My Top 5 tips for a frugal wedding, Missy and Oliver 2015!

I'm still getting used to the fact that I have a daughter that is married. Hey at least I have made it down to her old bedroom multiple times now and boxed up her stuff and made extra room for her Little Sister's stuff who she shared a room with. Charly felt it was time to make a place to keep her books in her room so Missy's had to go. ;)

It's been a while since I have posted.....longer than usual.....I think I'm just trying to find a new groove that works for me and to just breathe a bit after all the excitement this Summer/Fall.  That being said we are so thrilled for the new life and adventure that Missy and Oliver have chosen to spend eternity together on. Missy has found a superb guy in Oliver and we just adore him. They are such a great couple!

The day was simply beautiful and all things considered I was surprised how amazingly calm that not only I was but Missy too. Everything about the day was beautiful and even better we hadn't spend thousands of dollars yet it was all very special and beautiful.


Missy has always said she wanted a simple dress and wedding but when we looked through what she felt she wanted and set a budget of less than $1,000.00 I wasn't sure we would be able to pull it off but it seemed doable.  Looking back I realized if we had known better what to expect (this was our first one after all) we could have even cut the budget even more.

Here are our Top 5 Tips for a Frugal Wedding:

• #1 The Dress

The wedding dress can be a big budget breaker and depending on the style you want the prices can be all over the place. Making your own can save a bunch and even though we had access to amazing seamstresses and I'm not afraid of using a sewing machine we didn't have much time and most of us were just too busy so we feel we had that for an option. But one of Missy's friends, who was married just weeks before spent less then $90 on a dress because her Mom made it for her.

Borrowing or renting a dress can also save a bunch of money but with dry cleaning etc. it can be kind of pricey...but still cheaper then buying it.

The other way is to just keep it really simple....Missy has never been super into fluffy or frilly dresses (very different from her Mother) and she wanted one that she could wear back to the temple, she's really practical like that. So we went looking and right here in our home town dress shop we found one that fit the bill and just happened to be on clearance for 50% off! We paid less than $65.00 for her dress and she looked beautiful!

• #2 Design your own Announcements

In this time of digital photography and blogging it seems everyone has a little experience with photo editing and design. I had done enough of it that I felt confident that I could design a pretty decent looking announcement. I am not a graphics designer but I had used PicMonkey enough to know that simple free online program could do what I needed it to do. Missy told me what she wanted and we found some cute ideas online and went from there.

• #3 Have your Best Friend Take the Pictures

Photography and photos can often end up being the largest expense of a wedding and no doubt it's probably worth it....but if you are on a tight budget and happen to know someone who has been studying and practicing photography for a while and is just getting into learning weddings and wants to "practice" for a great deal or even free it may be the perfect fit. Kenzi Kim Photography fit the bill for us....not only did she happen to be Missy's best friend but we had seen her work and even had her do our family pictures the year before. We knew she would be perfect. All of the photos on this post were done by her I think you will agree.

• #4 Ask for Help From Family and Friends

It was amazing the amount of people who were asking how they could help....I'm not one that is really very good at asking for help but since I have never been much for throwing a big party I knew there were many others who could help me pull this off. So I asked for ideas created a pinterest board called The Big Day that others could pin on.....and we made our plan.

After brain storming and figuring out where we could get the stuff we need without having to purchase much we borrowed bushel baskets, bins and other old fashions items from Ryan's parents. We also planned to use their back yard to have the wedding but the weather did not cooperate. Our Parents and other family members helped out in the kitchen with the serving.

A dear friend and one of my Sisters-In-Law took care of the majority of the decorating (it was amazing) using mainly simple things we borrowed and their amazing artistic skills.

Tons of family and friends showed up to help with so many little things and with the clean up. We had never felt so much love and support. I hardly had to worry about a thing!

• #5 Use In-Season Wild Flowers and Forget the Cake

Sunflowers happened to be blooming everywhere and we knew they would be, barring some super early unforeseen frost (stranger things have happened)......and since they went perfect with the theme and didn't cost a cent it was a simple solution. Although I didn't realize how absolutely amazing they would look! Missy didn't want to be bothered with holding a bouquet but I'm sure we could have figured out something nice and cheap with the sunflowers too. 

Maybe it isn't sunflowers that are blooming for you but if you look around you may find other equally cute or even more beautiful growing wild where you live. Or maybe you have your own rose garden that you know will be in peek bloom. Flowers can be pricey but Mother Nature has beauty in abundance.

And as for the Cake goes we have never been one to do things traditionally. ;) Not one person asked where the cake was. It saved lots of stress, money, time and who wants all that sugar anyway. 

It still seems crazy that My Little Miss is now a wife.....I'm certain it was only yesterday that she was a little flower girl dancing on her Daddy's toes at her Aunt Shauna's wedding. Oh where or where does the time go!

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