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