The antidote to a cheap wedding, The Broke-Ass Bride delivers bad-ass wedding inspiration to turn your budget wedding into a kick-ass and totally unique wedding… because its not about how much you spend, its how you spend it!
You did not just slave over a year’s worth of crafting for your wedding just to throw it all away in the end. No way. I allowed myself to throw away certain items, namely the ones that I couldn’t stand to look at anymore. Case in point: flag and crane strings had to go.
But for the most part, reusing our wedding decor and supplies for our home has been working out quite nicely. In fact, I would go as far as to say our home has never looked more stylish than it does now. And for a couple whose home decor has consisted of everything Ikea for the last 5 years, it’s nice to see a unique, one-of-a-kind change.
2 bouquets, 6 vases, 2 record sleeves, 4 painted bottles, and a hot pink reindeer. All used at our wedding. All re-used to make our home pretty!
We even used our cake topper and a pair of photo lounge shutter shades as decor!
I call this one: "pimp my bookcase."
Neon drink coasters from the wedding are now water catchers for our plants!
And this one I will of course call: "pimp my windowsill"
My bouquet, a lantern, and a couple tins from the wedding: Now being displayed as decor in our bedroom. Underneath our Bowie "Heroes" poster, naturally.
More bouquets, bottles, and lanterns used as decor!
Make any DIY signs? Use them as wall decor. Sure, "Parking Hitchfest 2010" doesn't quite make sense in the context of your home... BUT it will serve as a fun memory for us until we get sick of looking at it.
More reusable DIY signage! Our "Food Truck" sign brings a smile to my face everytime I sit down to play piano.
Sure, we may not need to keep this "Photo Lounge" sign hanging around the house... BUT I wonder if another engaged couple would get some use out of it at their wedding???
You can also use your decor for functional purposes. I got the idea from Mrs. Broke-Ass herself (she’s so clevah!) about re-using our mason jars as drinking glasses. Just today I cleaned out all the wax from the jars (just use really hot water), washed ‘em up nice, and now we can use them for beverages!
These puppies are just *waiting* for me to pour beer in them!
And there I go! Reuse-ifying feels so good!
We also reused a few hand-painted bottles to act as book-ends.
Functional & beautiful!
AND lastly, we are keeping 2 of the 10 of our handcrafted beer bottle chandeliers to act as lighting for our dining area. We are hoping to use them as outdoor lighting… eventually… when we can finally find an affordable place in Los Angeles with a yard!
Home dining room lighting at it's weirdest... errr... I mean, "finest."
What the chandeliers look like all lit up! Can't wait to get a backyard!
Seeing all the wedding crafts come together as decor for our home has brought so much joy to my heart. I had planned from the start to reuse our DIY decor, and I am over the moon proud of ourselves that we actually followed through with the OG plan. I feel the payback on our investment already!
And for everything that we didn’t reuse — which was surprisingly very little — we will either Brideshare or sell. I will keep you all updated on everything we are selling/sharing. Please contact me if you would like to reuse any of our decor for your own wedding: i.e. bouquets, bottles, mason jars, signs, lanterns, etc. We’re happy to share!
How about you guys? Have any ideas for reusing wedding decor in your home? How about outside the home?
When I set out to DIY our wedding, I had no idea what I was in for. I knew there would be a lot of trial and error, mixed with hair pulling frustration, but I also knew that I was capable of pulling it off. My heart was certainly in it, my attitude was positive, and therefore I was able approach the difficulty of it all with an open mind and a smile. The one project that I have been working on since April (4 months, people) is our DIY bouquets. I declared these bouquets finished at least 3 different times. The first time I declared them “finished” was at the end of April after my “Hey, Bridesmaids! Let’s Make Some Bouquets!” Party. Here are a few shots of the bouquet in PHASE 1:
DIY Bouquets: PHASE 1
More of PHASE 1
This first night of bouquet crafting left us all feeling successful. I was truly impressed with what we did. But just days after that night, I started to futz with the bouquets again. I saw little gaps that needed fixing and pieces that needed gluing. This was to be expected, though. We were DIYing bouquets blind, pretty much. You see, at first, we did the “glue-as-you-go” method where we basically took some pretty crap and glued it to the bouquet handle base, trying our hardest to keep it looking spherical. I’d say for our first attempts, we did a pretty damn good job.
