen unless I wanted to change my expectations. I did splurge on little things closer to the end – but that was after I knew we were coming in under budget.}))

^{Combined, both sets of parents generously offered us $9,000. Totally unexpected but helped take the stress off!}
^{My husband and I contributed $4,945}

^{Our priorities going into the planning process were as follows:}

^{Venue with both indoor and outdoor options, beautiful photography, great food.}

Bridal Attire, total: $1,212 (estimate: $1,625)
Wedding Dress: $920.00 (estimate: $1,000)

^{David’s Bridal Galina Signature SWG820}^.
^{David’s Bridal ordered me the wrong dress and they didn’t charge me the difference when it came in (saved an extra $100. My dress was on sale (originally $1399. I had no idea that I would ever spend this much money on a dress. I initially budgeted $500 but my husband convinced me to bump it up. In the end it was totally beautiful and I didn’t want to take it off. My favorite part about it was the cleavage. I normally dress pretty conservatively and really wanted to wow my husband at the first look haha.}))

Alterations - $162 (estimate: $500)

^{It was already the perfect height for me so I just had bigger cups put in and had the shoulders taken in due to my short torso.}

Jewelry, Shapewear, Shoes, etc - $130(estimate: $125)

^{I got some rocking} ^{navy blue Kate Spade Keds} ^{and have zero regrets. I trip in heels and was going to have to walk out on the grass.}

Groom’s Attire, total: $660.00 (estimate: $500)
Suit- $400 (estimate: $300)

^{Custom suit from Men’s Wearhouse.}

Accessories - $125 (estimate $100)

^{Had to buy a tie and new shoes.}

Dress Shirt - $135 (estimate $0)

^{My husband waited until 3 days before the wedding to buy a new shirt and paid $135 at a high end store \}face palm*)

Stationary, total: $815.64 (estimate: $450)
Save The Dates – $60(estimate: $100)

^{Ordered using business postcards off of Vistaprint}

Invites – $260(estimate: $150)

^{Had to order twice off Vistaprint due to changes to number of people we were inviting to attend in person. Thanks COVID-19.}

Stamps - $152 (estimate: $200)
Venue, total: $4,350 (estimate: $5,000)
^{The Hitching Post}^{(Detroit Lakes, MN} – $4,000 (estimate $5,000))
^{I did a ton of research getting quotes before we even went to look at a venue because I didn’t want to fall in love with a place that was going to cost an arm and a leg. My friend is a wedding videographer and actually suggested I check into this place as he had never heard of it before he shot a wedding there. It’s hidden away on some back roads in lake country – and is a two story barn able to hold up to $350. There were quite a few features I loved about this place:}

^{Wedding could be inside or outside (no need to worry about weather})
^{It was all DIY but had pretty much anything you needed at no extra cost. Tables and chairs of all sizes, tablecloths, table décor, arches, chandeliers, signs, vases, lights – you name it. You could set it up however you wanted! I even left some of the décor I bought myself so the next lucky couple could use what they wanted.}
^{Sound system included. Had we not gutted our in person invites we would have still had a DJ – but this was a great option as we didn’t have to buy any sound equipment to do our own music/MC.}
^{Cabins on site – Cabins were available for an additional charge so the entire bridal party could stay on site for the entire weekend!}

Event Insurance - $350(estimate: $0)
Food & Bar, total: $2,553 (estimate: $4,490)
Catering - $1,060 (estimate: $2,600)

^{We used} ^{Spitfire Bar and Grill} ^{and ordered appetizers and buffet styled meals. We were going to go with plated due to COVID-19 but week of they advised us they didn’t have enough people working to actually hand plates out to tables and they would be required to go up and be served by a server just like a buffet. In the end we had small enough groups that I wasn’t worried while saving a ton of money.}
- ^{Plated Apps - (1 cheese and crackers BBQ meatballs})
- ^{Dinner- (1 Mixed green salad, “spitfire” beans, pasta salad, buns and three types of meat – (1 Pulled Pork, (2} rotisserie chicken, and (3) brisket)))
- ^{Non-alcoholic Drinks – (1 pop, (2 water (3} coffee)))

Plates, Napkins, Cutlery - $202 (estimate $100)
Chips and Water from Costco - $45 (estimate $80)
Dessert - $200 (estimate: $190)

^{Cakes by Althea} ^{(Moorhead, MN made both our}) ^{two tiered cake} ^{and 75 cupcakes. Originally was planning on getting sheet cake from Costco (YUM for our guests but made changes due to COVID-19. We had three different flavors of cupcakes and they were to die for. We didn’t have any left which means most people had two haha!})

Bar – $450 (estimate: $1,000)

^{Bleachers (Detroit Lakes, MN We bought a keg of beer for our guests to enjoy and the rest was a cash bar (originally were planning on buying three when we had a larger guest list}. This also includes the non-beer drinks we bought for fun (hello shots).)

Flowers, total: $787 (estimate: $900)
Floral Package - $545 (estimate: $545)

^{Stems of Joy Floral} ^{(Hawley, MN I found a local florist to do mine and my two bridesmaids bouquets as well as the corsages and boutineers for the important people})

Bulk Flowers from Costco - $257 (estimate: $200)

^{I was skeptical about getting bulk flowers from Costco but holy crap they were AMAZING! I wanted simple flowers at all of our guest tables as the decorations. I ordered 200 stems of baby’s breath, 100 stems of assorted greenery, and 50 white roses.}

Officiant, total: $0 (estimate: $0)

^{One of our good friends officiated for us – it made the day extra special.}

Photography, total: $3,200 (estimate: $3,000)

^{Kensie Wallner Photography} ^{12pm – 8pm. Kensie is a a friend of multiple friends and I’ve seen her work over the last couple of years and fell in love with her work. She was the perfect style for us (more candid/outdoor photos and honestly told my husband that I didn’t care how much she cost – we were going to have her! Photography was more important to us than videography and neither of us wanted to cheap out on it so we just went for it! Her price also included an engagement session that we did earlier in 2019.})

HaiMake Up, total: $265 (estimate: $200)

^{Hair by Hannah Hendricks at Bucci Salon} ^{(Fargo, ND This included a trial and haimake up the day of. Lashes included. The stylist was extremely talented and I could not have wished for anyone better.})

DJ: $285 (estimate: $1000)

^{PowerPlay DJ} ^{– with COVID-19 we decided to skip the dance and play yard games instead. We did still pay for a DJ to play the ceremony music and provide the mics. Worked out great. The rest of the night we used the sound system provided by the venue to use for our first dance and parent/child dances and I created a “Wedding Bangers” playlist on Spotify while we played yard games.}

Rehearsal Dinner, total: $155 (estimate: $1,000)

^{The Roadhouse (Lake Park, MN We were going to pay for food and the first drink for our 30 guests and my husbands parents surprised us and bought everyone’s meals so we just had to cover the drinks! It worked out sweet for us!})

Everything Else, total: $2,068 (estimate $3,130)
Emergency Fund - $0 (estimate $1,000)

^{We were so happy we didn’t need to use our slush fund!}

Breakfast and Lunch Day of - $187 (estimate: $230)

^{We bought breakfast muffins and bars from Costco and then ordered subs from Subway for lunch (bought cookies and chips from Costco as sides})

Bridesmaids Hair - $230 (estimate: $300)

^{To help with bridal party costs we paid for their wedding hair.}

Groomsmen Suits - $300 (estimate: $300)

^{My husband picked some snazzy (but spendy suits and to help offset the costs we paid $100 towards each of their suits}.)

