cutting costs

I hope I'm not beating a dead horse here, harping on the money topic. But in every single wedding decision I make, cost is the first consideration. I thought I'd mention things we've nixed in an effort to save.


1. Favors

This was an easy one. I'm not sure why brides think guests are interested in taking home a piece of junk with someone else's name and wedding date engraved on it. Edible favors are a different story. If I could afford to give personalized jars of homemade jam... I probably still wouldn't do it, but it's a neat favor idea nonetheless! In conclusion, we're not giving out favors.

2. Boutonnieres

It turns out, guys don't really enjoy having a rose pinned next to their face. It's annoying and ends up getting smushed halfway through the day. Michael is in charge of finding pocket squares for his groomsmen. That way, we still get the little bit of color without the irritation.

3. "Toss" bouquet

We're not doing a bouquet toss. I've never enjoyed them at weddings -- they're kinda awkward. Same goes for the garter toss. Plus, I can't really picture any of my friends risking their limbs for a fistful of flowers.

4. Groom's cake

My fiance doesn't like cake. We'd planned to do groom's pies, but last week we hit on something cheaper, and easier. It's still a dessert, but I'm keeping it a secret for now.

5. Pro hair and makeup

My cousin, quite handily, finished cosmetology school this year, so she'll be doing my hair. I'll do my own makeup and nails.

6. Ceremony musicians

I come from a very musical family. So does Michael. But, honestly, I can't remember whether a wedding I attended five years ago had live musicians or recorded music. To me, this detail is just not that important.

7. Floral centerpieces

As much as I love ogling the gorgeous, lush floral centerpieces over at Martha Stewart's wedding website, there is just no way. I've already posted on my coffee filter roses, but there will be other components to our centerpieces as well.

8. DJ

With the rise of the iPod reception, we didn't think twice about cutting out the DJ. I feel confident in our collective ability to pick out awesome dance music and sort the playlist into an order that flows well. Plus, my grandpa has all the needed sound equipment, so no rental fees there!

in my dreams

I thought I'd do some wishful thinking and plan my budget according to what my friend spent on her wedding. I give you the $14,000 dream budget:


Bride's attire:
Dress - 1,500.00
Shoes - 50.00
Alterations - 200.00
Veil - 50.00
Earrings - 30.00
Makeup - 60.00
TOTAL: 1,890.00


Ceremony:
Church fees - 400.00
Decorations - 100.00
Bouquets/flowers - 400.00
TOTAL: 900.00


Reception:
Venue rental - 600.00
Food/drinks/alcohol/cake - 4,000.00
Centerpieces/decorations - 500.00
Linens/chair rentals - 800.00
Music (band?) - 1,280.00
Guestbook - 30.00
Invitations/postage - 500.00
Photography - 3,500.00

TOTAL: 11,210.00

GRAND TOTAL: 14,000.00


Basically, I'd get my dream photographer, the dress I really loved, not make the invitations myself, and spring for fancier food.

Oh, and if they were in my price range (and it's entirely possible they wouldn't be), I'd hire one of two bands: "Queen for a Day" or "Hard Night's Day" -- Queen and The Beatles cover bands. How fun would that be?

todos los flowers

The overtly Mexican Fiesta themed reception has been shelved in favor of something more... literary. But more on that later. Today, I want to share my flower project.

Problem? I want lots and lots of beautiful flowers I can't afford.

Solution? Make them. Hundreds of them. From paper.

Crazy? Maybe a little. But right now I'm short on cash and long on time (being underemployed has its benefits, I suppose), so for me, making my flowers makes sense.

Here are my first experiments in flower crafting. The yellow ones are made of tissue paper. The pink ones are crepe paper.




I was envisioning vases of lots of different shades of yellows, pinks, corals, and oranges. As it turns out, unless you're prepared to buy huge bulk quantities, it's pretty difficult to find a wide variety of subtly varied shades in tissue and crepe paper.

Aside from paper problems, I wasn't crazy about the pink flowers, and they were about three times more time consuming than the yellow carnation-style flowers.

I discovered coffee filter roses on Martha Stewart's website. They are beautiful, but also super-extra-time consuming. Plus, you had to paint each individual petal. I'm not that crazy.

Then, I saw a post on the discussion boards at weddingbee.com by a girl who made 200 of the suckers for her wedding and dyed them with fabric dye. When I learned this, I knew there was no going back.

