Flower girl baskets

One of my first projects on a budget for my wedding was to make some baskets for my two flower girls -- the two adorable daughters of one of my cousins. They will be ages 4 and 2 at the time of the wedding and I'm so excited for them to be there!

However adorable your flower girls are, let's be honest, a basket for a flower girl is not something to be spending a lot of money on. Everyone will be focused on the girls carrying them, so why spend $30 on each basket? I'll detail how I made my two little flower girls their baskets for just $7 total.

My inspiration for these baskets started while browsing Pinterest (what else?). I found a picture of a basket on Etsy that I loved! But like I've said before, why pay a ton of money for something you can easily make yourself? Making the baskets myself also allowed me to adapt the basket to fit the theme and colors of my wedding perfectly.

I started with buying baskets at the thrift store. Since I just needed small, simple baskets, they cost me just 49 cents a piece. Yes, that's right: total cost for two baskets: $1. Then I stopped over at a hardware store on the way home and got a can of cream-colored spray paint for about $5. After a few coats of paint, the baskets were looking nice (and now I have a mostly-full can of spray paint to use for other wedding-related items).

Next, I needed some embellishment. At Hobby Lobby, I picked up a spool of dark green ribbon for the baskets -- conveniently, the same ribbon we will be using for our DIY flowers, so everything stays consistent. Cost: $1 (we bought it on a week when Hobby Lobby had 50% off their spools of ribbon sale).

I took the ribbon home, and with some hot glue, I wrapped the handle to add a little embellishment to the basket. I needed to add some flowers, so I made some roses out of sheet music (I pull it from an old hymnal I found sitting in our garage), since that will be a theme throughout the wedding decor (I used this tutorial --> http://www.instructables.com/id/Sheet-Music-Flowers/step8/You-are-finished/). Cost: Free! Lastly, I tucked in two little tails of ribbon beneath the flowers with hot glue.

For only $7 and not very much work, I have two adorable baskets for my flower girls to carry down the aisle. I also watched Hobby Lobby's sales and picked up a big box of pink silk rose petals for 50% off!  

Planning Tip #3: The thrift store is your friend

...but only if you have the time to devote to it! Just like signing up for sale alerts, this really only works if you have a longer engagement and have the time to wait for the good deals to come around.

Thrift stores are amazing. Yes, you almost always have to sift through the junk to find a true treasure, and that's only if you show up at just the right time, before someone else has snatched it up.

But also remember that some things exist at thrift stores in abundance. The #1 wedding resource that I have found at the thrift store are vases and candle holders. There are shelves and shelves of glassware at the thrift store in my hometown, which is exactly what I want to use for my tables! In one shopping trip, I got 6 thin vases that all looked alike for only $0.59 each. Try finding that price at a traditional home goods store or a rental service. Even better, after the wedding, I can save them for friends who are getting married, sell them online to other brides, or keep them around to decorate my home or use as craft projects to give away as gifts. Granted, I need more than 6 vases. But if I go back again today (or send my mom, since I'm at school), I could probably find 6 more. By the end of this year I can easily have 20 semi-matching vases for my tables.

The important thing to keep in mind as you shop thrift stores is to keep a "How can I fix that?" mindset. Maybe you're looking for white baskets (which are another thing you will find extremely cheap at a thrift store!) but they only have brown. Don't give up and pay $10 each for baskets somewhere else. Instead, go buy a can of white spray paint for $4, and voilá, you have two beautiful white baskets for about $6 instead of $20. If something's not the right color, or isn't fancy enough, just go to the craft store or raid your craft closet, and you probably can fix things up to fit the style of your wedding for a lot cheaper than buying it at another store.

Thrift stores are also ideal if you're more flexible, and not set on everything being identical. I'm doing a lot of thrift store shopping for things for my centerpieces since I will have a lot of guests, which means a lot of tables. I'm looking for picture frames to display the table numbers. I can pay a couple hundred dollars to get twenty identical frames at Target, or I can go to the thrift store and just look for wooden picture frames, and get them for less than $1 each. They'll be different colors, shapes, and sizes, but they're cheap. The candle holders I'm using are actually an assortment of candle holders, small glasses, etc. that I found on the glassware shelf at the thrift store. I don't care, as long as they're about the right size for votive candles and they're clear glass. That strategy will not only save you money, but bring about a unique twist to your wedding decorations, so that everyone will be wanting to wander around tables and look at the variety of centerpieces that you have.

Another reason that I love thrift stores is that they inspire me! I'm a crafty person, so finding something that makes me think of a project I saw on Pinterest or some craft I've been wanting to do is always fun, and sometimes a spontaneous project like that turns out better than anything I could have planned to do!