Favors - $281 (estimate $0)

^{We were not going to do party favors when we had a larger invite list – but once it was smaller I felt I had more money to do something fun! I made personalized hand sanitizers and ordered personalized can koozies.}

Other Décor and accessories - $350 (estimate: $200)

^{I ordered cheap IKEA picture frames and used them as} ^{table numbers}^{. I designed the} ^inserts ^{myself and printed them off at Walgreens. Also printed off a bunch of pictures for a memory table and used existing frames and when I ran out I bought a bunch at the dollar store. Bought fairy lights and extra batteries off of Amazon and never used them as well as 200 yards of Gossamer fabric for random decorating needs. I used about 50 feet of it. Honestly I thought I was going to need to decorate a lot more than we ended up doing because the barn was so beautiful. Wasn’t planning on making a emergency kit myself but I panicked and made one which ran about $50.}

Tips - $390 (estimate: $400)

^{Tips for DJ, baker, HMAU, servers and bartender.}

Gifts - $330 (estimate: $300)

^{We had 2 bridesmaids, 3 groomsmen, 1 officiant, 1 flower girl, 2 ushers, and 4 parents to get gifts for.}

Other Expenses Not Accounted For:

^{Bridal Shower. Thrown by one of my good friends. It was absolutely perfect.}
^{Extra Masks and Hand Sanitizer – I just knew we needed them}
^Manicure
^{Gifts for the Bride/Groom. I bought custom} ^cufflinks ^{for my husband and he bought me artwork that drew out a voice recording of his vows from Etsy.}
^{Our rings}^{. We had separate money set aside from our wedding fund.}

Things that went well / made the night special:

^{First look with my dad – My dad had half his tongue removed last year and rebuilt using his arm as well as a 3 months of chemo and radiation. It was a rough time for my family and having him alive today to walk me down the aisle made the day even more special and I wanted some one on one time.}
^{First look with my husband – for obvious reasons.}
^{Spending the entire weekend with our wedding party all in one place. We hadn’t seen each other in person because of COVID-19 and we really needed the bonding time.}
^{Our memorial table. I do not have any surviving grandparents and my husband only has one and was nice to have them included in some, small way.}
^{Cake topper}^{. I LOVE manatees. I found the cutest manatee bride and groom toppers and the splurge was totally worth it.}
^{Our vows. We wrote our own vows and it was just perfect.}
^{My shoes – choosing to wear sneakers instead of heels kept my feet from aching!}

Things that didn’t go so well:

^{The DJ didn’t download our ceremony music and was planning on streaming. Problem is we were having the ceremony outside and there was no wifi. Thanks to problem solving from an usher and our officiant they used one of their phones and the DJ help a microphone up to the phone speaker. I didn’t know anything was awry until someone told me afterwards!}
^{Because the music debacle took so long to fix we started our ceremony late. We were streaming via Facebook using my phone on a tripod and it overheated and crashed and had to be restarted as we were walking down the aisle but it started streaming by the time my dad and I walked down. Again – had no idea – our usher handled it all.}

^{The months leading up to our wedding was very stressful for both of us. On top of the pandemic – my brother suffered a broken neck and traumatic brain injury from a motorcycle accident 6 weeks before our wedding, and my husband’s mom had a stroke two week prior. Thankfully both were able to attend and we were even more thankful they were there. The wedding weekend was amazing – you could tell we all needed some quality time with our loved ones. While it was small - it was full of the people we are closest to and I wouldn’t have changed a thing. Everyone was very respectful about wearing masks inside the venue day of and being cognizant social distancing before and after our special day.}

We all know the potential fun to be had in a photobooth, whether traditional or the new, open-air style. A group of people get together, in front of a camera, with some random props...how could you NOT have fun? But do a quick Google search on photobooth pictures over the years and what you start to realize is that a large majority of them look the same. And that's understandable because, for the most part, when you get in a photobooth, everyone expects to make a few faces, wear a few random articles of clothing, and pose!
Now we're not doubting that people have plenty of fun doing that, or that the resulting pictures are fun to look at. But what if you could have an experience that was not only fun and produced decent pictures, but were unique and creative?! So that even people who don't personally recognize the people in the picture respond with, "wow, that's such a great idea!" or "wow, the timing there is perfect!"?
The following are a list of 5 simple tips that we've compiled after many, many events of running a photobooth, aiming each time to come out with images that would go beyond the traditional photobooth pictures and have the extra "wow" factor. If you're going to be running a DIY photobooth, hopefully this helps you get the most out of your guests as you man the booth. If you're just reading this in case you happen to pop into a photobooth yourself sometime soon, hopefully this gets your creative juices going too! Here goes:
1. PAY ATTENTION TO DETAILS
When running a photobooth for an event, say a wedding, with several hundred guests and a limited number of props, its only a matter of time before guests run out of things to do with the props available. You'll get your fair share of fun pictures with those and the typical poses (and that's fine!) but to take it to another level, keep your eyes peeled for details in your surroundings. This includes on people (clothing, accessories, etc) as well as at your venue/location (centerpieces, table settings, utensils, etc)
For example, in a group of people, do they have something in common? Maybe a color scheme? a similar or consistent article of clothing? all guys, wearing ties? all ladies, with fancy shoes? does everyone have their cellphone on them? or even something as simple as a wallet? take advantage of that! Try to use them in non-standard ways for great pictures. Use them to tell a story! (more on that in #4)
If you're at a wedding or birthday party, are there items that the host has placed in the decorations that can be used as props in interesting ways? This is often a great way to, not only use these "props" creatively, but also to add personalized details to the pictures that will remind the hosts of details - such as decorations & party favors - that they spent so many hours preparing for.
When you keep your eyes peeled for details like this, everything and everyone becomes a potential prop and idea for a great capture!
2. RUN WITH THEIR PERSONALITY
When you direct people in a photobooth, its important to take into consideration the personality of the people you're working with. Are you younger or older? outgoing or a little more shy? are they athletic (enough, say, to jump or even throw people)?
Some people are just bundles of creative energy and you're able to just kind of sit back and watch the great ideas flow! Others need a little bit more input (or even prodding) to open up with some crazier ideas. Start by letting them try and idea/pose or two on their own and get a feel for what kinds of things they produce.
Try offering little suggestions to what they've got (more intense facial expressions, more believable actions, more interaction, less pose-y, etc). If they seem open to direction, break out some of your crazier ideas! For this purpose, we're constantly brainstorming ideas for new poses, stories, and ideas, so that when we come across the right kind of group in a photobooth, we're ready to go!
Remember that great, crazy picture ideas are somewhat relative. If you can get normally reserved grandparents to open up and get just a little goofy, success! By taking the personalities that come and helping them to kick it up a notch (even if it is literally only one, little notch!), chances are you've got yourself a shot that will be remembered! Who knows, they may even come back for more!
3. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF NUMBERS
With the new photobooth designs these days (especially with open-air photobooths), its not uncommon to be able to squeeze in anywhere from 1 to even 15 people in a single photobooth shot! The question now is how to most effectively use those numbers for great shots! A few suggestions:
Smaller groups and couples (2-5 people) offer a lot of potential for simple, clear, fun interaction between people. Its easy to direct them saying, "I want you to do this to her!" or "Everyone jump on the count of 3!"
Medium sized groups (6-10 people) starts to get a little trickier. Action shots, such as everyone jumping, are more out of the question due to the potential of injury or an unwanted kick to the leg! Rather, shots that direct your attention to a specific person, such as "Everyone cheer for the bride and groom while they kiss!" or "Carry this person and act like he's incredibly heavy!" are what makes the picture "WOW" worthy.
Large sized groups (11-15 people) are definitely a challenge, but well worth it when everyone in the group is willing to get a little crazy and all participate in on the fun. This is where expressive faces and everyone doing the same thing come in handy. "Everyone stick out your hands and say 'ROAR!'" or "Stick out your tongue and try to touch your noses," all make for hilarious shots that make the group want to do more!
4. DON'T POSE, DIRECT
Another way to put it is, "don't just take a picture, tell a story!" While random action can be lots of fun, often the best photobooth pictures are the ones where your eye is drawn into some action or flow of thought and leads you through the picture as you follow the "storyline".
Imagine yourself the director of a very simple movie. Rather then tell each person exactly what gesture to make, what facial expression to have, with the exact timing, try giving them a "story" or "concept" that they can take and run with. Then, all you need to do is capture at the right time! (here's where digital technology helps!)
A couple simple examples, "You three kids are really mad at your parents, so mad in fact that things are about to get out of hand. And you parents are helpless, scared, cowering! Ready? Go!"
"Ok guys, I want you to pretend like you're on a rollercoaster, about to go down a steep drop! Ready, go!"
"Alright, I want you to let out your years of frustration by slapping her, while you are just shocked that this is happening before your eyes!"
5. SHOW ME THE ACTION!
Just because a picture captures a single moment in time doesn't mean that picture itself needs to be of a static pose! You can never go wrong with injecting a bit of action into a shot! Whether its faking a move out of a video game, tossing a poor guy high up in the air, or even the tried-and-true, coordinated jump, getting people moving around with some fun action always brings up the energy and fun, and leaves you with some great captures!

