Miscellaneous: One Year Later

I can't believe I got married a year ago.

It seriously feels like I fell through a wormhole or something. That did NOT seem like 365 days. (Hubsey and I took the same train this morning and he goes, "Just think, a year ago today we were leaving for Hawaii... and now we're going to work.") I know I never did a big post about the wedding, but that’s because this isn’t a wedding blog. HOWEVER, my anniversary was yesterday and I’m excited, so I’m gonna post it anyway. But I will keep it relatively on topic and share some of the deals we got.

Our ceremony took place in the chapel at our alma mater. Since we were alums, the school knocked $200 off the price. Plus, the place didn’t need much by way of decoration (as you can see), which saved us not only money but sanity. There were six flower arrangements by the windows, and two on the altar. All of them were re-used at the reception.

Hubsey designed the invitations and programs. He was cute and thought that we needed 150 invitations to invite 174 people. Nope. We only needed, like, 90, so even though he ordered A LOT we still only paid $230 for the invites, reception cards, response cards, thank you notes, and all of the envelopes. The separately ordered program booklets (above) were another $100-something. (And that basket was free, in case you were curious.)

There I am, putting on the brooch I got for $2 at an antique mall. I borrowed my mom’s earrings and my aunt’s bracelet. The combs in my hair (which you can’t really see here) were like, $25. So I spent $27 on my wedding jewelry.

And for those wondering about THE DRESS, it wasn’t exactly a good deal. We got a discount because I bought the floor sample, but then alterations were several hundred bucks, so when it was all said and done it was about $1,500. Which certainly wasn’t outlandish--the national average is somewhere around $1,100--but I wouldn’t call it a bargain either.

The reception was in a ballroom, and there ended up being this weird stretch of one wall where nothing was going on, so we decided to do a photo table. Our moms handled that one and just brought pictures from home. It was, to my knowledge, free.

The favors were one of the best deals we got. We randomly found the cookie cutters on sale at Sur La Table for 59 cents each, so we bought 150 of them on the spot. Then Hubsey’s mom and her friends baked the cookies themselves and assembled the packages.

There were a few more smart purchases we made, like getting the guest book from Tuesday Morning for $3, getting the vintage brooches for my bridesmaids at 50% off, and making our own hardcover wedding albums on iPhoto.

So that’s our wedding in a financial nutshell! I mean, I could go on and ON, but, again, not a wedding blog. I will say this, though: there's no right or wrong way to do your wedding. Whether you have a budget of $5,000 or $50,000, you should still be smart about how you spend. If you can get the same thing for less money, I say do it. Why pay more than you have to?

Did you get some amazing deals for your wedding? Or do you have any in the works? I love a good bargain story. To the comments!

(All pictures were taken by the very talented Peter Hoffman.)