cheap wedding inspiration

{Real Wedding} Jen + Stephen’s New Orleans/Chinatown Budget Extravaganza!

I’m having a ball sharing these weddings with you all.  What I’ve truly loved is the fact that couples have always managed to allow their personalities to truly shine through for their wedding day and have had fun sharing it with their guests!

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Jen and Stephen’s wedding is no exception!  I love how they infused two different cultures into their wedding day.  The venues are just one example.  The marriage ceremony took place at Four Seas Restaurant in Chinatown, San Francisco and the after party was at Maggie McGarry’s in North Beach, San Francisco.

Huge thanks to Jen and Stephen for sharing a few details with us about their wedding day! (And yes, we have another budget breakdown for you!)

In Jen’s own words…. “The wedding centered on a pair of purple, hot pink and lime green wedges the bridesmaids wore. The groomsmen’s pocket handkerchiefs were hot pink, and the fathers’ were lime green, matching the bridesmaids’ shoes. The candle centerpieces, invitations, wedding cake, etc all had the same colors too.”

“For our marriage ceremony, my husband and I had three main goals: throw a “fun party” themed wedding, merge my Chinese culture with his New Orleans background, and keep costs low. Growing up with a modest background and as a child of immigrants, I was taught to use my money wisely and to do what I can, myself. When it came to my wedding, I planned every aspect of it and involved my husband and entire wedding party in all the DIY. My parents also taught me that friends and family can be the best resource for things so I used my network of contacts to find good deals.”

“My favorite color is purple and for the longest time, I have had a passion for shoes. I had multiple dress changes with matching shoes and Steve changed his tie to match each dress. I wore a tea length 1950’s vintage dress from a trendy consignment store in the Haight with some awesome gold shoes. For the Chinese tea ceremony, I wore my grandmother’s Cheongsam (an elegant Chinese dress) trimmed in purple with hand-painted butterflies and Steve dressed in a Chinese outfit. I also wore two after-season Betsey Johnson prom dresses right off the clearance rack, for the cake cutting and after-party.”

“We decided to save on venue rental fees. Most places have an up-charge when they hear the word “wedding” so we opted to host our wedding at a large restaurant with a sizeable banquet hall. The restaurant charged us per-head, and allowed us to bring in our own alcohol as long as we met their minimum required headcount. Since we were able to purchase our alcohol elsewhere, we took advantage of the BevMo ‘Buy One Get the Second for 5 Cent’ Deal Days.

We felt that our day would be special no matter where we held it. We didn’t need to have a fancy winery backdrop or luxurious venue. By having the ceremony and reception in a restaurant, close to hotels, we added convenience for our out of town guests, ensuring there wouldn’t be drinking and driving. Additionally, we were able to block out rooms at nearby hotels at a low rate and didn’t have to hire shuttles to get people around. This not only saved us money but saved money for our traveling guests as well which was important to us and added to the DIY general savings.”

“We splurged on the dresses, wraps and shoes, pedi and mani for the bridesmaids and the tuxedos and shoes for the groomsmen. Our friends mean a lot to us and we wanted our wedding party to be a part of our special day, but not at their expense. We saved money in other areas and we thought we should pass the savings onto them, to show how much we appreciated their friendship and help throughout the wedding planning process. As a side note to this, we wanted to express our style in our wedding by having the girls wear brightly colored hot pink, purple and lime green 4 inch platform shoes and having the guys wear matching purple high top Converse. The theme for the wedding was “fun” and had to include cool shoes because I, as the bride, love shoes!”

“Our favorite moment of the day was mingling, drinking champagne and eating hors d’oeuvres with the guests prior to the ceremony. This allowed us to greet people as they came in and ensured we were able to say hi to everyone by the end of the wedding. We started the wedding on a positive vibe and kept that energy going.

Since we had to move a large number of guests through a buffet line, we didn’t want them to be bored. While releasing the tables, one of my cousins performed a Tahitian dance and another cousin did break-dancing. After changing into my party dress and purple heels, we did a traditional New Orleans second-line, where the guests waved white handkerchiefs, which were the wedding favors, and danced to music following me, dancing and holding a parasol, to a bar in North Beach. We contacted a bar who agreed to open early for us and as luck would have it, a live band performed that night and dedicated their show to us. A friend from Extreme Pizza sent pizza as a wedding gift, throughout the night and we had a second wedding cake, which a pastry chef friend made. It was a really fun day and night!”

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Jen and Stephen’s DIY list includes:

• They drew the centralized symbol that was used throughout their wedding pieces (the symbol was a vase with two lilies to represent the Fleur de lis of New Orleans and a Chinese character for love)
• Save the Date cards
• Invitations – Each one was printed at home and handmade
• They built their own wedding website – www.aber-louie.com
• Centerpieces of candle holders wrapped in ribbon
• Place card holders from wine corks
• Printed and folded each wedding program
• Folded each restaurant napkin to hold an individual wedding program as a place setting
• Made the placards for each table – Identified each table with a name of a local winery
• Each “out of town” couple received a handmade gift basket containing a bottle of wine, cheese, crackers and a personalized booklet (DIY) providing a map of the area, directions to and from the hotel to the wedding events, list of popular restaurants and activities to do… plus phone numbers of the local groomsmen and bridesmaids for questions
• Ironed on the centralized symbol on white handkerchiefs as favors and were used in the traditional New Orleans second line
• Created the wedding playlist
• Developed the picture montage

But I think you all are waiting for the Budget Breakdown.  Jen and Stephen’s budget was $16,000… but in the end, they spent $15,884.51.

Lastly, Jen and Stephen leave you with some wedding planning advice:

“Plan early and do a little bit at a time as you move towards your wedding day. Have weekend wine and pizza events with your girls and even your groomsmen and have them help make things. Assign each bridesmaid and groomsmen a specific role for the day of the wedding, so that you know the task will be handled. We gave each wedding party attendee an itinerary with time slots and responsible parties so that everyone knew what occurred when and who was responsible. If you plan early and leave nothing to the last minute, you’ll be stress-free on the wedding day and the day prior. You’ll be able to enjoy everything and have your special day just the way you dreamed it would be.”

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Congratulations to Jen and Stephen!

Thanks to Heather Elizabeth for sharing her photography as well.

There’s more this wedding here and don’t forget to stick around Heather Elizabeth’s blog to see the rest of her work.

xoxo,

Lydia from Ever Ours