Flashbacks...

While I may not have been the typical little girl dreaming and planning her wedding her entire life, I knew all along, I wanted an outdoor wedding. I’m an outdoorsy gal and couldn’t have it any other way. In addition, I grew up on my grandparent’s farm and brainstorming with my close girlfriends helped me make my final decisions for an elegant, rustic, sentimental farm wedding. At first, I wasn’t sure if that was the best choice since I didn’t want to put a burden on my family (there were lots of cleaning up to do!!). The only stress for me was the beginning, finding my dress and choosing a location –everything else just kind of fell into place. I prayed a lot along the way and therefore, didn’t worry one time after I found my dress (well, I had a dress battle – was very unsure of my dress until I saw the final touches at my final fitting). My mom worried more than I did and I just wanted everything to be natural. It’s all in God’s hands; I can only do so much. He controls the weather, circumstances, etc. I can only control what I do here on earth. I it sounds crazy, but I had complete faith because I didn’t want to rent tents! I wanted everything outdoors. So you could imagine how much praying was going on around our place :) Plus, I did my research, September and October gets the least amount of rain in the year so if it did rain, I was okay. Needless to say, I didn’t check the weather the entire week…I knew I’d lose my faith if I knew there was a chance of inclement weather. And the weather ended up being in the 70’s with an overcast all day!

I also wanted to be very economical, so I prioritized my budget and pretty much over budgeted on everything except for photography (that’s where I wanted to spend the most of my money – I LOVE pictures!!!). Having a job after grad school was a blessing. I put away half a paycheck each month and saved even for a nice honeymoon (I always dreamed more about my honeymoon than the wedding!). Being sentimental and doing everything myself (including flowers) helped quite a bit to keep the budget down. Another pro to low costs, was having it at our own place in a small town. I realized I would have spent at least another 10k if I pursued the location in Louisville, KY (paying for facility rental and other costs are higher in the cities). Our wedding successfully put together under 10K!!!

Top Secret: My dress was bought off the rack at Bridal & Formal in Cincinnati, OH for $199 - was $1250!! (which just so happened to be my favorite bridal designer, Maggie Sottero). Took it to Csilla Designs in Louisville, KY who transformed my dress exactly how I wanted it to look! It ended up still being cheaper than the regular price dress I was looking at in the first place!

Other money saving tips for the Bride:

- Have at a unique location where you have less restrictions (i.e. city parks, home or a family/friend's residence, etc.)

- Recycle, Reuse...I went through my PeePaw's shed and found many things such as old fence posts and spray painted them black to hang LED lanturns. My dad bent the top a little and I just clipped them on. Used the lanturns to line the driveway when it got dark for people to find their way back to their cars. Old barn wood was used to make rustic looking signs and nailed them to old tobacco sticks and hammered into the ground in different areas.

- Make your own programs, invites, and save-the-dates...we used Microsoft Publishers to personalize everything. Take it to Office Max or Office Depot and have it printed on paper of your choice! I knew I wanted to make my own programs and invites and thought going to the Scrapbooking stores such as Archivers would save some $$...it was actually way over the budget!! I just ended up purchasing stamps and ink to add a little fancy to things such as popcorn bags.

- Personalize party favors...we bulk ordered some adult and kids toothbrushes with our names and dates (so cheap...like $.010/toothbrush!). In fact, 2 of our friends have used them in their weddings! Another cheap favor idea...candy treats...it's edible and not going to go to waste :)

A dwindling economy doesn’t mean brides can’t fulfill their dreams :) It is possible to walk away with money in your pocket.