So my husband John Spring and I finally tied the knot a few weeks ago on June 30th. Being that we paid for our own wedding and have two little girls we definitely budgeted on a lot of things. So I spent a lot of time on pinterest and crafting for our DIY wedding. I made everything including signs, centerpieces, candles, pomanders, a card box, bride and groom silhouettes, our cake, and the photobooth and ceremony back drops. I purchased just about everything from the dollar store or walmart.
My Bouquet- Dollar store flowers and coffee filter flowers I made. Total cost approx. $5
Mason Jar Candles- Mason jar 12 pack from walmart, paper doily's, ribbon, and tea lights from the dollar store. Total cost approx. $15
Votive Candles- 18 votive candles from dollar store and a roll of lace ribbon from walmart. Total cost approx. $20
Tall Candles- 4 candles, brown paper, paper doily's, and ribbon from dollar store. Total cost approx. $7
Flower Vases- Vases from thrift store and flowers from dollar store. Total cost approx. $6
Silhouettes- Wood Plaques from dollar store and acrylic paint from walmart. Total cost approx. $3
Wedding Favors- Brown lunch bags, paper doily's from the dollar store, mini clothes pins from walmart, and 46 Cuzzi's from oriental trading. Total cost approx. $50
Ceremony Backdrop- Burlap from walmart, tulle from michaels, pomanders I made with coffee filters, and a personalized chalkboard sign. Total cost approx. $15
Photobooth Backdrop- Burlap from walmart, chalk board from hobby lobby, tulle from michaels, lights from target, and a coffee filter garland strand I made. Total cost approx. $40
Cake and Drink Stands- Composed from a lot of the things you see above and food made by me and my mother.
Silverware Settings- Realistic looking plastic silverware, paper doily's from the dollar store, twine from walmart. 100 settings. Total cost approx. $30
Tableware- Plastic table cloth and plastic ceramic look a like plates, clear cups, gold place mats from party city. 100 settings. Total cost approx. $150
Chalkboard Signs and Cardbox- Pieces of wood, wood box from hobby lobby, chalk from walmart, coffee filter flowers I made. Total cost approx. $13
Personalized Chalkboard Sign- Wood from hobby lobby, chalkboard paint, and chalk from walmart. Total cost approx. $8
And even though you're always told to never order a dress offline, from another country, or without trying it on first... I did it anyway. I seen a dress on pinterest I thought was perfect but there was no link to the original site, so I thought the dress would never be an option and I would be on the hunt again. Well I was searching through a whole sale site from China (which I know is a no no, but I was on a budget) and 14 pages in there was the dress I had seen. Next I look at the price thinking it would never be in my price range... well it ended up only being $136.00! I couldn't believe it, the dress was mine! BUT, I was 8 months pregnant (I know I picked the best way to go about all of this, haha) so I was guessing on a dress size and hoping for the best when I ordered it. The way I saw it though was if it really didn't end up working out I only lost like a third of the price every other girl wastes on their entire dress. The dress came and it was everything I hoped for but in the pictures you could not see all the ugly little sequences on the top which made it look like a prom dress. Lucky for me though my mother is a great sewer so we went out and bought some lace (which I really wanted on my dress anyway) and she sewed lace over all the problem areas. A month later I had my second daughter and I tried the dress on for the first time 3 weeks before my wedding and it fit!! Everything had just worked in my favor and it was great, I couldn't have been happier. This is how it turned out!
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| These four were some of the professional photos we had done by Dylan Coffey Photography, a friend of ours. And then I ran them through an app on my phone called PicFX. |
My lovely dress.
My handsome husband Mr. Spring!
The Spring family!
My gorgeous Mother and Daughters!
These are all a few shots of how our photobooth turned out. I'd say it was truly the best idea of all. It's so much better and more personal than a typical guestbook that everyone just signs. It made for great laughs as you can tell by what some people wrote, haha. And we can look back and see all of our guests and remember how much fun we were all having!
All in all we probably spent a total of $1800 altogether for our wedding. That's including all attire, the venue, decorations, tableware, and food. And in my opinion I thought my wedding looked and turned out great and I didn't have to have a lot of money to pull it all off! Hope you enjoy and maybe even grab a few ideas to make your wedding happen! <3