Wedding’s in two months, and I had all this energy and these ideas when I first made the bulk of my flower arrangements, and bought a lot of second hand decorations I was going to redo to match, but I’m really lacking on how to set the table and dye the linens and tie up loose ends etc...
I’m looking/hoping for some inspiration of similar weddings brides have done themselves :)
Pinterest drove me crazy cause a lot of it didn’t actually seem full DIY

Hello! I hope other brides find this helpful!
But first... PICTURES!
Location: San Gabriel, Pasadena & Westminister, CA
Guests: 250
Budgeted: $35,000
Spent: $32,959
Our wedding was a Chinese/Vietnamese-American Catholic wedding. My husband and I paid for the wedding out of our own pockets. It took us about 2 years to plan and save for the wedding. There were a lot of DIYs to cut costs and help from family and friends setting everything up.
Now onto the details!
Florals: $294

Bouquets: $129
- We bought fresh wholesale flowers from the Flower District in DTLA. My husband and I woke up early in the morning to get the best picks and spent a couple of hours putting it together the day before the wedding. This made for great bonding time. In total we made four bridesmaid/groomswomen bouquets, a small one for the flower girl, the groom's boutineer, the bridal bouquet and flowers for the wedding cake. Our flowers were actually more expensive because it was so close to Valentine's Day. The ribbons and pins were from Michael's and Ann linens. Always use coupons!
Florals for the church alter: $130
- We ordered two huge flower baskets for the church alter from the Flower District. We picked it up the day before the wedding since they didn't deliver.
Boutineers (family): $36
- Bought ~50 ribbon flower pins from AliExpress for family, aunts and uncles. It's an Asian thing.

Ceremony (Catholic Church): $700

Church Donation: $500
- This is pretty much the rental fee.
Coordinator for rehearsal: $50
Pianist: $150
- He was actually the church's pianist so he knew exactly what to do.

Tea Ceremony: $479

Vu Quy signage + Floral Arch (rental): $75
- This is a sign for wedding day. "Vu Quy" is the term used to signify leaving the house for the husband, and this sign is usually used at the bride's side of the wedding.
Incense Set (rental): $15
Double Happiness Paper Cups: $11
- We didn't want to share the same tea cup among 20+ relatives
Roasted Pig: $280
Wine: $58
- We bought wholesale from a winery
Wedding Trays (rental): $40
- To put the gifts for the bride's family. The gifts included wine, fruit, teas and herbs (provided by groom's parents).

Reception: $18,253

Food/Venue: $13,984
- Asian banquets charge by the table and each table seats 10 guests--we had 25 round tables + Sweetheart table. The venue included the wedding cake, hors d'oeuvre during cocktail hour, a 9-course family style meal per table and soda. We also paid for special meals for guests that had dietary restrictions and our vendors (MC + Photo/Video team). We had the place from 3PM for set up till 11PM. The venue cleaned everything themselves.
- Going with an asian banquet made everything so much easier. It's affordable and it includes everything like tables, chair, table clothes, glassware, plates, lighting and etc.
Open Bar: $1,856
- Early on in the wedding planning, my husband and I knew we wanted an open bar cuz a majority of our guests love to drink. One of the deciding factors of our reception banquet was that they had an open bar option in the package. This meant one less vendor for me to worry about. Other banquet halls that we checked out were BYOB/hire your own bartenders. We paid for four hours of the premium menu. They were also very VERY generous with the alcohol so everyone had a blast. They also included virgin drink menu for kids. After doing the math, if each guest had at least one drink, it'll be $7 per head. So it was worth it in my opinion. And at the end of the night, everyone had enough liquid courage to get onto the dance floor.
Emcee + Tip: $550
- We hired an MC that spoke Cantonese/Mandarin. She was the MC of a previous wedding we attended. She had a great presence and knew how to keep the crowd going with games.
DJ: $619
- The DJ was actually the manageson of the owner so we got a discount when we hired him.
Photobooth: $500
- We rented a photobooth for four hours. The package included unlimited use, custom artwork/templates, onsite attendant, CD/cloud download of all photos, props and delivery/setup/tear down.
Sweetheart Table Decor: $173
- This included flower row from Aliexpress, candles from Ikea, various sizes of vases from Dollar Tree, Ikea and Burlington Coat Factory.
Table Center Piece: $291
- These were completely DIY and we made 25 of these. I bought candle holders and glass bowl from Dollar Tree, fake flowers from AliExpress and glued them all together. As much as I love fresh flowers, I couldn't bring myself to spend thousands on them for them to wilt in a couple of days. It's been a couple of months and I still see my centerpieces at my guests homes!
Wedding favors: $205
- I ordered 250 wedding favor boxes from AliExpress and put two ferror rochers into each. The ferror rochers were on sale at Costco. The downside was we had to fold all 250 boxes ourselves. This gave us something to do during those Netflix nights.
Card box: $21
- Since this was an Asian wedding, all our guests brought card gifts (e.g. checks, cash, giftcards).
Sparklers: $28
- I highly suggest doing an exit with sparklers. It made for awesome pictures/video.
Cake topper: $35
- My husband and I are into anime instead of ordering a typical take topper from Etsy, we opted to order a couple of bootleg Nendoroids off of AliExpress to customize figures that look like us.

