If you know anyone getting married, then you should get a pair to give to her or throw in her Bridal Shower Gift Bag. For heaven’s sakes, they’re just $2.99
Just Married Flip-Flops – White
  and are guaranteed to be a hit! They come in 5 different colors (white, black, lavender, blue and orange) and are normally priced around $10 each. So get ‘em at this cheap $2.99 price before they sell out! I think the sale ends on June 30th.

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….I didn’t have a wedding planner or really any planning helpers. It was me, me, me…the bride. But I liked being in control of it all. And I was kinda lucky ‘cause I’d been a hotel catering sales manager before so I had experience in hotel weddings and knew how it worked behind the scenes. And I naturally have a gravitational interest towards wedding details (…probably why I went into catering in the first place). I don’t look at wedding planning at all like most men who could care less about the details and the colors…well they’d notice if the choices were obviously gaudy. But anyway…you get the point.

Like most brides, I had a specific budget that I had to stay within. In fact for inspiration I bought a book which I highly recommend, called “How to Have an Elegant Wedding for $5,000 or Less”. I think that’s probably bumped up to at least $15,000 in today’s standards. But that’s all I really wanted, something simple yet elegant that I could share with my family and closest friends. Typically, the most expensive cost is the reception food and drinks. If you multiply that amount by a large guest count, then you’re looking at a very expensive wedding. I had a morning wedding with a lunch reception. Still, just the 3-course plated catered meal was close to $100 per head after the ++ for service charge and taxes (p.s. the service charge is taxed too). So if I had 200 guests then that would be $20,000 alone! Not gonna work. But you see, I had a destination wedding and one of the benefits of a destination wedding, is being able to shorten your guest list and “qualify” who can attend. See, most my attendees had to buy a plane ticket and stay overnight at a hotel if they wanted to attend my wedding. But truthfully that’s not why I chose a destination wedding over a local wedding… but it definitely was an added budget bonus.

I had a package deal for the ceremony which included professional photography, a drop-dead-gorgeous historic ceremony site, and the entire wedding ceremony service. I didn’t skimp on the important stuff to me like the photography, the food, and my guests’ transportation to and from the ceremony site. I compromised on some things like the mid fare sports car we rented. I really dreamt of being chauffered in a Rolls! 

And I used my creative juices for everything else. Here’s some of the ideas I pulled off:

Flowers-I bought flowers (orchids, roses, gerbera daisies) from a referred local florist shop. And ‘cause I had to buy the flowers in advance, I had them sitting in my room’s bathtub overnight! My friends and I had a ‘lil party the night before…NO…not a bachelorette party! Would never recommend that the night before. But we had a reception room decoration party, where we cut the flower stems, made the centerpieces, and assembled favors and placed them on all the tables. It reminded me of my homecoming decoration days.  But anyway…I had bought extra fresh roses where I pulled the petals off and decorated around the bowl centerpieces and the cake table. A splash of color is all the white tablecloths needed! Two of the glass bowls didn’t make it, but the resort had some other glass bowls I could use. And it actually looked like on purpose I had different centerpieces on each of the 5 tables. I also got my money back for the bowls.

Here are some colorful “fake” orchid candles you could get that are beautiful if your wedding won’t be in a tropical place:


Floating Orchid Candle (Pink or White Set of Four)


My friends were a big help and life savers for my wedding. They didn’t even complain that they didn’t have wedding titles like ‘Bridesmaids’ and didn’t have to buy AND wear a dress they didn’t like . And included in our Girls, night-in before party, we got our nails and feet done. Remember, I had a morning wedding. So the only thing I had time for in the AM (…barely), was getting my up ‘do hair done and putting on my makeup and dress. We toasted to a couple glasses of white wine and a pizza. That was a memorable time!

Invitations- I ordered those online. I’d gone into local specialty stationery shops and they had what I wanted, but not in the budget I was looking for. And being a creative scrapbooker, I’m good with paper so I created a Guidebook and welcome package for my guests, my own place cards, and lunch menus for each place setting.

Favors-I’m a big Martha Stewart fan so I bought some personalized monogram stickers, transparent tin can tops, and some pretty pink ribbon and added some colorful traditional Jordan nut candies that I bought when I got to my wedding destination area.

Everything I planned came out as I hoped for, but there were a few little touches that were inexpensive that I wish I would’ve added to the elegance and fun:

Bubbles for the ceremony and reception… they look so cool in photos and the kids especially love to blow bubbles! Here’s where you can get ‘em for cheap!

Pack of 24 White Wedding Cake Bubbles
Another thing I would’ve added is this idea of an Asian soup spoon with a truffle or some kinda dessert like the ones pictured here. You can buy these spoons here:


Asian Spoons - Set of 12

Here’s what I would nix:

Disposable cameras – usually you’re just getting photo shots of the table or underneath the table . Ocassionally you get a few memorable silly moments that aren’t captured by your photographer, but not usually anything earth-shattering you’ll miss. And you’ll have more than enough photos than you know what to do with. Plus then you’ll have to develop the disposable camera photos which is another added cost. It’s really more a fun thing for your guests at the time.

In the end though…if you’re on a budget and a shoestring one at that, you’re gonna want to employ your friends to help (…it’ll also be something memorable y’all can share together forever). And you’d be surprised at the number of things you can cut back on that’ll save you money and you’ll still be happy with.

Every girl wants her ‘dream wedding’. But in the end, what she fondly remembers is what she put into it and the fun little, unique touches she added that meant something to her. NOT how much she spent. So just keep that in mind when you’re out figuring what details you want in your wedding and which ones aren’t gonna be missed.

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