cheap wedding inspiration

{Real Wedding} Penelope + Mikiya: A Charmingly Creative Campground Commitment

Lined up another real sweet intimate DIY real wedding for you all…. this one comes from Emily Takes Photos. I adore the fact that it was outdoors and that the couple’s rustic theme matched so well. Congratulations to Penelope and Mikiya!

Many thanks to Penelope for taking the time to talk a bit about elements of their wedding day. Here’s what she had to share:

“Doing my own hair and makeup (with the help of sisters/friends) was actually my preference not because of the budget, but because I was terrified of giving my face and hair over to someone who might make me unrecognizable to myself. I know my hair’s behavior better than anyone else in the world, so I figured I could do it better than anyone else on that day. Likewise, with makeup, I don’t wear heavy makeup any other day of my life, so why was I going to start on my wedding day?”

“We asked friends with special talents to play instruments and sing in our ceremony. We had a friend of the family officiate. We cobbled together an amazing group of family and friends to help with set up and clean up and everything in between. Friends passed out programs and poured champagne on the train. Thanks to the herculean efforts of our friends and family, we ended up with very few actual paid vendors. Seriously, when the venue supervisor asked for my vendor list so she could be in contact with folks about dropping stuff off, parking onsite, etc., I was like, “um, we have a photographer… and a band.” And that was really about it. We did the rest.”

“As far as wedding venues go, Roaring Camp, together with using their in-house BBQ catering service, was a great deal per head for feeding 150 guests.”

“By not having a color scheme on top of our rustic theme, we were less constrained about our choices, making it easier to bargain hunt. For our flowers, we went the farmers market route, and ended up with lovely arrangements put together by friends and family the morning of the wedding. Throughout the year, my family and I saved pasta sauce jars, pickle jars, jam jars, olive jars… absolutely all shapes and sizes, so long as the label came off easily. We mixed the sizes together, placing 3-4 jars per table. The candles were reused tea lights from my childhood best friend’s wedding the month before.”

“We folded the 1,000 paper cranes out of old magazines and other cast-off paper. The result was colorful, free, and environmentally friendly. Friends and family started contributing to the process; we got cranes folded out of all sorts of creative paper. In the end it was almost like a quilt, where each scrap of fabric has a story from its previous use. “

Other ways that Penelope and Miyika saved and helped with their budget included:

for stationery
“We did an electronic save the date, and I designed and made (with family help) our invitations myself. The best advice I have on that is to shop at the office supply store, not the art store! Half the time you can find exactly the same paper product for half the price at an office supply store. I coffee dyed a bunch of cheap manila tags and stamped them with a personalized rubber stamping kit to make RSVP tags that looked like old luggage tags. I found irregularly sized coin envelopes that fit the invitation size and would feed through my printer so I could print addresses directly on the envelopes in an old fashioned typewriter font, which I downloaded all off the internet for free; there are entire sites devoted to (legitimately) free font downloads!”

for drinks
For wine and champagne, my brother in law recommend several red, white and sparkling options in the $7-$11 range. We went out and bought what was available, swapped in a few alternates where we couldn’t find particular recommendations, and held a series of blind taste testing parties a few weeks ahead of the wedding to choose favorites. The tasting parties with friends were tons of fun, and we ended up with one pretty clear winner in each category. We avoided spending a fortune on expensive wine, while resting assured that we were actually serving something that most guests would find tasty.

for cake (my favorite element for their wedding)
A friend who works at a bakery purchased 12 cakes for us on an employee discount, decorated the cakes with fresh raspberries, and helped us slice everything up at the reception. Serving cake our guests ourselves was our own special twist on the “receiving line” concept, and it was one of my favorite parts of the whole evening.

Penelope and Miyika were also super lucky to have won their photographer through a contest. Huge thanks to Emily Takes Photos for so beautifully capturing their adorable rustic wedding.

More wedding vendor info:

Photographer: Emily Takes Photos

Floral Designer: Flowers bought by bride’s mother at a local farmer’s market in Redwood City

Cakes:  Whole Foods

Reception Venue: Roaring Camp and Big Trees Railroad

Dress Store:  Recapture Vintage Bridal Designs/  Dress Designer:  Robin Densten

Shoes:  Macy’s Bridal Shoes

Dress Designer:  Recapture

Hair Flower:  Black Dahlia Designs

Jewelry:  from the bride’s great grandmother

Tuxedo and Menswear: Brooks Brothers, La Rosa Vintage Boutique

- Lydia