BUY LESS CRAP!

Or specifically, crap you can’t find a home for after the wedding. Before you buy something, assess where the item will go after the honeymoon. The landfills and dumpsters don’t need my wedding decorations, they’re already full, thank you.

All the photos in this post (unless otherwise noted) were taken by the talented and gifted photographers Chris Hinkle and Anthony French of Mira Weddings.

Our cowboy bunny, cowboy hats and dollar store plastic cowboy dudes who invaded every surface of the room and filled our ball jar centerpieces were handed off to a children’s cowboy birthday party.

The awesome cat painting and cowboy room decorations adorn the walls of our house, as well as the cardboard JUBBY letters (Julia + Bobby= Jubby)

The six flag banners I lovingly sewed over my furlough last year were bought by our venue, the Hotel Congress.

The tissue paper balls were reused at a craft fair in December, then destroyed (also lovingly) by toddlers at our Indiana reception. Put to good use, indeed. (Toddler photos by Amy Wilson)

We sold some platters, gave some to friends, donated some to my hair salon (they use them to display hair product) and brought a few back to Goodwill.

If your wedding is truly a reflection of you as a couple, it is easy to get away with cheap options and just shop within your current belongings. The toys for our seating card table were from our house or borrowed from family. The squirrel is mine, it’s a long story.

Buttons appeared everywhere, as our seating cards (each table was a different cowboy and the buttons told guests where to sit), as extra goodies in our welcome bags, as presents in our invitations, not because we saw them used in another wedding, but because we already had the equipment and supplies. Look around your house and find things before you buy new machines, gadgets and materials. It will be greener and less expensive.

When something doesn’t work out, but you have the supplies already, just use them. NO ONE will know your original plan! We were going to have a DIY photobooth, but realized the logistics were a headache. My mom had already purchased mustaches, so instead of tossing them, we had a friend pass them out. No one realized their original purpose and they were a huge hit.

A lot of times, I wanted to buy something I thought would be good for our aesthetics. From dance floor decals to vintage table decorations to photo printers, if I didn’t have a home for it after the wedding, it wasn’t worth it, which saved our budget in the end. Even if something’s on sale, is it really worth tossing it in the trash?

Going through the photos, so much of our wedding was old/used/vintage/borrowed, you’d think it would smell musty! Jaykay, it smelled like dreams and rainbows.

Read about more vintage finds over at my post about etsy. All photos (unless otherwise noted) are by the fabulous Chris Hinkle and Anthony French of Mira Weddings.

We made our cupcake platters for $1-$5 each. All of the plates, vases and candlesticks for the platters were collected over a series of half-price Saturday Goodwill days, and then epoxied together.

Also at Goodwill, I bought one of my favorite finds, a big ol’ bag of twine (about $3). Because we had a more “rustic” theme, I used the twine EVERYWHERE. From hanging the response cards, to bows around centerpieces (The ball jars holding cowboys cost 50 cents used vs. more than $1 new), and a bunch of other details like holding colored pencils in bundles and attaching tags to welcome bags, I didn’t even make a dent in our twine supply. Why spend all that money on color-matching ribbon? TWINE IS MIGHTY FINE! (centerpiece photo by Sabrina Kordys)

Most of the fabric for our DIY fabric banners was from Goodwill, too and some of the cowboy prints were vintage bought from ebay. Fabric at Goodwill is CHEAP and plentiful. (photo by Sabrina Kordys)

A couple more goodwill items: we bought hats for those cowboys who left theirs’ behind at the ranch, and misc. toys placed around the room, like this Derringer cap gun. If you’re getting married, start going to half-price Saturdays NOW. You WILL find something for your wedding, but not if you expect to a few weeks before the date. (Cowboy hat photo by Tod Zolondz)

We didn’t hit up too many garage sales, but a local church rummage sale yielded two great finds. For $1 each, we bought a GIANT roll of ribbon (used on our lollipop arrangements and to wrap the bottom of my bouquet) and this lovely cowboy bunny. Did we need a cowboy bunny? Ehhh that’s a matter of opinion!

And now for what we got for FREE

oh yes. FREE…

My glasses cost around $20 at an antique store (and the prescription lenses were covered by insurance) but that’s where my accessory budget ends. My pearl necklace, earrings and bracelet were all high school graduation presents and my headband from my erm… ever-growing stash of headbands.

My veil was made by a family friend by sewing lace from my mother’s wedding dress onto her old veil. It may have fit my dress better to have something shorter or birdcage-style, but free and family heirloom just seemed so much more appealing.

Likewise with my ring pillow. We could have had something made for us fitting with our theme, but the ring pillow from my sister’s wedding, made by my grandmothers 15 years ago felt more “us” than anything custom.

Our bride and groom were a very late addition to the mix. Our officiant handed us some used figurines (they looked really ’80s) that did not resemble us… AT ALL. The bride was wearing a long Navy dress, the groom was blond, etc. We splashed some spraypaint left from our cat frame, and PRESTO! Pop art wedding topper!

All photos unless noted otherwise are by the overwhelmingly talented  Chris Hinkle and Anthony French of  Mira Weddings.

