We are in the middle of our massive cross country road trip - in Waterton Lakes Park in Alberta Canada tonight, camping at the sickest campground I've seen in a long time. I'm so excited to have Lindsey guest blogging for me today while we drive through her home state of Idaho. I'm so inspired by folks like her and Matt who DIY their entire wedding on a budget. Enjoy and I'll have plenty of new posts next week!
I am incredibly honored to be asked to be a guest blogger on Debbie's awesome wedding blog. I have never done this guest blogging thing... so bear with me! I have my own wedding blog... A Homegrown Wedding where I have collected ideas and inspiration over the past few years to be able to pull off our own wedding which was 99% DIY with a home-made, simple style. With help from Debbie's blog and many others, we had our dream wedding June 12th 2010 in Garden Valley, Idaho...just a few months ago, and it was fantastic!
My husband and I struggled with so many wedding "should-do's"...that we didn't feel like we wanted to do. We wanted our wedding to reflect us, to be our day the way we wanted it. So we did just that. We wanted our wedding to be budget-friendly, home-made, and convey a very simple rustic Idaho style....after all we were so happy just to be able to be getting married while both going back to school we didn't need anything too elaborate. We set a budget of under $5,000...which we came in pretty close to, we didn't have the means to pay big bucks the month before the wedding, we had the ability to spend about $200-$300 per month doing projects along the way. So one month I would buy the fabric and make the napkins, the next month we would purchase the materials for the invites- vintage stamps, fabric, kraft paper envelopes- and then make them... it worked out great for our busy lives and limited incomes.
Matt, my husband, was awesome in helping give his input and spending hours by my side coming up with fun ideas and executing them... like to do our ceremony quaker style, with his uncle making up his own original ceremony that didn't include god, honoring, or obeying...just pure love- never ending love and the support of all of our friends and family when things do get tough..... we had our dads do all of the BBQing for the wedding- ribs, salmon, and portobellas- just like they would have done at any other family function... we chose to not go with rental table cloths- just buying lots of natural canvas painter's cloths for the floor length table coverings and making my own amy butler napkins.... or doing our own floral arrangements with my mom's help....or making our own lime-coconut cupcakes... or collecting hundreds of mason jars for not only sangria and beer but for our bouquets... or not having matching bridemaids dresses- they could just choose any shade of green/turquoise cotton dress they wanted...which mimicked my hand-made cotton wedding dress, and the guys wearing khakis and white shirts....simple. It was a blast to come up with ideas and make them come to life....together as a team.
I am incredibly honored to be asked to be a guest blogger on Debbie's awesome wedding blog. I have never done this guest blogging thing... so bear with me! I have my own wedding blog... A Homegrown Wedding where I have collected ideas and inspiration over the past few years to be able to pull off our own wedding which was 99% DIY with a home-made, simple style. With help from Debbie's blog and many others, we had our dream wedding June 12th 2010 in Garden Valley, Idaho...just a few months ago, and it was fantastic!
The Lodge
Handmade DIY Invites
My husband and I struggled with so many wedding "should-do's"...that we didn't feel like we wanted to do. We wanted our wedding to reflect us, to be our day the way we wanted it. So we did just that. We wanted our wedding to be budget-friendly, home-made, and convey a very simple rustic Idaho style....after all we were so happy just to be able to be getting married while both going back to school we didn't need anything too elaborate. We set a budget of under $5,000...which we came in pretty close to, we didn't have the means to pay big bucks the month before the wedding, we had the ability to spend about $200-$300 per month doing projects along the way. So one month I would buy the fabric and make the napkins, the next month we would purchase the materials for the invites- vintage stamps, fabric, kraft paper envelopes- and then make them... it worked out great for our busy lives and limited incomes.
Matt, my husband, was awesome in helping give his input and spending hours by my side coming up with fun ideas and executing them... like to do our ceremony quaker style, with his uncle making up his own original ceremony that didn't include god, honoring, or obeying...just pure love- never ending love and the support of all of our friends and family when things do get tough..... we had our dads do all of the BBQing for the wedding- ribs, salmon, and portobellas- just like they would have done at any other family function... we chose to not go with rental table cloths- just buying lots of natural canvas painter's cloths for the floor length table coverings and making my own amy butler napkins.... or doing our own floral arrangements with my mom's help....or making our own lime-coconut cupcakes... or collecting hundreds of mason jars for not only sangria and beer but for our bouquets... or not having matching bridemaids dresses- they could just choose any shade of green/turquoise cotton dress they wanted...which mimicked my hand-made cotton wedding dress, and the guys wearing khakis and white shirts....simple. It was a blast to come up with ideas and make them come to life....together as a team.
It took a TON of work (fun, stress-free work, none the less)... and about a year of planning, doing craft projects every weekend between school and work....and recruiting a bunch of help from our loved ones the week before the wedding for the set-up. We loved the process and the product. We wanted absolutely no stress with the wedding planning, that's kind of how we live life, so why not have that be reflected in our wedding day?!...and we also wanted to just be able to enjoy our friends and family on such an important day in our lives and not be basket-cases.
I think this is do-able... there is a ton of prep involved in hosting such a huge party, but working as a team and letting the little things go turned out to be so enjoyable for us. We had heard of other engaged couples so stressed out that they couldn't wait for "it" just to be over... Over?! Seriously? We didn't want it to end....and surprisingly either did our friends and family. So now we just have incredibly fun pictures to scroll through...and exciting blogs to guest blog on...and we are enjoying life...married. But gosh, that wedding planning sure was fun....so enjoy it and good luck!!
Thanks Lindsey for being a guest blogger today - I loved your rustic DIY wedding and all the amazing details! Make sure to check out her blog for a closer look into her planning process and inspiration.