I present to you, coffee filter roses, dyed with food coloring:



My goal is 300, completed by Christmas. I'm guessing I have about 70 so far.

Aaaand preliminary guesstimates on costs for 70 roses:

Floral wire - $1.25
Floral tape - $5.00 ($1.00/roll)
Coffee filters - $6.00 (~$2.00/200 count pack)

That comes out to about $0.18 per rose. When it's all said and done, it should cost me about $60.00 (and countless hours) to make 300 roses. I'll have a better cost breakdown when they're all finished and dyed.

I'll have to play around with them, but I might end up mixing the carnations and roses in the arrangements. What do you think?

cheese and whine

It's time for a small and not especially well-written gripefest.

I'm tired of filling out job applications, writing cover letters, and tweaking my resume! Tired of it, ya hear?! I couldn't even get an interview for an elementary school receptionist position. How insulting!

But more than the tedium of applications, I'm tired of not being employed. It leaves me with way too much time to sit in front of the computer screen looking at wedding blogs and stressing out about how to decorate the reception and other decisions that don't really matter in the end.

I have an interview in Waco on Monday. Praying that this job is it.

the bottom line

The average wedding in Texas costs more than $26,000, according to one statistic I read.

That's like all of my student debt, plus almost all of our wedding budget. Unbelievable!

This would be an impractical amount for my family to spend for a wedding, so I've been scouring the web for stories from brides who have planned low-budget weddings. I've discovered a few things:

Most of them keep their guest lists short. Really short. Sometimes it's just family.

Most of them are best friends with a whole slew of people who have the precise skill sets they need in their vendors -- their aunt is a baker, their cousin is a photographer, or their grandparents happen to own a manor with several acres of beautifully-kept grounds.

A lot of them do short, afternoon weddings.

Most of them take a nontraditional approach. This could mean anything -- nonfloral decorations, casual attire, receptions in local parks, or even foregoing the white tiered wedding cake.

I had some good, nontraditional ideas, but my enthusiasm was not enough to convince my mother.

I pushed for a carnival-themed reception for months. Visions of cotton candy were dancing in my head, but my mom refused to accept hot dogs, funnel cake, popcorn, and soft pretzels as "wedding food."

(Side note: Who even likes "wedding food" anyway? Wouldn't something different be refreshing? I think so.)

So my parade, unfortunately, has been rained upon.

I'm also playing with the idea of a fiesta theme: paper decorations (tissue and crepe paper flowers everywhere, papeles picados, etc), fajitas, salsa, guacamole, margaritas. Ooh! Buñuelos.

Who doesn't love Tex-Mex? It beats cheese cubes and finger sandwiches any day of the week.

a perfect match?

I hate bridesmaids dresses. I don't care what the David's Bridal catalog says -- there is no cardigan, necklace, or interesting belt in existence that is going to make that royal-blue bubble hem monstrosity into something wearable in the real world.

I started out with the notion of mismatched bridesmaids dresses -- sending each girl a few paint chips in different shades of pink and saying, "Find something as close to one of these as possible." Part of this was laziness. Mostly, though, I just love the eclectic look.


Then I was on the J. Crew clearance website a couple nights ago and found this beauty --

in every size from 0 to 12. What are the odds?

So I called everyone, sent them a link to see if they liked it, and asked them to send me their sizes.

Today, before placing the order, I returned to the mismatched dress photos I loved before. I decided, again, that mismatched is more my style.

Back to square one. My wonderful friends have all agreed to carry the little paint chip index card with them and go out in search of dresses.

Where to work?

I'm hopeful and excited about job possibilities for the first time, and let me tell you -- it feels great!

I'm not sure why this shift occurred, or if it will last.

It could be the compliment on my writing I received this morning. I've realized not everyone can write, and it is one of the most marketable and transferable skills I've got.

I've also realized I don't need to limit myself to newspaper journalism. There are PR opportunities that don't involve promoting massive, soul-sucking corporations. I could work for hospitals, schools, local governments, or nonprofits.

Switching gears completely -- a conversation with one of my former teachers pointed out the need for Spanish teachers. I could teach. It would require some brushing up, sure. And an emergency certification. But teaching Spanish to Americans couldn't be harder than teaching English to Thais, right?

So I'm broadening my search, and hoping the confidence levels stay buoyed.