Lastly, I like to shop at the thrift store in my hometown because it supports the Rescue Mission that we have. Just like I go to Hobby Lobby because I like to support a Christian company, I like to spend my money at a store that is helping people who need food, shelter, support, and Christ's love.

Hopefully this helps and inspires you to go check out a thrift store! You'll be surprised at what you find.

Planning Tip #2: Sign Up for Promotional Emails

If you're anything like me, you hate getting 27 new promotional emails everyday from stores that you can only afford to shop at maybe once a month. I always unsubscribe from emails from stores and websites. But when it comes to wedding planning, getting floods of emails is good! Here's my advice:

1. Create a separate email account for your wedding planning things. That will keep your life (and your email) so much more organized. Make it fun by creating your first ever combined email address with your future spouse! Just make sure it is generic enough that you can keep it after the wedding by just unsubscribing from all the promotions and ads.

2. Think about the places you shop on a regular basis. If you're going to be a DIY bride, those are probably the places you'll be finding things for your wedding. I decided what email lists to subscribe to by going through my budget worksheet and asking myself where I would possibly get those things, or the supplies to make them. You can also do this as you go through your planning process, as you see ads in bridal magazines or friends tell you about various companies that they used.

3. Be liberal with the number of stores that you sign up to receive emails from. The more places, the more sales, which means more saving money!

4. Be patient. Don't jump on the first "sale" you see if it's really not that great. Some places are having sales all the time, and advertise that, but they're not really what you need. Wait for the good deals to come around. Holidays are an especially good time for shopping the sales!

My success with this so far:

• I had been looking into ordering Save the Dates since we plan to send them out in October. Our plan was to do postcards, which is easy enough to print 4 on an 8.5"x11" piece of cardstock, so I was checking prices of places like the copy center on campus, FedEx copy center, online wedding sites, etc. (Surprise, surprise, the places that sell traditional wedding stationery were so expensive!) However, Vistaprint has reasonable printing prices. I had seen Save the Date postcards on their website for a decent price, but they were still sort of expensive ($25 for 100 postcards). Well, Labor Day weekend came around and I got an email from Vistaprint: Save the Date postcards, 100 for $10. I immediately sent my fiancé a text that we were ordering them that day! We got 200 Save the Dates, nicely printed, plus shipping, for the same price that it would have cost us in the on campus copy center. That was an amazing deal!
• David's Bridal is constantly having sales! I happened to go on a weekend when every dress was on sale, so even though I had planned to only look that weekend, I ended up buying my dress, got it $50 off, and on top of that, I got 25% of all my accessories (bra, slip, veil, and sash), which saved me SO much money since those items are so expensive! 
• Hobby Lobby is pretty much my favorite craft store ever because it ALWAYS has amazing sales. I've signed up for their weekly ad email, so each week, I know exactly what will be on sale. That way, for example, when I'm looking for organza for the flowers, I will know when it's 50% off. Not only that, but Hobby Lobby ALWAYS has a 40% off one item coupon that you can just print from their website or the weekly email and take it into the store (or show it to them on your smartphone). Bring a friend (or five) all with their own coupons and save even more! Do the math -- that's saving you a lot of money! They are also a Christian company, so I like to spend my money there and support them. (Just be aware that they are closed on Sundays so that their employees can spend time with their families, so don't plan your bridesmaid shopping trip for a Sunday!)

If you're interested, here is the list of places that I've signed up to receive emails from:

• Vistaprint
• Wedding Paper Divas
• Hobby Lobby
• Michael's
• Party City (for plates, cups, napkins, etc. since we won't be renting)
• Oriental Trading (for cheap party supplies to do DIY projects with)
• David's Bridal

If you have a long engagement, I encourage you to try this out! Patience is key -- wait to hit the right times and sales for different items and you can save money!\

**Disclaimer: Watch out for the loopholes that some places like to place in their sales! If you're not 100% sure and you won't be able to return it, don't buy it. Watch out for people trying to pressure you into buying something that you will regret buying. 

Planning Tip #1: Post your wedding planning process on Facebook

This seems like a total no-no for those of us who hate people over-posting things about their relationship, their workouts, or their cats on Facebook. And of course, I'm not saying that you need to post what you're doing for your wedding planning every day -- if you do that, everyone in your life is going to get sick of it really quickly since they're probably hearing it from you in person as well.

My advice is to post statuses about different types of things you are working on. If you do this, you may get suggestions, advice, or even offers to help from family and friends that have experience (or experienced friends) in that area, helping you save money and time.

For example, when I bought my wedding dress, I posted that on Facebook. I mean, it's kind of a big deal. A month later, when I saw one of my aunts at a family party, she said, "I saw you got your wedding dress. Will it need any alterations? I used to work at a bridal salon, so just let me know." Well how cool is that? Simply by posting that one little status on my Facebook, I found out something about my aunt that I didn't know, but can help me save a lot of money in the long run.

