When planning a wedding, especially as fast as I planned mine, in only about 4 months, a lot of little details must be considered. Each little detail represents time to plan it out and of course money. Every time you say the word wedding people will jack up their prices. So when I went to get my hair done I said “It was for a party”….$60. The girl next to me who said it was for a wedding…$90. Was the style that different? Of course not. Same with makeup, same with buying flowers, same with everything. My wedding wasn’t cheap by my standards. I wanted to spend $10,000 but it was more like $14,000 or $15,000. But maybe my mistakes can be of benefits to you as you or when you plan your wedding.

Let’s start with the flowers. On the florist I spent $1,070.00. That included my bouquet, 6 large centerpieces, petals around the cake and a little arrangement on the cake itself, the sweetheart table center piece (which was a little different than the rest) and of course the small flower arrangement over the arch in the ceremony. Then I had three groomsmen and bridesmaids plus the maid of honor and best man. That means five boutonnieres (groom included) and four bouquets more plus a toss away bouquet. Each bouquet they wanted to charge me at least $65-100 each plus $15-20 for each boutonniere. At best that would be an extra $385. I decided that there is nothing a florist could do that I couldn’t do and for less. So I told the florist I would make those items myself. Which I did the night before the wedding. The first thing I MUST says if you choose to do flowers yourself is that you MUST keep your home very cold while working with flowers as not to mess them up. You must also empty your fridge days before and be sure that all the flowers you want to make can fit in your fridge in large containers of water. That is where you must store them until right before you leave the house for the wedding.

You may look up my later entries to see examples of flowers I liked. But basically I wanted feathers and my colors were black, white, pink, and fuchsia. I bought flower tape, ribbon (I think I used two of the wides sized black satin ones), flower wire to hold everything in place, glue gun and glue sticks. I had help from just my mom and though it was STRESSFUL and I was a crazy woman we got it all done. After a few we became rather good at them I even made an extra bouquet for myself just in case the one the florist made wasn’t as nice. They are not super professional but here’s a picture of them right before the wedding.

The little boutonnieres are there too. I made a bunch more of those since they were fast and easy. I would not pay more than $5 each for those now that I’ve made them. I would say that buying the flowers for the bouquets and boutonnieres along with the supplies to make them it couldn’t have been more than $150. Most likely less, making it a savings of $235. Also if you recall I had a little bit extra flowers to make an extra bouquet as well and the $65 bouquets they offered where small and ugly. So in reality I must have saved a lot more than that.

The grand idea I had of making a flower platform to place the place cards on top, came out great!

Check out the post with the inspiration flowers here. Oh and I made the place cards myself but cutting out squares from scrap-booking paper and putting labels with guest names on them. The fabric under the place cards and cake table as well was really a cheap curtain set I found that happened to be in the damask pattern I loved. A friend bought it for me, but it turned out to be less than buying just the fabric and no one could tell.

Also I will have to say that not being a bridezilla with your venders will help you get more for less. I told my florists that I just wanted everything to be pretty and as long as it was in the colors to just do their best. They threw in a free runner and totally upgraded the arch flower arrangement as a surprise gift for me. I didn’t know until the day of the wedding, but it just goes to show you how being nice will get you further with people.

Wedding favors. This is a dumb thing to spend money on. People toss them and at the end of the day 80% of people never even opened them or looked at them. So don’t go nuts here. Don’t even consider for a second they will keep them forever as a special memory. Get something cute and cheap that you won’t get upset when most people leave them untouched on the tables. I bought these…
and put one hazelnut chocolate truffle in each box. That’s it! It was super cute, matched my theme and it was only like a $1 per person with the chocolate which was from Costco in bulk. We will sadly have chocolate for years to come in my house, so maybe I could have put more in each box, but since I saw 80% went to waste it was for the best.

I also got a bunch of 3 packs of glow necklaces and bracelets from the dollar store. Not one for every person either just about one pack per table. People loved them and I went with mostly pink ones to further go with the theme. Very cheap and cute. The bubbles I was going to wrap in the damask tape, I never got around to doing. But it would have been too much anyway. I even bought custom stickers with our names and wedding date that I didn’t even up using. So keep it sweet and cheap and don’t try to do too much. Relax! People don’t notice the little details. Focus on yourself looking pretty, the flowers and decent food and music. They will have fun.