Photography + Videography: $9,161

Photography + Videography: $9,100
- When my husband and I started planning our wedding, we agreed that if we were to splurge on anything, it'll be the photo/video. They were such a dream to work with. Everything went so smoothly because of them. They've worked with Asian weddings before so they knew the ins and out of our day/tradition. They'll tell me if I had a stray hair, if my husband had to move his hand an inch, or to fix my wedding dress. I have absolutely no regrets.
- We paid for 14 hour coverage. It was a realllyyyy long day. I think there were about 8 of them with us the entire day.
- We also paid extra to have them compile a 3-4min video of the wedding day. This was a great idea because instead of going through 14 hours of footage from multiple cameras, we already have a video to look back on to relive this special day.
City Hall Permit: $61
- Some places require a permit for wedding photos. Double check yours!!

Attire: $2,228

Wedding Dress: $1,098
- I ultimately decided to rent my dress instead of purchasing it. The rental included the wedding dress (obviously), alterations (two sessions), veil, earrings, hair accessories and dry cleaning. My wedding dress was Perla by Kitty Chen (MSRP ~$2.3k).
Bride's Shoes + Inserts: $97
- I bought two pairs of Jewel Badgley Mischka that were both on sale/clearance ($65 + $26) at Nordstroms and Macys. One for the wedding day, and another shorter, more comfortable one for the evening. I highly recommend buying inserts ($6). I was standing, walking and dancing all day (14+hrs).
Evening Dress + Alterations: $275
- Something to change into since the wedding dress was so heavy. Plus I wanted to wear something super sparkly and glittery and gold. This was the best time to do it.
Garter Belt: $3
- I just bought a cheap one from AliExpress since it was gonna be thrown around in the evening anyway.
Bridesmaid/Groomswomen dress: $208
- I bought them the infinity dress so they can be creative and customize it to however they like. In the end, they all ended up looking the same anyway lol
Grooms Suit + Alterations: $179
- From the Fashion District in DTLA. This includes shirt, jacket, pants, tie and vest.
Groom's Shoes: $85
Get Ready Pajamas: $58
- I bought 6 satin pairs from AliExpress. Funny story, the pants tore on the butt area while taking jumping pictures. It just couldn't contain this booty. I recommend buying something stretchy.
Traditional Vietnamese Outfit- Bride (rental): $75
- Includes the traditional hat, alterations, and cleaning fee
Traditional Vietnamese Outfit- Groom (rental): $35
- My husband actually rented the groomsmen style. He didn't like the groom's style or else it would have been $75.
Flower Girl Dress: $47
Flower Girl Basket + Ring Pillow/box: $29
Ring Bearer Suit: $22

Makeup + Hair: $1,235

Makeup + Hair Trial: $130
Makeup + Hair + Tip: $865
- There were two MUAs. This includes bride + five other girls. We started getting ready around 4:30AM till around 9:30AM.
Nails: $155
- I paid for my mom and I's nails. It was our first time getting mani professionally done so it was such a treat.
Hair Extensions: $85
- I have pretty thin hair so I needed the extra volume.

Misc: $609

Wedding Invitation + Postage: $256
Marriage Certificate: $91
- for California!
Sheraton - Junior Suite: $262
- I actually used my Chase points for this. The bridesmaids and I slept overnight in the room. We also rented this suite to get our hair and makeup done.

Thank you if you've made it this far! Feel free to ask questions, if any :)

Strips are a reasonable and bright DIY flexibly that can change straightforward wedding stylistic theme. Since it comes in all widths, hues, and even examples, you can become accustomed to the material for fitting whatever big day thing you're brightening.
You can utilize grosgrain and trim strip for including surface and attempt silk lace for a smooth sparkly feel. It is ideal to discover outstanding amongst other wedding supplies providers for purchasing strips, textures, 70x70 square decorative spreads, seat covers, and numerous others. From carefully assembled lace rose flower bundles and rose young lady wands to a tied DIY photograph corner setting, here are the absolute most inventive spots you've seen ladies DIY with lace!

https://preview.redd.it/8njq1lz838q51.jpg?width=225&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fea95427c2031b334ff08f3466c955cdec4ae4d2

Wedding Party Ribbon Bouquets

Wedding flower bundles decorated with following silk, stain, or velvet strip look divine and furthermore include the ideal sentimental touch. Utilizing an assortment of strips with marginally various shades and surfaces praises the characteristic tints and will take your bouquet to the following level.

Lace Stationery

Numerous individuals love the surface, extravagance, and delicate quality that including a bit of strip for complementing your solicitations, service projects, and day-of-fixed makes, an incredible path for consolidating your wedding hues consistently.

Lace Ceremony Décor

You can likewise go through strip for dressing the special stepped area, the rear of seats, and even as a function setting

https://preview.redd.it/fdsr3z3d38q51.jpg?width=275&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c0364fb391009b1d4c064537185139bc5d96dd52

Lace Table Plans

You can likewise manage visitors to their supper seats with the assistance of the escort card. You can likewise utilize glossy silk decorative liners to add a delicate surface to your table.

Lace Wand

Probably the cutest approaches to commend your pre-marriage ceremony, have your visitors wave yahoo as you advance down the path as love birds. They are likewise a sweet and spending plan amicable bloom elective for your humblest orderlies.

https://preview.redd.it/dtzlv5me38q51.jpg?width=1063&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bd01520bcc621685ffd676a71e0c095587340139

Strip Backdrop

Strip settings are ideal for behind the top table, cake table, or as a background for your photograph corner. The strip is additionally an extraordinary method of adding a fly of shading to your space.

Strip Chair Décor

Perhaps the prettiest approaches to tidy up your seats, however discount strips in mass and deck out your seat right to the floor, and in the event that you are on a careful spending plan, complement only the lady and husband to be's seat for making them additional uncommon.

Spot Settings

You can spruce up your supper napkins with pretty glossy silk, velvet, or silk lace. Also, for an additional wow factor you could utilize calligraphy for setting your visitor's names on the strip.
These are some prettiest approaches to utilize lace on your unique day. You can locate a main wedding supplies provider for purchasing strips, texture, work wrap, decorative liners, seat covers, and numerous others at discount costs.

Hi Weddit! Y’all have been SO helpful to me and I am so grateful for this community. Even though I’m 33(!) I’m one of the first of my friends to be planning a wedding! #careerwomen
Some fast facts • I’m having a rustic, down-to-earth vibe wedding at a small resort on the Central Coast of CA later this year • I’m really not trying to have the perfect IG (aka super expensive!) wedding look/decor. I want this to feel like a fun backyard summer BBQ with dancing and booze • Even though our guests are renting all of the rooms at the venue, we still paid a $7,000 venue fee. The Event Coordinator told me during her sales pitch that she is included in that price and handles all day-of coordination. I figured, great! No need to hire someone else. • we are doing DIY flowers (buying small bud vases @ dollar store, and night before will do 1-3 buds per vase and 4-5 little bud vases per table: minimal and simple). I bought table runners for the farm tables on AliExpress and was going to buy napkins too • The venue provides catering (priced per head above the venue fee) and will set up the tables and chairs in a specific layout.
Issues / why I’m asking for input: • I just found out the Event Coordinator and catering staff will not “decorate” the tables - they won’t put the table runner on the table and the eucalyptus garland on the runner and the bud vases around the garland. • Event coordinator now says if I “don’t have a planner” I need to provide to her the layout for the tables and chairs. (I would’ve assumed she could share some typical configurations with me??) • I don’t want to ask family and friends to set up the tables because I want them to relax and enjoy their day • I’ve read online that even if I hire a day-of coordinator, this person primarily answers questions for guests, ensures we follow the timeline, and ensures the vendors know what they’re doing. The last part, in my case, would be done by the Event Coordinator, per her email to me. • Given a day-of coordinator seems to cost $2k that I don’t have, I don’t know what my options are for these simple decorations...
Any ideas or advice would be so appreciated!! Can’t I just hire some hourly folks from Task Rabbit??

