Bio

h + c

Our wedding was the most amazing day of our lives, especially because we didn't break the bank to make it happen. In all our wedding cost about $8,500 (That includes every little detail)- for a 180 person wedding, in the city, on a Saturday night. When we first started looking at venues I knew that I didn't want the usual wedding sites and I really didn't want a VFW. I found harriet island which was not only where our first date was (we watched fireworks there on memorial day) but also was original and let us bring in our own vendors and we could also hold our ceremony there for no additional cost. There are a lot of other ways I tried to save money and still have my dream weddding, I bought my amsale dress off bridepower.com for $300 and had it altered from a 10 to a 4 and fixed the missing beads myself- no one would ever look close enough to notice this anyway. I chose a caterer that was on the low end but still had lots of choices and was experienced. Our meal consisted of ham, chicken alfredo, veggies and garlic/cheese potatoes for $9.75 a person! We brought in our own bartendar and purchased 2 kegs at $175 each and then had a fully stocked bar if people wanted to purchase anything other than beer. Another big money saver was the flowers, I knew I wanted white peonies and after a quote of $350 for my bridal bouquet I decided to do fake flowers myself which turned out great! I also went with a branch theme instead of flowers because it fit the rustic feel of harriet island. I wanted to add some drama with tall centerpieces, so DH and I went and picked willow branches by our house and arranged them into tall centerpieces I bought from michaels (normally $15 each but I saved coupons and got them cheaper). For our short centerpieces I bought $4 vases from walmart and a white pillar candle in the middle with ribbon in our colors of brown and olive green. We rented table linens that went all the way to the floor in choc. brown which matched the chairs. My best decision of all was to go with Jessica from JM photography to do our wedding photography- she did an amazing job as you will see and she was just starting out when we booked her so we got 7 hours of photography and cd's of the pics for $638! I just want everyone to know that you can have a great wedding on a limited budget if you plan, coordinate and before making any purchase think of how you could do it cheaper.

h + c
The Ceremony
The Reception
Vendor Info
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hugging my mom...

chris is waiting to see me for the first time...

I left him speechless and with tears in his eyes.

My white & pale pink peonies

bridesmaid flowers

The Ceremony
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Our marriage ceremony took place on the river patio of the harriet island pavilion. The only thing we had to pay for was the chairs at $1 a piece. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Susan Lee Wright who did an amazing job and really made it feel like we had known her forever.

Aisle runner- white material that I painted our monogram on.

I made the trees from a bundle of branches (Ikea) and cemented them into pots, filled w/newspaper and glued moss on the top.

parasols for the guests

RB pillow I made from a block of foam, moss, straight pins and then wrapped the whole thing in fishing line.

Chris and his mom- we made the mother's bouquets from roses we bought at Cub the day before.

My mom being escorted down the aisle by my cousin Paul.

adorable.

Walking out of the pavilion with my dad- this was such an unreal feeling.

The Reception
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We set the reception site up to have the dance floor in the middle of the room which I loved because everyone could see it! My favorite part was the huge paper lanterns that we hung above the dancefloor, we had battery operated led lights in them that gave off a romantic glow when it got dark in the room.