Being practical is important in weddings unless you have millions in extra cash lying around. I had my bridesmaids dress in black and allowed them to choose the style of their dress. That way I was sure they liked it and would use the dress again. My gift to them was also practical. The nail polish in the color I wanted them to have on for the wedding. I would have loved to buy them diamonds and wonderful little trinkets but I couldn’t afford the diamonds and I knew they would never have used the trinkets.

My dress was only about $300 with tax and shipping. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it was beautiful. Unbelievable! I wish I had the professional photos (still waiting on them) to show you all the lovely details but here’s some photos.


Tons of beading work and no alterations needed. I went to HeleneBridal.com and chose the dress and put in my measurements and BAM it was perfect. I got really crazy lucky. I can’t promise you will have the same luck. But if you really just don’t have the money and have a good tailor for mess ups, try it out. A simple dress will cost you less to alter and if you want to be safe you can get it an inch or two bigger since it can be altered smaller but if it’s too small it’s toast. I went with the corset top to have more leeway.
A tailor I would recommend:
Remy Tailor
‎9814 Southwest 77th Avenue, Miami, FL 33156-2619
(305) 279-4487‎

Photography…after all the money you are spending to what is essentially 5 or so hours of your life. You NEED really really good pictures. Spend the money! $2,000 is a good price for a quality photographer. Prints may cost you more but as long as you get the digital copy and rights you may get them printed out at any time. I went with Studio By Carmen and it was about $2,000 for 4 hours. I had friends take care of the getting ready and before the wedding photography. It’s always nice to have a friend that can take photos but trust me that you NEED a professional. I have friends who counted on a friend to take the photos and that friend didn’t show up. No contract means no liability. Don’t put yourself into that situation. Photographers can be flaky when they are not getting paid as much or anything at all, especially if they get a last minute nice paying gig.

For the wedding video we went with our good friends Gus and Jessyca. A husband and wife duo that do great work. You can see some of their work at Ever Clear Productions. They gave us a great price since we are pals, but their work is phenomenal and worth the money since photography and video are your only keepsakes for all the time, effort and money poured into your event. Our wedding recap video below is a cute example of their work.

The wedding cake was included in our package. The place was so rushed and packed when we got to the bakery it was insane. We paid another $175 to upgrade to the design we wanted. In the end they just did whatever they wanted. Thankfully it was in the color scheme at the very least and somewhat the pattern we wanted for one the the tiers was on the entire cake. Oh well, nothing is ever perfect. That was Divine Delicacies Custom Cakes.

The reception and ceremony were held at Signature Gardens. For 60 people (62 with us) it was about $5,000. This included the basic flower and cake (both which we upgraded for the prices listed above), and option of steak, chicken or vegetarian meal with all the courses including everything you can think of down to the after dinner coffee. Open bar, DJ, etc. etc….all the rest was included. It was impeccable service. I had no need for a wedding planner day of thanks to them. They really took care of everything I could think of and things even I never thought to do! They brought a list with a pile of all the things I gave them to use and collected the sweetheart table flowers and centerpieces for us. It was just out of this world. They even loaded the car. Be ready to tip them nicely after the wedding is over! I highly recommend The Signature Gardens down in South Florida. It was by far the best, least expensive, and least sneaky choice.

One fun thing we did was ask all our guests to wear long black, fuchsia or pink dresses for the ladies and a black suit or tux for the gentlemen. Nearly all wore black and it was very neat! Everyone looked amazing and matched the party perfectly. I would do it again next big party.

Where I splurged on the wedding? The ceiling drapery $700 and the fuchsia up-lighting (12 up-lights for $300). Yeah, it wasn’t necessary, but I wanted it. I thought it really made the place more complete so to me, it was worth it. If it’s not to you don’t bother, the guests won’t notice.

Any more details from the wedding needed or wanted, just ask!
Also I have a ton of hot pink votive holders we forgot to use and clear damask pattern tape we also never used. If anyone wants it just let me know