Posted this the other day at like 2am and wanted to repost so it got seen by more people and hopefully saved some other brides not knowing an update from their venue! I found the Mesa Arts Center suggested in multiple posts here asking for affordable but cool Phoenix venues. They have multiple locations, mostly museums, in downtown Mesa. We toured a couple in January, loved both, and ultimately fell in love with the courtyard at the Mesa Contemporary Art Museum after seeing it at night surrounded by the lit up sculptures. Were told the city of Mesa had first dibs on 2021 dates for their festivals in the spaces, and then the calendar would be opened up to the event planner to schedule private events. In the couple months following while we waited for them to release the calendar so we could claim our October 2021 date, COVID came along. I've started getting stressed that our far out date of next fall is suddenly going to be much harder to book since there's so many 2020 brides pushing back to next year too. Reached out to check in this morning and make sure I was still top of the waiting list when it's available to start booking and was told that Mesa has decided to not schedule any of their 2021 stuff until this September annnd they have are seriously debating whether or not to continue renting to private events anymore period and I should find a new venue. I would not have known anytime soon otherwise as they didn't reach out to me even though I'd had multiple conversations with them and was waiting for the contract. Wanted to try and get the word out to any other couples thinking they'll be able to book there still :(

Also, I'm so bummed and feel like the air has been let out of me a bit. We hadn't signed yet and were still a year and a half out but in the months waiting to confirm all my tentative planning and imagining had been at that venue. We are going to do our engagement pics and the lit up sculptures still so that's something...but now I need a venue and I'm a little panicky because it was SUCH a perfect fit. Any Phoenix brides have any suggestions? Also open to Flagstaff or anywhere in between. I'd love to get married in Tucson (my hometown) but fiance is being a bit of a killjoy about that idea for the time being.
Things we loved about the original venue:

PRICE (ceremony and reception space, tables, chairs, linens, staff to set up and break down, and beer and wine+ bartender would all be a little under $3,500)
Unique and modern/artsy vibe-I love the beautiful rustic barn feel but I've been to literally 10 weddings in the past 3 years and 8/10 were that exact style and I'm over it personally, and it doesn't feel like "us" as much.
The flexibility of times and vendors, especially food. Other than the bartenders, we were free to use any vendors we wanted and that was a HUGE deal. Actually, having to use a venue's catering was an automatic disqualifier while looking for venues; we want to be able to pick a restaurant we love and do a buffet style. We won't be hiring an official coordinator either so the museum allowing us to bring decorations etc the night before for the rehearsal and store there overnight, and also the night of the wedding after breakdown, was so awesome especially since there will be a lot of DIY decor and activities we'll be bringing.

Hi Weddit! This community has been so lovely and such a great place to hang out during my two year engagement and wedding planning process. I finally have photos back, so it is time for my recap! I am type A and kept really detailed notes during this planning process, so this post will be LONG. Like, really long.
But first, as always, PHOTOS.

General Info
Engaged: August 19, 2017
Wedding: June 22, 2019
Engagement: 22 months - I was finishing my Ph.D. when we got engaged so we took extra time to save money, so I could focus on my dissertation, and to make long-distance planning a little easier. I graduated 6 weeks before our wedding. We have been together 10 years.
Location: Lakes Region, New Hampshire - we live in the Midwest but grew up together in New Hampshire, so getting married there was a no-brainer. Long distance planning has its own unique challenges, but overall we found it manageable. Happy to give out vendor information for anyone who might be interested!

RSVPs and Guest Count
I previously posted an in-depth summary of our RSVPs and my guest count predictions. Here are our RSVP numbers and final numbers.Invited: 108 Accepted: 79 (73.15%) Declined: 26 (24.07%) Late response: 4 (3.7%)
Actually attended: 70 No-Shows: 9
Of the no-shows, 4 gave notice ahead of time (two of them had a family emergency) and 5 said nothing. One of these five had childcare fall through (and ended up showing up in the parking lot after the ceremony to say hello to my husband, but for some reason didn't attend the ceremony?), one is known for not showing up to family events, two were plus ones, and one may have had health issues. Honestly, I didn't even notice the missing people on the day of, and our venue packed up the extra food for our families to take home.

Budget
Initial "Sweet Summer Child" Budget: $10k total
Adjusted "We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat" Budget: $15k total
Actual "Bran the Three Eyed Raven Probably Saw This Coming" Budget: $19.5k total
Our original budget was $10k, which I ended up adjusting once I learned more about wedding pricing and our families pledged support. We ended up with a working budget of $15k, and eventually went over that. However, we both had side-gigs from which we saved all the money, and our long engagement meant that we had tons of time to save and paid off vendors over a pretty long period of time. I am proud of us for staying below $20k, and I actually think we got a screaming good deal for what we paid. The wedding total, not including rings, minimoon, and our European honeymoon, was $16,780.95, which wasn't far off our $15k budget. Including our rings and honeymoon(s), we paid $19,503.55. Here is a stupidly detailed breakdown.