I took these vintage gun charms I bought from seller artpassiondesign ($3.25 for 12) and used them for finishing touches on our polymer clay boutonnieres and our ball jar filled with cowboys centerpieces. (centerpiece photo by Sabrina Kordys)

These popcorn bags (scored for 16 cents each) from HeyYoYo enabled us to stick with our theme (50s kiddie cowboy) for welcome bags for just a little pocket change.

The beauty of ordering cupcake liners from HeyYoYo was not only the price ($8 for 125 liners) but with a custom listing, I didn’t have to buy in quantities of 50 or 100. I could have asked for 63 with a brief etsy convo if I wanted! It’s great to save money and not have wasteful leftovers! (photo by Amanda Willis)

Decorations for a reception can be so overwhelming. Too little, and your space overwhelms. Too much and your budget breaks. By periodically searching “vintage cowboy” on etsy every few days I came up with a few gems like this vintage room decoration for $12.50 from bittypiggies. The cowboy held one side of a string of twine connected to the horse between two pillars where we hung response cards from clothespins. It was a way to decorate for cheap but most importantly include all of our guests as a part of the room, even the ones who couldn’t make the trip.

I wanted our wedding to not just “feel” vintage, but parts of it to actually BE vintage. I purchased old greeting cards from InstantLiving and timepassages for around $4 each and incorporated them in different ways. I used the cowboy and cowgirl father’s day card for art for our menu and part of our welcome package.

And a cute kitty playing guitar birthday card turned into a GIANT framed art piece. (The frame was from ikea and spraypainted. That good lookin’ cowboy is now hanging in our house)

Our ceremony space (a rock club!) had very limited seating, and we used vintage-inspired cowboy handkerchiefs ($1.37 each) from neemerone to reserve seats for our immediate family. I embroidered names on each kerchief, too.

Perhaps my greatest find wasn’t anything related to our theme at all… I knew we wanted to do our own version of pages like the guestbook store and would need markers or colored pencils. For $3.50 I was able to buy over 100 pencils through a destash listing from bethjt. Those pencils got a second use, I saved tons of money, and they later went to my mom’s school for further coloring action. Yay for CHEAP and reused! (photos by Sabrina Kordys and Liz Tyning)

Of course I also bought plenty of things from etsy with more straightforward uses. With all of the individual sellers I used from September 2008 to our wedding in November 2009, I only encountered marvelous customer service, friendly and talented sellers and an all-around painless and wonderful shopping experience.

Mouse over the pictures for a description, price and seller.

My Toss Bouquet

Lollipop Necklaces for my Honorary Bridesmaids

My Wedding Ring

Flower Brooch

Our Cowboy Hat Bucket

Our Guestbook Page Cowboy and Card Box

* Tender pulled pork served with a tequila ancho barbecue glaze
* Jicama coleslaw
* Southwestern corn pudding frittata with jack cheese and green chiles
* Freshly baked biscuits with black pepper gravy
* Fresh fruit
* Aqua fresca- pitchers of piña & cantaloupe
* Iced tea
* Cupcakes!!!!!!!!!!!!

All entrees (except for the pulled pork) are vegetarian friendly.

You may notice something missing from the menu: a Champagne toast. We’ve opted out of toasts and there won’t be Champagne at the tables. And I know this is a hard thing to stick to, because it defies every etiquette book, but we are also having a cash bar.

This is a very sensitive subject for me, as I have been to so many lovely wedding receptions and there is always alcohol flowing freely (and me drinking it… freely) but we had to make a hard decision that would feel right for our budget and the scope of our event.

Before we were even engaged, Bobby and I knew we wanted to wed in Arizona, where we live, play, work and also where we met and fell in love. And we also wanted to throw it ourselves with our own money and complete control over our vision. It has been so much harder than I would have imagined to save money for the wedding while keeping afloat during a recession when daily living expenses keep rising and our paychecks have either been cut or stagnated. The sacrifices will be completely worth it, but it is still a struggle. Lastly, we made a personal decision that the only way we could be happy after the event was over was to pay for the entire wedding and honeymoon in cash. No credit cards, no loans, no IOUs—just dead presidents.

I know you are traveling to Tucson to support us in our new adventure together, and won’t be upset that you’ll need to buy your own drinks or that there won’t be a rehearsal dinner or post-wedding hosted brunch, but it doesn’t mean I don’t feel guilty about not being able to host everyone to the extent I’d like. In my dream world, I would pay for everyone’s hotel, everyone’s flights, everyone’s meals all weekend, one pony per family (you know, like a favor!) and then take everyone to Disneyland the next day.

So those are the things you won’t be seeing when you get to Tucson. What you WILL see is a ceremony and reception straight from our hands and hearts. We’ve been hand-crafting, thrift-store shopping, sale-stalking maniacs with DIY projects galore. You won’t show up to a cash bar and see that we’ve opted instead for an ice sculpture (although this Robocop one was great) or that we blew the majority of our budget to hire the Jonas Brothers as our band, even though that would be amazing… What you WILL see are lots of little personal touches for our guests that we hope  express just how honored and overjoyed we are to share the day with people who are so important in our lives. And that, I hope you’ll agree by the end of the day, is even better than a free watered-down rum and coke.

See you SOOOOON!

Julia