Another example of this came when I was doing my crazy flower research a few weeks ago. I simply posted a fun little status about how I can never spell "boutonniere" without spell check helping me out, even after typing it a hundred times while doing research. Later that day,  I got on Facebook and had a message from another aunt, who offered the name of a neighbor who does wedding flowers, and is currently helping prepare some flowers for a wedding at my university. 

There are so many resources that we have that we don't even know about! Although sometimes just asking around will get you what you need, I advise you to just try this little step every once in a while throughout your wedding planning process, and see what comes up. :-)

Rule #2: Prioritize

This is something that I have known since before I was old enough to even be thinking about planning a wedding. My mom told me this rule: You pick one or two things that you find most important -- that's where you spend your money. Not all of it, obviously, but those one or two things are the areas of your wedding to which you devote more of your budget than maybe the normal budget percentages call for, and maybe the places in your budget that you don't work so hard to find the best deal or the DIY option. On the flip side, the other areas are the areas in which you are going to have to be prepared to sacrifice.

For example, I've known for years that my splurge was going to be my dress. I never really got that "perfect" prom dress experience that so many girls get in high school, so I didn't want to settle for anything less than "perfect" for my wedding dress because of the cost. Is that kind of selfish? Maybe. Did it mean that I spent $3,000 on my dress? No. I still obviously went to a place that I knew I could afford (David's Bridal!) and told them my budget. But I wasn't quite so concerned about trying to fight tooth and nail for the best, lowest price for my dress, like searching the thrift store for my wedding dress or buying off of ebay, which are some options that budget brides like to search.

The flip side of this is a little bit harder. You have to realize that on a wedding with a tiny budget, most of the aspects of your wedding won't be done in the traditional, professional way that most brides have things done. Thankfully, that doesn't mean it won't be any less beautiful. Just think about what you really want to get out of your wedding. First of all, you want to get married. Duh. If that's accomplished, it doesn't matter how much money you spent. But what are the important things to you? Maybe it's that your guests have a great party -- you'll probably be wanting to focus your budget on a professional DJ, good food and drinks, and a comfortable venue with the atmosphere you want. Maybe it's the lasting memories -- you'll probably want to avoid skimping on a good photographer and videographer, and spend money on things that will end up in photographs that will be hanging on your wall, like your dress or your flowers. Is it necessary to spend $500 to get programs professionally printed? Not for me -- that's something that is super simple to do on your own. Is it necessary to pay hundreds of dollars for a 5 mile limo ride between your venues and hotel? Not for me. That's just one detail in a huge day that becomes insignificant when I think of what is really important.

Prioritizing is key. What are the most important things that you will remember about the day? What will your kids be looking at in 20 years? That's for you to decide. Will you still be married to the love of your life at the end of the day, whether you spent $5,000 or $30,000? Yes. And that is the most beautiful decision of all.

Rule #1: Take Your Time

I know that this is last thing that any bride (or groom!) wants to hear. But this doesn't necessarily mean that you need to have a year and a half engagement.

What I mean is this: Don't rush into anything. Don't ever accept the first price you hear. Anything with the label "wedding" on it is immediately more expensive, so if you're able to avoid traditional wedding vendors, you will save so much money! I'll show you just how much with an example of my most recent project: wedding flowers.

I went to a florist about a month ago, and after seeing an $800+ bill (over twice my budgeted amount for flowers) for the bare minimum (bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages for the important people and two arrangements for the church), I started researching other options. This is what  I mean by taking your time. Don't just go to one vendor and immediately accept their price.

Since I am generally an independent and slightly crafty person, my instinct is always to go DIY. So I found some websites that have fresh, wholesale flowers. (I also have seen ideas of going to a farmers market or Costco the morning of and getting flowers there -- however, that will give you a higher risk for not finding exact colors and flowers that you want and less ability to plan ahead. If you're not terribly particular though, that's a really good option) At one website, www.freshroses.com, I calculated out my needs, and my bill would be about $300 for all the flowers and supplies instead. Saving $500? That's no contest. Not comfortable trying to make your bridal bouquet for the first time on the morning of your wedding? Me neither. Here are some suggestions to make DIY fresh flowers a little less stressful and scary:

• Find a friend or family friend who does flowers. Maybe they will do them for you if you just cover the cost of the flowers. 
• Or, if you don't know anyone so well that they would do that much for you, maybe you could ask them to just be around on the day that you and your bridesmaids and moms are putting the arrangements together, to offer advice, help out, and save the day when you mess something up. 