Category	Spent	Details
Ceremony	$747	Marriage license ($50), chair rental fee ($297), Officiant fee ($400)
Reception venue fee	$1,382.50	Venue is a brewery that charges per person rather than a set price. June is actually priced as "off-season" because fall is so popular in NH (leaf colors!) so we decided to do June to save money and to work around my school schedule. We paid $17.50/person rather than the $20/person for July/Aug/Sept/Oct
Food, service, and tax	$4,791.06	We did ala carte rather than a package because the pricing was better. This included: Appetizers - cheese and crackers, smoked salmon crostini station, beef teriyaki skewers, vegetable spring rolls. Starters and sides - fresh gazpacho soup, herb roasted potatoes, crispy Brussels sprouts. Entrees - choice of chicken cordon bleu, broiled glazed salmon, or vegetable wellington.
Beverages/Bartenders	$2,000	My in-laws put down a set amount on an open consumption bar (well drinks, not top-shelf!) and then the bar would become a cash bar once the money ran out. We actually ended up using $1,940 of the set amount and drank the entire brewery out of two types of beer AND all the Chardonnay they had. We offered 6 types of beer, 3 red wines, 2 whites, 1 blush, 1 sparkling, and all the usual liquor.
Cupcakes	$404.84	120 cupcakes in four flavors - maple bacon frosting with chocolate cake, salted caramel frosting with chocolate chip cake, lavender frosting with lemon cake, and vanilla frosting with carrot cake. Price included delivery and setup and a rented cupcake stand. We picked cupcakes solely to avoid the cake cutting fee at our venue. This was the best food of the night, easily.
Reception Extras	$51.72	Card box (hand-me-down), chalkboard easels and markers, bug spray for ceremony
Attire	$1,587.15	Includes my dress ($318.43 from DB), alterations ($425), headpiece and DIY floral veil ($61.68), undergarments ($72.24), wedge sandals and floral sneakers ($108.93), aquamarine earrings ($138.65), rehearsal/shower dress ($29.90), hair trial and day of ($170), makeup trial and day of ($143.34), groom's suit ($119 off the rack).
Flowers/Centerpieces	$196.95	This was a place where I wanted to save money. Flowers were NOT a priority for me. We cut peonies from my mom and grandma's gardens and arranged my bouquet ourselves. It turned out great and was honestly easy. Centerpieces consisted of video game postcards, postcard holders, and string lights. We got bottles from the dump for free, spray painted them, and put flowers in them. My husband ordered dried hops online and made his own boutonnieres.
Music	$925	DJ company with great reviews, 6 hours of coverage, one DJ and one MC. They killed it.
Photography	$2,500	Another steal. We signed a contract with them in January 2018 after their second season of photography. I just looked up their pricing two years later and we saved $1300 by booking them so early. This was for 6 hours of coverage, 2 shooters, engagement shoot, USB, and printing rights
Stationery	$339.37	Paper is important to me, so I was ok spending more on this category. We ordered save-the-dates and return labels from Vistaprint, invites and details cards from Zazzle, and fancy envelopes, seals, and labels from Amazon. I got twine at Target and bought awesome dragon stamps from USPS. We used online-only RSVPs and I got cheap thank you cards from Amazon and TJ Maxx.
Wedding Rings	$914.60	My moissanite engagement ring and wedding band came as a set from Etsy ($860). I bought my husband a tungsten engagement ring from Amazon for $19.95, and his wedding ring was a New Hampshire state coin ring from etsy which cost $34.65
Transportation and Lodging	$288	This was just our hotel room for Friday and Saturday night. We did not end up booking any sort of transportation shuttle or limo. My husband drove our car from the Midwest to New Hampshire the month before the wedding and we drove it home after the wedding, so we just used our own car.
Gifts and favors	$387.36	Favors ($161.16) were originally a fuck-it-bucket item but my mom insisted on them and I ended up doing three (THREE!) different types of favors. I got really into it and people LOVED them. We did mini maple syrup bottles, pet treat boxes for our guests' pets, and cupcake to-go boxes. For my man of honor and his best man we got them weekender bags and dopp kits, and for my friend who acted as our day of coordinator we got her a yoga bag and yoga club membership. We will buy photo albums for our parents and grandparents as Christmas gifts.
Rehearsal Dinner	$1,000	I am estimating this - my in-laws paid for it. There were 17 of us.
Vendor tips	$180	We tipped $20-$50 to our vendors. The wait staff and bartenders had gratuity built in. Although these were not huge tips, everyone was appreciative. We included a hand written card with each tip.
Honeymoon and travel	$1,808	This includes catsitting for the week we were gone ($120), the surprise bachelor trip to Alaska I planned for my fiance ($485), our two night minimoon to a nearby bed and breakfast ($467 including champagne and massage package), and $736 for our 2020 honeymoon to Spain and Portugal (flights and insurance).

Here is a pie chart breaking down our budget by category.

Budget Breakdown
Priorities
A meaningful ceremony. Outdoor ceremony/indoor reception. Great photography. Hiring LGBTQ inclusive vendors. Great food and vegetarian options. Wine and Beer. Dancing. String lights. Destination feel. Easy logistics/low stress. Not going into debt.

Fuck It Bucket
Wedding planneprofessional DOC. Professional florist. Videographer. Shuttle/limo/transportation plan. Bridesmaids. Programs. Sexist/homophobic bullshit. Bouquet toss/garter toss. Matching suits for the men. Signature cocktails. Rhyming/cutesy signs. Wedding colors. A hash tag. The Wedding Font. Wedding party proposals. Guest book. Photo booth. Writing our own vows. Live band. Cutting cake. Mason jars/burlap. Children.

DIY Projects
Arbor - my husband found dead trees in the best man's family's backyard and threw it together an hour before our rehearsal and draped some tulle from Amazon on it. I am shocked at how good it turned out.
Birch escort card display - my dad and uncle found dead birch trees in their backyards and used some sort of drill to cut slits in them for the cards. I asked them to cut the slits on an angle so you could read the card while standing above the table, and they turned out great. They also put nails on the bottom of each log so they wouldn't roll around. I will probably try to sell these.
Flowers - we cut peonies and coral bells, as well as greenery, from my mom's and grandma's gardens on the Thursday before our Saturday wedding. I put together my own bouquet in about 45 minutes. It kept great and was super easy. Very glad I didn't bother paying anyone to do it for me, or bother buying flowers when there were such pretty ones for free all around me.
Centerpieces - my dad collected cool bottles from the dump and my mom spray painted them. We just put loose flowers in the bottles the day before the wedding and they looked amazing. Keeping the plan simple helped immensely. My mom passed these along to a coworker who has a child getting married soon.
Cake toppers - my husband made these out of grocery bags, masking tape, and paint from his work. He is very artistic.
Veil - I bought embroidered floral tulle on Etsy, cut it into a veil shape, and hand-sewed it to a metal hair comb. Took about an hour and cost me all of $18. I'm considering trying to make some more to sell, it was a fun project!
Signage - I just got chalkboards and chalk markers at Michael's and hand wrote the few signs we had. I can't stand The Wedding Font or lots of (IMO) pointless wedding signs, so I only did what was necessary.
Table numbers - I busted out my fourth grade cursive using some colored pencils and hand wrote these in an afternoon. We really wanted to save money.
Family wedding photos - I hunted down old family photos in albums and had my grandpa dig out some really old ones. I printed them at Walgreens and got frames at Goodwill for $1-$2 each. I did the same with cat photos for our pet treat favor display.
Maple syrup tags - I used my mom's Cricut to make tags for the maple syrup flavors. I came up with 8 different puns and used paper scraps she already had to print them on. I used leftover twine from the invites to hang them on the bottles. Way cheaper than getting a custom label on the bottles themselves!

Old/New/Borrowed/Blue
Old - my great grandmother's ruby ring
New - my dress
Borrowed - my parent's vows
Blue - aquamarine earrings (my husband's birthstone)

What did guests notice/compliment us on?
Our sweet/emotional/funny ceremony. We didn't write our own vows and honestly, I am really happy with that decision. We were both stressed at the thought of the pressure of it, so I borrowed my parent's vows instead and surprised them with that at the ceremony. They were our something borrowed ;)
Favors - people LOVED them! Maple syrups were a hit, people were fighting over the pet treats, and all the cupcake boxes were taken.
Our invitations - they were perfect, I love them so much and they look just like the area where we got married. I put a lot of effort into dressing them up with twine and the dark green envelopes while staying to a budget, and I love how they turned out. I am obsessed with paper products, so it made sense for me to be super picky about these and not care one iota about, say, flowers.
My dress - super glad I didn't spend tons of money on it. It was perfect and comfortable and good for one day. I may try to sell this or just donate it to someone in need.
Flowers - my mom and grandma were very pleased to have so many compliments on the beautiful flowers they grew themselves.
Venue - it was beautiful and things ran very smoothly. The ceremony location was GORGEOUS.
Cupcakes - best food of the night, hands down.
My veil - LOOK AT IT!!