But then I decided I wanted different colors than the materials I had on the bouquet. So instead of starting from scratch (which would have ended up costing us nearly as much as a set of real floral bouquets), I decided to paint over what I had. And this is what I came up with (you may recognize this picture from my previous DIY Bouquet post):
DIY Bouquets: PHASE 2
I truly loved this phase of the bouquets. In fact, after I completed said “phase,” I believed it to be the last and final. But no. I decided I wanted lighter colors. So I started painting again. And the I decided some of the bouquets didn’t have the right shape, so I began to reshape. And then I looked at a picture of a real bouquet, and I decided that the handles on my bouquets looked skinnier than everyone else’s. And I didn’t like that. So I found some soft cardboard used to pack fragile things with, rolled them into cylinders, then glued them to the current handle. Then I noticed that “real” bouquets have some sort of ribbon or lace wrap around the handle. So I went and bought some lace ribbon, wrapped it around the handles, and pinned it.
Annnnd 80 glue gun burns later, this is the final look of the bouquets:
DIY Bouquets: PHASE 3 - The (Actual) Final Phase
My bouquet: PHASE 3
PHASE 3: Complete.
I am very VERY happy with the end result. Don’t get me wrong, I would have been happy with the phase 1 result, but since I had time to tweak and perfect, I was able to let the bouquets evolve into my original vision.
Lessons learned:
There is no right or wrong way to make a DIY bouquet.
Do not feel pressured to make your DIY bouquet perfect on the first go-around. Give yourself time to let the bouquets evolve.
It’s ok to be a perfectionist — just make sure you give yourself enough time to be said perfectionist. I finished my bouquets 5 days before the wedding, people. This perfectionist likes to cut it close… So starting four months prior to W-Day was a must for me. Assess your perfectionist tendencies and plan your DIY bouquet plan of attack accordingly.
If you do not plan on painting your bouquet, make sure you pick colors you like and want to commit to. My bouquet colors changed completely from start to finish. Just look at Phase 1 compared to Phase 3. Same bouquet, totally different look.
Do a glue test to make sure everything holds. For example, hold your bouquet by the handle, upside down and shake it a tad. If it feels loose, it’s not glued down enough. Don’t wait until the last minute. You’ll find yourself in a hot glue gun mess.
Build from the center of the bouquet out. This way you can decide layer by layer how big you want your sphere to be, and you will have an easier time keeping the sphere even and symmetrical.
Make the handle of the bouquet LAST. I made 3 different handles before I landed on a style that worked. Trial and error: get used to it.
What are your DIY lessons learned? Anyone have similar experiences with crafting their bouquets? Have they evolved as much as mine have?
The other day I realized that, whoa, we have less than 2 weeks til W-Day and we don’t have a guest book. I realize in the grand scheme of wedding to do’s, a guest book falls very low on the list of priorities. However, there was no way I was going to throw a kickin party and not remember every single person who was there to share it with. And a guest book that only requires them to write their name and maybe a word of advice wasn’t going to cut it. I wanted to get our guest’s creative juices flowing straight out the gate.
I first dreamed up a guest book in which our guests would give us “Sex Mix Playlist” suggestions in lieu of marriage advice. But then I realized I didn’t want any such suggestion coming from my Grandfather. Ewww. So then I came up with the Mad Lib idea… an idea that is creative but still cheap and easy. If you’ve spent the last 11.5 months hardcore DIY-ing like I have, you will know that it’s best to save the easiest projects for the very end. And this particular project, my friends, is one of those easy ones. ACES.
