First, let me hit a few bullet points on my wedding:
-no wedding party
-small wedding, 20 people
-ceremony and reception at different places
-limited budget
-did my own HMU
I’d like to state that I’m VERY happy it didn’t rain the day of our wedding, it stormed all day the day before and rained the next day as well so we really lucked out! Unfortunately though it was EXTREMELY HOT, I’m talking “feels like 108” out! But luckily we didn’t have a bridal party or any extras for our ceremony so it was fairly quick. We didn’t write our own vows only because I knew I would cry reciting them and I already am a terrible nervous wreck speaking in front of people. We had little fans we ordered off of amazon though and they were a hit, they helped ease the heat a little and people were loving them. Our officiant was my wife’s best friends husband, I know people say do not hire “friendors” but he actually does it professionally! He did such an amazing job and he even teared up a little which made it that much more special. We had our “reception” at a local bar/restaurant on their separate room for parties and it was perfect for us. They had a fairly cheap buffet option as well as plenty of beers and wines to choose from and everyone was happy! Someone I work with also makes BEAUTIFUL cakes and he only charged us $100 for a two tiered beautiful cake!! We really lucked out there. After dinner and cake we all headed back to our house where we had drinks and a bonfire, it was truly perfect for us.
Things that went wrong:
-phone overheated and wouldn’t connect to the speaker for music for walking down the aisle so we walked down in silence, it sucked but at the end of the day it’s just music!
-family’s flights in kept getting delayed due to storms in Chicago so they got here super late the night before
-left assembling my bouquet til the morning of and it really stressed me out, I couldn’t get it just right
-our ceremony was at a big park and people kept parking in the wrong parking lot/kept getting lost so I had to give a lot of directions over the phone moments before the ceremony
now, things that went RIGHT!
-woke up stress free and went and got my favorite coffee the morning of which instantly made me happy
-did my own makeup and hair. Didn’t make any mistakes which is good because at this point I was running a little late on schedule
-my photographer was AN ANGEL, she was like a personal assistant the whole day!
-found a scenic spot in the shade for pictures
-got all family photos done PLUS our photographer granted us an hr long shoot on a different date bc it was way too hot to be walking all around the park and we were all dripping sweat
-my makeup didn’t even sweat off! I was so worried about this bc it was a summer wedding
-got to socialize with everyone and had a great dinner
-the restaurant let us come in 30mins early and catered to us
basically, this whole post is just to tell you all how happy I am that everything went off with minimal problems and to let people know that you don’t have to have thousands of dollars to have a special perfect wedding! Overall our ceremony was around $500 altogether and our dinner was around $700. I found my dress at ROSS for only $35 and shoes for only $25. I did my own hair and makeup and our photographer was gifted to us by our best friend (I think she charged $250). We had time to save up and most importantly not go into debt! I know we didn’t have a fancy elaborate wedding but we hosted everyone and fed and supplied drinks and at the end of the day WE ARE FREAKING MARRIED AAAHHH!!
Thank you if you read the whole thing, sorry it was so long!