Stuff that went wrong
Honestly, very little.

My hair and makeup went over what I had budgeted for time, so I arrived back at my hotel right after the photographers arrived and I had to scarf lunch while helping them take the first detail shots.
There were a TON of ticks - summer in NH is tick season. We probably picked 10 ticks out of my dress, and were careful to do a tick check at the end of the night!
The venue served mixed veggies instead of the fancy Brussels sprouts that we paid extra for - they refunded us.
The DJ forgot to say my brother's "fun fact" when he was introduced - this did not matter at all.
I told my husband he had to make sure there were two rows reserved for our families in the processional, when in reality my side needed two rows and his side only needed one row. He ended up making his aunts and uncles move to the back of the ceremony seating and the second row of chairs was empty during the ceremony. I didn't notice it at all, and in retrospect I'm fine with it because one of his aunts wore a white lace dress...so the back was a good place for her ;)
Our venue coordinator was a NIGHTMARE during the planning process, but she quit about a month before the wedding and the GM (who was awesome) took over. So that was lucky timing, but the shitty coordinator did add quite a bit of stress to my plate over the year+ that I had to deal with her.
My mom was a handful during the planning process, but fine on the day of. More on her antics below.
My one regret was a miscommunication with my grandpa about his camera - he loves taking photos, and I was looking forward to his photos on the day of, but the photographers suggested we ask him not to bring his flash. He got confused about it and left his entire camera at the hotel. Apparently he was upset when he realized he WAS allowed to bring his camera, but he refused to let my dad send someone back to the hotel to get it for him. I noticed about halfway through the wedding, and am honestly pretty sad about it. I felt incredibly guilty that we said anything to him about the camera, because I know how much he was looking forward to taking photos. That being said, my parents and husband have told me to stop beating myself up about it, and that he was being difficult when he refused to let someone get his camera. It still makes me sad though. Our lovely photographers noticed and also felt bad, so they asked him to take some photos with one of their cameras.

Honestly, all of this (except for the mix-up with my grandpa and the frustrating venue coordinator) was very minor.

Advice (LONG)