There are many different ways you can format your Mad Lib. At first I went for the 2 page model — but upon further review of the design, I decided that it would be easier to have the story AND the word prompts on the same piece of paper. This method works great because your guests won’t have to work in partners, and they won’t be bothered to write in their answers for the prompts more than one time.
Step one is to write a short Mad Lib story about you and your partner. We did ours in the form of a letter from the guest to the Bride and Groom.
Each of your guests will get a card like this.
The trick with this Mad Lib design is that the story part is hidden. I’ll show you what I mean in one sec. Sit tight.
Then they fill it out!
Ok. Here comes the magical part… Flip the card over… and…
The story is folded over on the back! With neon guitar stickers!
Then you take the stickers off the folded card, open it up and hello, Mad Lib!
The whole story is there! Without even having to copy your answers down twice!
No pain in the ass copying required. You write your answer down, and it’s already in the story. And because Mad Libs aren’t any fun without getting to read back the silly story you came up with… I will share the one I came up with:
“I am so devastated to be at your garish wedding! It’s the biggest fart since The Spanish/American War. I think Mike and Britt are one feverish couple. Truth be told, I’m a bit elated that Britt is off the market. I saw us as lovers, but I couldn’t get over her loudmouth. I’m glad Mike is willing to put up with it. Good luck in all your volleyball endeavors! In Christ , Bowie Bride.”
Hilarious, right? Then after you have collected all the completed Mad Lib cards, stick them in a scrapbook and throw it in your suitcase for the honeymoon. You and your sweet love can get a kick out of reading the “letters” your guests wrote to you while lounging by the pool!
MAD LIB GUEST BOOK SUPPLIES:
Sheets of 8-1/2 x 11 Cardstock paper
Home printer.
Scissors, exacto knife, or a paper cutter
Markers. Any kind. But I went with some funky shimmery opaque ones. A tad more pricey, but also a tad more sassy.
Stickers, or some kind of adhesive that isn’t permanent.
A scrapbook, a photo box, or anything to store the cards in.
I am getting married in 18 days, and I am so not Zen right now. Honestly, I am frightened.
Right now, I can see the DIY centerpiece and bouquet craftstorm out of the corner of my eye and it makes me feel accomplished, BUT it also makes me feel incredibly overwhelmed. There’s this huge unorganized pile of vases, painted bottles, homemade bouquets, crane strings, flag banners, table runners, boutonnieres, dessert table-ware, CD case lanterns, and all the additional leftover supplies that will wait in the wings to be used as the day approaches.
In terms of style and aesthetic, I dig the look of what I have made. But what worries me is the fact that I have no idea how the hell this craftload will come together in the end — and whether or not it will mirror the picture of what I had envisioned in my head. I am NOT a design professional, people. The only party I have ever been responsible for decorating was the kegger pirate party I threw back in college.
Pile-o-crafts that I am still have no idea what to do with.
The full craft storm.
How is everything going to be styled? How will everything get moved over to the venue? Will I have to worry about things getting broken in transit? Will I have enough time to set the tables up to my liking? Will we have enough candles and fresh flowers (bought the day of) for the mason jars?
I think this is a good way to organize this stuff...
DIY’ing your decor is a big commitment. You first have to commit to buying the supplies to craft with. Then you have to craft. And you know your execution won’t be perfect on your first go around. So there’s that added fear of, “Dude. What if I can’t actually make these crafts I set out to make?” BUT I do not regret venturing down the DIY road one bit.
The scariest part about being a DIY bride is fear of the unknown. You will continually ask yourself this question: Am I doing enough to get everything done and put together? I still do not know the answer to that question. And I imagine I won’t know the answer to that question until I see everything set up in venue and ready to rock. Lil scary, but I know it will all come together in the end. We’ve worked this hard for 11.5 months… what’s two more weeks?
