My DIY Wedding on a Budget!

I got married in September of 2008, and in order to save money we (me, my mil, my mom, and her friend) made most of the decor elements of the wedding ourselves. This was really challenging as I got married in Alberta and was living in PEI at the time. It was a great idea to DIY because we saved so much money on wedding insidentals and were able to put that towards the travel expenses. I hope these pictures can provide you with some sort of imspiration :)






I wanted to talk first about the wedding invites, since these were the most labour intensive of all of the DIY projects we made for the wedding. My mom worked in the multi-media wing of the local college so she was lucky enough to know a graphic designer. He designed the image, and we based the invite around it. I designed and printed all of the cards, and designed the pocket fold set-up. Every invitation was printed at home and cut out on my paper trimmer! We used http://weddingannouncer.com to set up an online RSVP service which was awesome!

We got married in the atrium of a museum, and they did not allow any decor on the walls or hanging from the ceiling, so our decor options were limited. We decided to make the tables the focus. We rented two lanterns and two park benches, our only decor other than what was on the tables.


My grandfather and a little baldie Jude, sitting on the bench, in front of the lantern.



My mom sewed all of the table cloths - I found pink/gold satin fabric on sale so it was really economical - it worked out to about $8/ cloth. My mom's best friend made our centrepieces - white vases found at walmart with faux cherry blossoms. To make the centrepiece, she filled the vases with rocks, tucked in some branches (she spray painted these dark brown), and added flowers. The blossoms themselves were found at michaels. Then she tied a light pink ribbon around the vase. Cost was about $10/centrepiece.



This is a shot of the head table, decorated with more of the bolts of fabric we purchased ourselves. Wedding rental places offered table cloths to rent, but it was far cheaper to buy the fabric. I still have the pink fabric and use it as a table cloth for craft shows :)



Here is a better shot of the centrpieces, and the card box that I painted. I found it at michaels and used one of their coupons with it. I painted the outside white, the inside pink, and freehanded cherry blossoms on the outside.



We did a small candy buffet instead of favors. We purchased jars, and decorated them with ribbons/bows. I found heart shaped candy scoops at michaels. Guests were given little boxes to put candy inside. We saved a lot of time and money doing favors this way because only those interested helped themselves, and we could purchase candy at costco. This was a huge hit and was gone way before we even expected thanks to all of the children in attendance! (by the time this photo was taken, a lot of the good stuff was already gone lol)



I saved a lot by doing my own makeup, and the makeup of my bridal party. I am a makeup artist so this was not stressful for me :) My cousin is a hairstylist, and she did the hair for the bridesmaids. Ok, that's all for crafty photos... now onto some "just for fun" sharing!



I ended up wearing these silver flip flops instead of the shoes I bought for the wedding... much more comfy!



Here we are cutting the cake! I got a yummy coconut cake with buttercream icing, and then chocolate cupcakes and white coconut cupcakes. Yum! Too bad the only bite I got was right after cutting.. would have loved to eat more cupcakes.



This picture was taken at the Nikka Yuko Japanese gardens, in Lethbridge AB. We got our photos taken there and they have this giant gong.. makes for a pretty shot :)



This is pretty silly... but it shows the background of the japanese gardens.




Two photos taken during the ceremony. We chose this museum location because it overlooks a river bottom. In southern alberta there are "coulees" which were formed many years ago by glaciers scraping out channels in the land.. anyways, it makes for a nice view! My bridal party wore gold dresses that had brown bows, and matching bow necklaces.


This shot was taken before the reception, during cocktail hour. I love that it shows the windows in the museum :)



The cake, pro-spoiling! I requested buttercream icing and NOT fondant because fondant is not overly delicious!