Now, I’m not too picky. I can go for cheap. I appreciate and embrace being thrifty. But I hope for my wedding to be special and classy. Good for my sister in the way she did her wedding, but it didn’t feel very special to me. It felt cheap. Don’t get me wrong, it was a nice enough wedding, but I don’t want a “nice enough” wedding. I want something simple but elegant, that I’ll love. I’m just afraid that if I spend a penny more on anything than my sister did, I’ll be plagued with “But your sister did it for this much” comments the whole way, and forever afterwards. I hope this site will give me enough ideas to stick with a low budget but not feel like I’m settling for the cheapest things I can find.

The problem with some of the blogs is their definition of “budget”. Sometimes I think that they classify weddings as budget if they just had one (whether it was 5 to 150K). And the phrase “they did it for under [insert 5-6 digit number]” makes me cringe. Especially, when our goal is 5,000. Now, my parents and I realize that for what we want and the number of people on the list, we’re just being stupid. BUT, you live to your means. By setting the goal cost low, we are staying very cost conscious.

The key when both the groom and I have champagne taste and a beer budget (by choice and necessity), is to really start perfecting the art of compromise and prioritizing. When we sat down and talked the groom’s priority was (still is) food. Mine, comfortable atmosphere and flowers (boy, do I love flowers). Photography is a must, but unfortunately we don’t need a videographer to capture the whole thing in dreamy super8. While paper products are beautiful (and I do love letterpress), I don’t see the need to spend so much money on something that will adorn someone’s fridge and then grace the garbage can. We ordered invitations from a catalog. Learned that 100#text is not the equivalent of 100#cardstock – after they arrived, and will be printing our own table numbers and such.

I knew we couldn’t afford a country club wedding like some of my friends, didn’t want a generic hotel wedding/reception, couldn’t challenge mother nature in an outdoor affair, plus my parents yard isn’t big enough. So what was left? A university – beautiful grounds, newly renovated conference room with gorgeous lobby for cocktails and a chapel on campus. They have their own catering team, lead by a chef that cooked for Obama and McCain during one of the debates… (we just went for our tasting, WOW). (choosing a venue is also easier when two of three people we were supposed to meet with were no-call/no-shows for our scheduled appointments)

I absolutely adore flowers. They make me smile. I couldn’t imagine my wedding without them. While, my mom and I have taken on some pretty big DIY items, the flowers are my biggest yet. They’ll arrive via overnight shipping through a wholesale website. I may want calla lilies and orchids, but definitely do not need them, roses and carnations are beautiful too.

We’ve spent hours searching and researching all the thrift stores we could find for vases and candlestick holders that have been painted to match. We want to create a feeling of us, while still using items that can be re-purposed, resold or donated, in hopes of perpetuating the cycle and allowing others to do the same.

Spending 8x more and taking out a second mortgage wouldn’t make our day any more special. On the contrary, I think it might actually distract from the purpose of the event, which is a celebration of togetherness – bride and groom and all our family and friends.

I hadn’t intended to write so much. What I hope you get from all this, is that if you can keep your priorities in check and balance what you want with what you actually need, you don’t need to second guess your decisions, because they will be perfectly right for you.