Considering DIY’ing the bulk of your decor? Here are some tips for a sane(r) DIY wed-planning journey:
Have a DIY plan of attack, but don’t expect yourself to finish every single project on your list.
Do not set unrealistic goals. Consider how much time you will actually have to dedicate to crafting.
Remember that you still have a job and other life responsibilities — things that may not allow you time to craft, or rather, have time for all the trial and error you will likely experience.
Try out 3 or 4 centerpiece projects and pick the one you can execute best. Even if that means doing something simple but elegant like mason jars with twine tied at the lip. If that project looks better than the poorly executed tissue paper flowers you made, then go with the mason jar project. Why spend extra time and money crafting something that you can’t pull off?
Start crafting at least 5 months before the wedding. Set small, daily goals. This way you won’t feel overwhelmed by the enormity of DIY’ing your wedding. Just take it as slowly as you possible can. Make a few things at a time and split up the work between your partner and your graciously willing friends.
What are your DIY tips? Anyone have similar fears/experiences?
The adorable Raechel and Joel are the perfect example of a couple who used their wit, creativity, and awesome friends to rock their budget savvy sensibilities to the max, and have themselves a “cheap wedding” that was in no way cheap looking.
To start with, just look at their insanely creative save the date video. (Caution: be prepared to fall in love)
Ok, so while you’re wiping the drool off your keyboard, let me hit you with this mindboggler: these two cuties threw a wedding fully funded by themselves for only eight thousand dollars. $8,000, people!
Raechel works in visual sales at Anthropologie and worked her store discount for her hair piece and earrings, and she picked up her dress from J. Crew, which she ordered online at Christmas time to capitalize on the seasonal discounts… What a smarty pants! Her bridesmaids were asked to find dresses inspired by champagne colors, and they ended up ranging in budget from $30 to just under $150…. while the groomsmen and the groom all wore mixy-matchy vintage inspired suits.
Raechel and Joel knew that they wanted to splurge on their venue so they reserved a good chunk of their budget for the art gallery where the reception was held. Their evening reception featured drinks and desserts only, the couple saved a pretty penny on catering that way.
Now get this: They actually bought all of the desserts at Costco, which was a big money saver and thanks to Raechel’s creative arranging skills, you can hardly tell they’re store bought! Another one of crafty secrets? All of the wedding decor was from Raechel’s favorite hunting spot, “Wanda’s,” an old grocery store which converted to a thrift store in the ’80s. She scored loads of old crates, silver platters, wooden hat boxes, and milkglass vases for around $50 buckaroos. Talk about getting bang for your buck!
They went the friendor route by buying all of their flowers wholesale and enlisting the help of a buddy who loves doing floral arrangements. The bouquets were tied together and finished off with some vintage champagne lace that Raechel scored at a thrift store for super cheap, and they looked like the bomb diggity. Getting your florals wholesale is a very simple fix if you’re a broke-ass DIY bride.
Our favorite part? Raechel’s words hit deep in our hearts when explaining the day: their wedding was much more of a community event than a random mix of vendors. Every one of her friends were an essential part of something special by helping the wedding come together. Raechel and Joel sure know how to pick ‘em!
So what have we learned from Raechel and Joel? Work at a cool clothing store simply for discounts, have friends who are photographers, culinary experts, and floral lovers, and live off of desserts and sweet treats only! Just kidding, but trusting in your own creativity and leaning on your loving and crafty friends is a lesson from which we can all benefit!
How are you using your friends and family to make your big day special? Are you decorating the space yourself? Are wholesale flowers calling your name? Let us know and send us some wedding porn of your own for us to drool over!
Raechel and Joel left the party in style!