I am currently looking into these options, but it didn't stop me from researching even more options. I have a friend who got married in June and their whole wedding party used silk flowers. Wedding websites are split on this. No, nothing can replace the smell and feel of a real rose. But, on a small budget, are you willing to compromise in order to put the money where you prefer it to go? Not only are fake flowers so much cheaper, but you can DIY without the stress and have them done months before the wedding! That is a HUGE selling point for me, personally, since I'll be busy with finishing up college in the semester before the wedding.

Now if you're worried about silk flowers looking tacky (a genuine fear, and one that I have as well), what about looking into other DIY options? These days, weddings can be whatever you want, and you don't have to have traditional-looking flowers if you don't want to. Bouquets out of brooches, pinwheels, and all sorts of other materials are all over Pinterest these days. One of the themes of decorations at my wedding is going to be sheet music, and I found tutorials for simple and beautiful DIY sheet music flowers. Personally though, I'm in love with the beauty of real flowers, so even though my fiancé was on board with the idea, I didn't want full bouquets of flowers made of sheet music.

An example of a sheet music flower that I made this summer after
finding an old hymnal sitting in our garage.

My latest discovery (and favorite option so far) are DIY organza flowers (or really whatever fabric you want). The thing I love about them is that they mimic the colors and textures of real flowers (especially if you are into large romantic flowers like peonies), but they aren't really trying to look like real flowers like silk flowers, so that eliminates the potential tackiness of using fake flowers and greenery. After calculating out the costs of making bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages, and hair pieces out of these flowers, it looks like they total cost will be about $100 (but of course I'm budgeting $150). What? Saving about $700 by not going to a traditional florist? Is this real life? Yes. Yes it is. Of course, this is based on the fact that I plan on taking in Hobby Lobby's 40% off coupon (available all the time!) when I go to buy the material, and I'll search their weekly ad throughout this semester to try and get deals on the rest of the materials as well. Then over Christmas break, I can have a bridesmaid party where we'll all get together and cut, sew, and singe flowers to our heart's content (and probably even a bit more than that.) And because the material is cheaper than fresh flowers, I'll have a bit more freedom to play around with what I have and make bouquets that look beautiful (plus I've been perusing etsy.com for ideas!).

If I go with the organza flowers, I'll be saving hundreds of dollars, lots of stress, and have bouquets and flowers that will last for years. However, I don't really want fake flowers in the vases on the tables at the reception. My solution? I'm going for a romantic look, so I got some thin vases at the thrift store, will put one on each table, and then put one pink rose into each vase. That means that I just have to send someone to the grocery store the morning of the wedding to pick up 2 dozen roses for $5 each. Simple, cheap, and beautiful.


Do you see what I mean by taking your time? If I had just booked my florist then and there, I would have spent $800 on flowers that will look beautiful in pictures, but would have just died a few days later, and on a small budget, that's just impractical. Now, if you have the money to spend on flowers, that's great! Go for it, save yourself a lot of time. But if you're on a budget, you learn to make some sacrifices and spend time on things. It will really pay off if you do!


Note: I did not add links to the tutorials I have found and have used or plan to use. However, if you do a web search or a search on Pinterest, you can easily find good tutorials for anything DIY wedding.

   

Budget Frustrations

When I got engaged in February, I did what every wedding website suggests to start with -- looked at my budget. Unfortunately, at the time,  I was in my junior year of college. So was my fiancé. And both sets of parents are putting multiple children through college at this time. Knowing I would be working in a tight budget, I decided to start looking up different tips and tricks to keep costs down. One of the best resources seemed to be those websites where they say, "I got married for $3,000!" and showed you what they spent their money on. Have you ever actually looked at one of those pages? In my opinion, paying $3,000 to elope doesn't count as a budget wedding. It also doesn't help me if it cost you $3,000 to have a wedding with only 15 guests. The blogs and websites that frustrated me the most were the ones that seemed to be a budget wedding with 200 guests, but then when I looked at their budget breakdown, that didn't include the costs of invitations, decorations, transportation, photographer, etc. No, paying $5,000 for only the food, venue, and dress doesn't count as a budget wedding either.

Thankfully, because my fiancé and I are both in school, we have a long engagement -- about a year and a half. For a long time, I wished we could move the wedding up. But it's turned out to be such a blessing, because as I go about this slow process of planning a wedding, we've been able to actually find amazing deals and amazing people to help us out, so that our wedding can stay within a $5,000 budget.

On this blog, I'm going to share not just the tips and tricks that I am using to help save money on my wedding, because I know that not everyone has the same resources. I will also share other ideas that I have had or seen, and the process of my planning and crafting in the remaining 317 days until I get to marry the love of my life. I hope that this helps you to see that you don't really have to pay the wedding industry prices for a good, beautiful wedding, and that a normal wedding on a budget is completely possible.