I am so over the moon happy with how our wedding turned out! Everything was perfect it was so fun and I had a blast! It was like a dream!
The budget: We set a budget of 10k for our wedding. I know people say not to stare a marriage off in debt, but I was able to open a credit card and that really helped us be able to afford the wedding of our dreams. We did pretty well sticking to our budget, I think we only went over 1-2K but that is including our honeymoon. We already have a plan set up to start paying it off as well. We did not get a lot of help from our parents, so this was our only option.
Caterer: Spinato’s Family Italian. Food was amazing and a great price. We had a smaller wedding – around 60 people and we were able to feed everyone plus leftover for $550. We got spaghetti and chicken alfredo from them and we got the salad, cheese & fruit and desserts from the grocery store and I think that saved us a bunch of money.
DOC: We got Natalie from Desert Charm Coordination and she was amazing. She was always available for any questions that I had, and she met with us twice before the wedding to do a venue walkthrough (the backyard) and the rehearsal dinner. She worked her butt off all day during our wedding and she made sure everything ran smoothly and she set up the decorations perfectly - it was as if she could read my mind! If you are planning on doing a DIY wedding – hire a DOC! It is must, there is no way we could have done it without her!
Photographer: Hillary Lacy Photography! Hillary did such an amazing job on our photos. We did our engagement photos through her so we already knew we loved her style and on the day of she brought a second shooter so we would not miss out on any moments. I did take a while to get the photos back – I had to email to remind her, but she was planning on sending me a flash drive and when I asked, she immediately sent me the link to the full online gallery. There were a few shots that I thought were missing from the gallery and it was really bothering me, so I reached out to her and she sent over the missing shots ASAP and they were perfect, and she apologized for forgetting to include them. Make sure you guys really talk to your photographer about what you want and make a list of the must have shots(I didn’t do that I feel as if I should have) but also be sure to talk with them if you aren’t happy, because they may be able to help like Hillary did for us. J
Flowers: All DIY from Hobby Lobby. I spend the most time making floral arrangements, but it was really fun and I enjoyed spending the time with my now husband making them (he helped me). We spent about $500 on fake flowers and I plan on selling the majority of them, obviously keeping the bouquets and bout’s. I am very satisfied with how our florals turned out.
DJ: AZ Mix Masters was our DJ. Jose and Ume did an amazing job! I would highly recommend them. Their prices were very reasonable, and they were very professional. We also met with them twice before the wedding to go over all of the music and different versions of the songs. I got so many compliments on our DJ from our guests and our other vendors, we danced the night away! They also brought all their own equipment and lights which was awesome!
Venue: We got married at my husband’s childhood home where him and his two siblings grew up. His parents live on an acre of land with green grass and many trees, so it was the perfect backdrop for our wedding. It was a blank canvas that we were able to decorate and jazz up. My husband’s dad and grandpa hung up the most beautiful patio lights that lite up the entire reception space and we got married in front of a wall of oleanders that was stunning.
Details: Wedding dress was from Luv Bridal by Mia Solano. I absolutely loved my dress, it made me feel like an absolute princess – like Cinderella herself! The lace was laser cut and the sleeves were custom. Everyone at luv bridal was amazing and my seamstress did an amazing job on the bustle. Husbands tux also came rented from Men’s Warehouse. Great service for us and would do that again. I work at Ulta Beauty so one of the gals from the Salon came over to my house to do my hair and she did such an amazing job and she was so creative with her problem solving as well. I wanted a low bun and I wanted my flowers above the bun and my veil below the bun, but we ran into the dilemma of the veil not wanting to stay in place under the bun. She ended up making a mini bun for the veil to sit in and it turned out perfect, you can’t even tell! I did my own makeup and loved how it turned out! All of our paper products came from Zazzle. Customer service was great when I miss spelled my name on the invitations, they gave me a full credit for replacements! Most décor was bought at Hobby Lobby or Michaels; I also got a lot of things from other brides on the Facebook marketplace. If you want to have nice looking glasses but can’t afford real ones, I would check out Oriental Trading and amazon. We rented China from the Confetti Studio for the bridal party and immediate family.
Things I’m glad we did I am glad we spent more for photos, I am glad we got of DOC and I love the flow of everything. The whole night my vendors were telling us how nice our timeline was. We did not feel rushed for anything. I loved the food, the décor, I loved that my mom walked me down the aisle and I loved that we walked down to Jurassic Park and cut our cake to “I wanna grow old with you” from the wedding singer. I loved that we did a polaroid guest book, during the reception it was so fun going around taking pictures of everyone and passing the camera around! I loved our wedding! It was perfect!!
Things I’d probably do differently: I wish I would have adjusted the number of chairs we rented. We had a fair amount of people cancel on us last minute. We rented 90 chairs because I read you should have extra but now it our photos it looks a little empty. I also wish I would have packed a different outfit for post reception. I went to the venue in my pajama’s and I was planning on wearing my dress the whole time but by 10pm I was hurting so I changed back into my pajamas and I still had guests there lol. But honestly other than that I loved our wedding and I had a blast.