** On an administrative note, we know you love our real wedding features (yay!)… but we want to give our couples more of a chance to share their mindset and process with you, personally! So we’re working up a brief questionnaire to have future featured couples fill out, and we want to know what you want to know. To that end, please share a question or two in the comments below, and maybe you’ll see it answered in future real weddings on The Broke-Ass Bride. Thanks! **
Dudes! Earlier in June we returned to my beloved hometown New York City, baby! The moment we touchdown, I am always filled with waves of nostalgia and excitement. My first mission, without fail, is to get a bit of that primary food of my youth, New York Pizza. Whenever or wherever we go, I can sniff it out like a blood hound with a lust for lactose (OK, so that doesn’t sound very appealing). But this time pizza was going to have to wait… because the moment we landed, we were in for a much more high-end adventure.
We arrived in NYC a few days earlier than we had planned because of an invitation from The Plaza Hotel for a special bloggers’ luncheon. Yup, pizza was gonna have to take a rain check ’cause baby’s gotta enjoy the finer things in life for a moment (you know I love you NYC Pizza, I’ll be back in 24 hours, don’t you worry).
Broke-Asses in the City
To walk into The Plaza, at any time, is an exciting moment. It has been a staple of grandeur for my entire life and for a long part of the history of New York…. and this was Dana’s first experience. Walking past the the iconic horse-drawn carriages, up the steps, through the revolving door that opens to a grand hall where tea is being served…. It’s grandeur. It’s history. It’s New York romance, and has been for a long long time. So to come home with an invitation to the The Plaza was something very special indeed.
A wedding bloggers’ luncheon, hosted and catered by Great Performances, and featuring chef de cuisine Marc Spooner’s picks for the latest trends in wedding menus, under the vaulted ceiling of the Grand ballroom, was just the way to describe this return home… GRAND.
David Beahm Design presented a table scape of bad-assery
Floral kick-assery, compliments of Floralia Decorators
A Broke-Ass tip courtesy of (the great) David Beahm Design: mirrors make everything bigger and better. A similar display to these can be broke-ass-ified with sparing, simple blooms or by letting bountiful candles speak for themselves. Reflective surfaces and sparkling light turn a simple display into one that is magical and bigger than life.
We also learned that alternating high and low centerpieces is an easy way to add drama and variety to your tables… (just make sure the tall ones go above people’s heads so they don’t block their view), and that a fun new trend is to mix round and rectangular tables to spice things up!
After learning about tablescapes, we were onto the grub, er… culinary trends (and boy did we eat this part up!)
The tray-passed hors d’oevres gave me a bit of a food boner (is that ok to say when writing about this place?). The Plaza gets all its produce from an organic farm that they own, which is better for your belly and the earth. We especially loved these crispy potato skins filled with sauteed mushrooms and fava beans. We were psyched to hear that more and more couples are requesting organic and sustainable produce from their caterers… go team green!
Chef Marc Spooner shared that other recent trends include tray-passed small bites and dessert options, which encourage guests to mingle and meander (with the added bonus of saving money over plated dinners). People love miniature bites of popular comfort foods like burgers. Once you pop, you can’t stop! Oh, and these wee frozen popsicles? Eff YES.
To finish off the event, we were lead down to the Rose Club where we all shared a glass of champagne. This is perfect spot for an afternoon drink or a late night after-party. There is an elevator right there in the bar, so you can bid adieu to your guests and stumble straight to your room. The only time I get to do that… is when I’m drunk in my kitchen. Can I get a what what?
The whole wedding blogger crew at the Rose Bar (aka: It's hard out there for a Hubby)
It was an incredible return home. I thought a slice of NY pizza was surely my next meal. Ah… but there was more adventure in store for the first day home. Stay tuned…
PS – Big ups to our girl Anne at Aisle Dash for helping organize such a great event!
Last week’s Just Be You Inspiration Board worked so great (Rock n Roll Bride featured it, hello!), I thought I’d slap another one together for some wedding inspiration and to keep y’all inspired to just be YOU.