Due to our budget and long distance planning and the fact that we couldn't afford a planneDOC, we kept a lot of stuff for our wedding simple. No bridesmaids, no complicated decorations, no choreographed dancing, no matching suits for the men, nothing that would require a lot of work or oversight from us in the week before the wedding. In retrospect, I am SO GLAD we kept things simple. I wasn't stressed about decorating, and honestly, it ended up looking really woodsy-elegant. For the centerpieces, we literally just spray painted bottles from the dump and stuck some flowers in them - they turned out great and the DIY was super easy because we kept it simple. It helped that we picked a venue that was already beautiful and didn't need any sprucing up (they keep the string lights up all the time). So I recommend keeping your plans simple, especially if you are planning to do a lot of DIY or are planning a long distance wedding (or both!)
Pick your battles with your parents. My mom was difficult at times during the wedding planning process. Our relationship is normally great, but I think we had different expectations of how the planning process would go, and that was challenging. I found it was important for me to pick my battles - some things I didn't want (like favors) I let slide because she wanted them, and was glad that we did it. Other things (seating my queer cousin with a homophobic great-uncle) I stood my ground on. It can be difficult to set boundaries, but try to be understanding and compassionate (as long as your parent is not a raging narcissist) while also setting up expectations for how they should treat you and your new spouse. This sets the tone for the rest of your lives, IMO.
It is possible to pay for your wedding without going into debt. I was honestly surprised how quickly we set aside money, even on a grad student's salary, once we started saving all the money from our side gigs. It is pretty satisfying watching the number in the account tick up. We are now putting all the money towards a future house fund. Honestly, I think wedding planning is great training for the rest of your marriage - reading contracts, making difficult choices, dealing with family, working together towards a financial goal.
You can plan a wedding while in school. When we got engaged I was a month out from defending my dissertation proposal, and I finished my Ph.D. 6 weeks before our wedding. Honestly, grad school is not a terrible time to be wedding planning. Sure, we have less money, but it was a nice distraction when I needed a break from writing, and it gave me a good goal to work towards - I had to graduate so I could be Dr. Cusekyi at our wedding :)
It's ok if one of you plans more than the other. Oftentimes, I see people talking about how they are splitting the planning load 50/50. While that is awesome, it just didn't work for us. I am (as is probably apparent from this post) a driven Type A planner, and my husband is...not. While he had ideas (mostly related to design/decor) and input throughout, the reality was that I did the majority of the heavy lifting when it came to contacting vendors, making timelines and lists, reading contracts, and navigating family minefields. While my feminist beliefs sometimes made it hard for me to be ok with us falling into such expected gender norms, the reality is that I'm just better at planning and logistics than he is, and that's ok. When I really needed a break or needed him to take something off my plate, he did. He cooked every meal for a solid month prior to the wedding. Play to your strengths as a couple!
Trust your gut when it comes to vendors. I had a really good feeling about our photographers, and they killed it. We interviewed a DJ who struck me as not quite right, and even though he was good on paper, I told my husband we would NOT be hiring him. Sure enough, two days later, the DJ called me to tell me he had forgotten he was already booked for our date. I was so relieved I wasn't planning on hiring him, but can't imagine what a nightmare it would have been if I hadn't listened to my gut feeling, and if the DJ hadn't realized until closer to our wedding.
Hotel blocks are NOT always easy or simple. I see on here a lot that hotel blocks are really easy, and everyone should do them. In rural areas, businesses often can get away with being kind of a shitshow, and nothing made that more apparent to me than dealing with hotels. Getting a room block was like pulling teeth, and honestly, barely anyone used it. The people who really mattered booked their rooms early, and the procrastinators either stayed at a campground, rented an AirBNB, or drove home. Everyone was fine, and they figured it out. You don't have to put people's accommodation and travel arrangements on your plate too, it's too much to worry about.
BOOK STUFF EARLY! We saved $1300 just on our photographers by booking them 18 months in advance. We got the pick of vendors and dates, and we had tons of time to save and plan. It was honestly a huge relief to have so much time, since we had to fly to NH any time we needed to do something in person. Don't let anyone tell you that you are planning things too early. There is no such thing as too early with weddings these days. It's ok to break rules like "don't buy your dress too early." I know myself and I am a decisive person. I never regretted buying my dress 18 months ahead of time.
Try not to stress about the weather. I started obsessively looking at the weather about a month out, and while I wasn't panicked about it, I definitely was really REALLY hoping we didn't have to use our rain plan. The day before the wedding, the forecast called for thunderstorms at 4 pm - right during our ceremony. But I decided to just ignore it and keep going, and the weather was perfect. Partly cloudy, breezy (which kept the bugs away!), 69 degrees. It was a gorgeous day.
Let things slide. My husband didn't buy a suit until one month before our wedding. My brother (man of honor) didn't buy his clothes until two weeks before, and our Best Man bought his suit at Goodwill THE DAY BEFORE the wedding. Four guests cancelled just a couple days out. My husband decided (against my better judgment) to drive our 13-year-old car 1200 miles across the country for his brother-in-law to do some sorely needed maintenance on it. The car was literally at the mechanic's until 1 hour before the rehearsal was supposed to start, and we had no backup plan (husband had me cancel the rental car I had booked). And you know what? It all worked out. The men looked great in their suits. The car got fixed in time (barely!) and we had it for our minimoon, and could drive all our wedding gifts back in it.
Let your people be themselves - they matter so much more than anything else. My brotheMan of Honor didn't want to wear a suit, and that was fine. What mattered was him standing up with me. Our Best Man is our oldest mutual friend, he is a free spirit and does things his own way. He even said himself that he was a "risky choice" for best man. And you know what? He flew from Thailand to New Hampshire to support us. He helped me plan (and execute!) an incredible surprise trip to Alaska with my husband and two of their friends the weekend before the wedding. He showed up for our rehearsal and our wedding in his $10 Goodwill suit. And he gave the most incredible speech about how, while he thinks marriage is stupid for 99.99% of people, we are the exception to his rule. My point is, don't pick your wedding party based on who will "perform" best as maid of honor, or expect them to become people that they aren't. Pick people who matter the most to you and let them be themselves. The fact that our best man flew all that way and put on a suit, even if it was from Goodwill, showed us how much he loves us, and I wouldn't trade that for anything.
Take a moment throughout the day. One of my favorite moments from our wedding was, after exchanging rings, looking up at the trees over us swaying in the wind while our officiant talked. I felt present and alive and grounded and so, so grateful.
Try to be present for those around you too. My best friend, who was a godsend all day as our day of coordinator, lost her father a few months before our wedding. During my father daughter dance, I looked over at her and she was sobbing. When my dance with my dad was over, I beelined it for her and held her and we both just bawled. That moment meant a lot to both of us.
Hire people you trust. Our vendors hit it out of the park on the day of, and went along with all our little requests. From the venue reserving a keg of special sour beer for us because I told them I love Berliners, to our baker setting aside 6 cupcakes for us to take back to our hotel room, to the weird and eclectic music I requested that the DJs played. All the vendors worked seamlessly together and honestly, it was really nice to hand the reins off and let the wedding unfold in front of us.
Have two DJs if possible. The music and order of events ran so smoothly because one guy covered music while the other was acting as MC.
We gave small tips - our wait staff, bartenders, and hairdresser all got 20%, but our tips for the other vendors were just $20-$50 plus a nice card. I see a lot of people on here worrying about how much to tip and honestly, all the vendors were really appreciative and said it wasn't necessary and they didn't expect a tip at all. YMMV.
We strategically under-bought apps to save money and not waste food - for an estimated 80 guests we ordered cheese and crackers for 50 people, 3 pounds of smoked salmon, 5 dozen veggie spring rolls, and 7 dozen beef teriyaki skewers. It was fine, and everyone still had room for dinner!
Do what you want and tell your vendors what you want. Both of us had both our parents walk us down the aisle, our vows included stuff about individuality, we had the DJ announce us as Dr and Mr, we asked our officiant not to say anything about "giving" me away, we used my parent's vows instead of writing our own, I asked the DJs to avoid gendered language, I asked my cake baker to set aside extra cupcakes for us to eat afterwards. Don't be afraid to tell people what you want (or surprise them - I didn't show anyone my veil ahead of time, and my parents didn't know we were going to use their vows).
Don't be shy to tell people you are getting married. I mentioned it on a Southwest Airlines Facebook post when I was flying home for our wedding and they sent us a $100 voucher and free t-shirts! On our minimoon, the bed and breakfast we stayed at after gave us each a free cocktail. It was a nice little bonus and made it feel more special :)
Favors are SO WORTH IT. I didn't want favors and my mom did and so I decided to do edible favors. I ended up going hard with the favors and did three - mini maple syrup bottles at each seat, cat and dog treats in little boxes, and cupcake to-go boxes. They got CLEARED OUT. All 80 maple syrups, 20 animal treats, and 48 cupcake boxes were gone at the end of the night. People LOVED them. One guest was raving about the maple syrup and drunkenly gathered up the leftovers to take home (his arms were packed), and people were practically fighting over the animal treats. If you want favors, do it. We had so many compliments and don't have any leftovers.
Don't drink too much. I had two drinks during the whole wedding (not planned, it just sort of happened) and had zero alcohol while getting ready. I like drinking, but honestly being sober was great. I was super present all night. I was able to have real conversations with guests, remember to ask family/friends to grab stuff that was important to me at the end of the night, and express my appreciation to our vendors. I didn't plan on not drinking much, but I am really glad I was sober.
Wear comfortable shoes. I bought Sofft brand comfort low wedge sandals and honestly, they were incredible. I felt like me, I didn't think about my shoes all night, and although I had also purchased super cute floral keds that matched my veil, I didn't need to change into sneakers. I am not a heel person, so I bought what I could handle.
Do something after your wedding. My aunt and her husband had rented an AirBNB and made an impromptu campfire, and we went over to drink beers and roast marshmallows and hang out. It was the BEST way to end the night. Friends trickled by to visit, we got to talk about how awesome it was, we enjoyed the beautiful weather and woods more, and I got to drink a bunch of beers :) It was a spur of the moment thing and I am so glad we did it.
Speaking of spur of the moment, you can make changes last minute. In the hairdresser's chair, I asked her to rebraid my hair in a fishtail instead of a regular braid. 10 minutes before our first look, I changed our location to a random barn I saw on the way back to the hotel because our original first look location was packed with tourists. These changes were SO worth it.
Photo op during the ceremony - While I see the appeal of unplugged ceremonies, I personally dislike the "put your phone away" signs. My unpopular opinion is that you can't control other people's phone usage, and the big signs/statements on wedding websites won't do anything to stop it. People will just ignore a sign if they want to take a picture, so it doesn't matter how in your face or large of a sign you put up. We decided to have a photo opportunity at the very start of our ceremony. Our officiant explained to our guests before the ceremony started that she would give them 10 seconds to take photos, and then they would be asked to put their cameras/phones down. People loved it, everyone went crazy taking photos (including jumping into the aisle). But you know what? After 10 seconds, they all sat down and put their devices away. Our photographers probably got some funny shots of everyone taking photos, but also WE have photos of ourselves at our ceremony from multiple angles because the guests shared them with us. That helped a lot while we waited 11 weeks for our professional photos to come in. I highly recommend this gentler, less bossy approach to unplugged ceremonies.
It's ok to not have a vision for certain things. I posted about this a while ago. I didn't have a vision of my dress, or flowers, or a cake. So I chose to save money in those areas. I found a dress I liked, and was flattering on me, and on the day I loved it. I didn't care what flowers we used, so we picked a few hundred peonies and coral bells the Thursday before my wedding from my grandma's and mom's gardens. I made my own bouquet with no practice or experience. This was not stressful at all because I didn't have a vision, so anything was better than nothing. Same with cake - I had no vision for what my "dream" cake looked like, I just cared about the flavor. Cupcakes were the same price as a basic cake but we would save a $2/person cutting fee, so we did cupcakes instead. My husband built the arbor the day before our wedding and I wasn't stressed because I didn't care what it looked like. The men's suits didn't matter to me, so I didn't mind that they waited until the very last minute to purchase them. It's ok to not care about everything.

Thank you all for sticking with me through this ridiculously long recap. Planning our wedding was honestly a joyful experience for me, and it was an incredible day. Happy to answer any questions! I think I'll be sticking around Weddit for the foreseeable future, this community is too lovely for me to leave just yet.

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