This week’s board is filled with ideas that you may have originally scoffed at when first presented with. Truth be told: I scoffed at A LOT of ideas my Specialover presented to me in the beginning of our wed-planning journey. I’d say to him: “What?! Not give everyone an actual seat during the ceremony, are you crazy?!” …And then, after much thought, I realized that a ceremony where some of the guests sat on blankets would be really freakin rad. Just take a look at the wedding in the bottom right corner of this board.
Cool, right? Just head to a fabric store, purchase some burlap for $1.25/yd and cut it up into picnic blanket-sized sheets. Slap the burlap blankets alongside the aisle and in the front row, and instruct the younger folk to cop-a-squat. And hey, you could even sweeten the deal for those on the ground by serving a little sangria or lemonade.
Crazy idea numero dos that’s actually cool: Doughnut tower cake. You could make that shiz the morning of, dudes. NO JOKE. Hit up The Krisp, pick out 100 doughnuts in assorted flavors and coordinating colors, bring ‘em back to your desert table and stack ‘em until they look pretty. Dessert: DONE. (And damn delicious).
Next up: Dance floor alternative. Let’s face it, some people just don’t dance. Lawn games are an awesome way to get your guests to have fun and interact. My favorite is Bocce Ball. It’s cheap, super-easy to learn and requires no set-up.
Attire this week is all about honoring your heritage. I asked Mike if he were Scottish would he wear a kilt at our wedding, and he came back with an enthusiastic YES. So if you’re considering incorporating your heritage in your attire, I say go for it! Even if that means wearing a skirt, gentlemen
And lastly, there needs to be more pizza served at weddings. PERIOD. End of story. Just look at that pizza porn up there. I’d serve that at my wedding in a hot minute — and it would be cheap.
I have a wedding mantra. One that I believe has kept me sane and grounded during this crazy journey that is planning a wedding. Any time I feel the WIC pressure, I say this to myself: “Stop trying to be anti-traditional and just be you.” This mantra has encouraged us to make wedding-related decisions based on what we truly want our day to be like. It has propelled us to follow our hearts – even when our brains have told us different. But through all of this focus on making decisions based on what we want, and not what the rest of the world/wedding industry/guests expect to see, I have sincerely neglected the visual inspiration that goes along with it.
The Internet is flooded with perfect-looking wedding inspiration boards… with perfectly matching colors… and perfectly styled tables… and beautiful white dresses… and pristine bridal parties. These boards are beautiful, don’t get me wrong. But I want to see an inspiration board where there isn’t exactly one set color scheme. Or one where the bride isn’t wearing white. Or one that doesn’t showcase perfectly designed tables with professional-looking centerpieces. These boards were what made me think I needed to have a perfectly styled wedding with all the traditional trimmings. Which in the end, was NOT what my partner and I wanted. And again, don’t get me wrong; those inspiration boards are awesome — but ultimately, for us, those perfect boards steered our wedding into a direction that 1. we didn’t want and 2. couldn’t afford. So I wanted to mix it up a bit. And that’s when I decided to come up with “The ‘Just Be You’ Inspiration Board Series.”
Board #1 plays with lots of colors, inspiring you to not feel the need to tie yourself down to a palette with 2 or 3 distinct colors (this will also save you money and frustration). This board also focuses on alternatives to traditional catering, transportation, attire, and dessert. Check it out:
Ring a ding ding. When I came across Tina H. Dee, who handcrafts bad-ass alternative, affordable unique wedding rings and custom gifts that your wedding party will be thrilled to rock. I took one peek at her etsy site and started writing this post. Its, like, broke-ass to the max.
Perfect for your unfussy fiance(e), or your own unfussy finger, these rings and things start at around $30, don’t go much higher than $150, and many are customizable. Personalizing rings and gift jewelry with people’s names, special dates or quotes is a bonus that even broke-asses can get behind!
This ring set below is $68. Yup, that’s right. And its gawgeous.
People. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Etsy is where its AT!
