Wedding


Priscilla of Boston gown and veil, Carlone's Florist bouquet
I'm here to talk about the two words that brides never want to hear: budget wedding.
Nobody wants to hold back when planning what may be the biggest day of your life, but sometimes, you have to. And, even if you don't have to, it is smart to. 
We had our wedding on a budget.


We survived.
And it was beautiful.

 

Read below for tips on how to plan your perfect wedding on a budget. 
  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

Our wedding was featured as a "Real Wedding" in Newport Life Magazine's March/April 2013 issue. Check out the online archive here!

Budget Wedding 
Keys to Successful Wedding Planning: Be Open-Minded, Use Your Resources, and Prioritize
My Master Wedding List
The Dress
DIY Table Numbers
DIT: Do it Together. Accept the Help That Others Will Offer!
Repurposing Your Bouquet
DIY Invitation Ornament
Vendor Recommendations
August: Our Lady of Mercy Chapel
July: Newport Wedding Trolley
June: Wedding Tresses
May: J.Crew
April: The Regatta Place
March: Carlone's Florist
February: Ashley DaCruz Photography
January: The French Confection
December: A Printable Press


August Vendor Recommendation of the Month:Our Lady of Mercy Chapel, Newport RI


Is it inappropriate to name a church as a "vendor"? Probably. But, I mean, we did pay for their services. Anyway. Our Lady of Mercy Chapel on the Salve Regina campus was THE perfect place to hold our ceremony. So perfect, in fact, that I felt it had been built for us (but don't worry, I'm not that self-centered to actually believe so).
Newport is a beautiful place to hold a wedding, but it was lacking in beautiful Catholic churches. Sure, the one where JFK married Jackie O is gorgeous, but it is a) really difficult to be accepted to be married there and b) way too big for the size of our wedding (100 people). I didn't want to walk down a long empty aisle--I wanted the church to be filled with our guests!
They completed building Our Lady of Mercy Chapel just under a year before our wedding date, which is why I said before I felt that it was built for us. It was small, quaint, pretty, and in a beautiful location--basically, it had everything that I wanted.
The Salve Regina campus, which Our Lady of Mercy is a part of, is absolutely gorgeous. Restored historical buildings (mansions, really) set on lawns of green grass overlooking the ocean? Count me in! And the chapel itself is so pretty--a mix of brown shingles and brown stones make up the outside, giving the structure an old-world, nautical charm. Inside, you'll find an open setting with high ceilings, gray stone floors, dark wood pews, and colorful stained glass. My absolute favorite part about the chapel is the structure of the pews: they wrap around the altar, so your guests get to be more involved with the ceremony than they would be if they all had to sit behind the bride and groom.
The chapel offers both Catholic and non-denominational ceremonies, which is rare. They also let us old our Catholic ceremony on a Sunday, which can also be hard to arrange. If you’re having a Catholic ceremony, you may have to bring in your own priest, as we did.
If you're having a small, intimate wedding that you want to hold inside of a church, check out Our Lady of Mercy!



 



When you have a bridal party that consists of 21 people, you want to make sure that everyone is moving on time and at the same time. Hiring a Newport Wedding Trolley was perfect—it picked all of the women up at our hotel (we only had one trolley so the men found alternate transportation—and miraculously showed up on time!), dropped us off at the church, picked up the entire bridal party after the wedding, drove us around for pictures, and finally dropped us off at the reception site. If I remember correctly, the initial hire of the trolley is four hours, which was perfect for what we needed (you can then add on additional hours if necessary).
Not only was it convenient, it was adorable! Though I had initially dreamed of our post-wedding car to be a vintage Rolls-Royce, the wedding trolley turned out to be a much better option because 1) it fit way more appropriately into our budget, 2) we were able to cart around our large bridal party in one vehicle, 3) it was a cute, fun way to travel around Newport, and 4) we had a blast being with our bridesmaids and groomsmen—the celebration started early! 

(We didn’t do this, but you can also hire a trolley to drive your wedding guests around Newport to see all of the mansions, etc. during the ceremony and cocktail hour. I thought that was a great idea!)







Wedding Tresses, Newport RI and Boston MA

Choosing a hair and makeup artist in unfamiliar territory from across the country was one of the scariest wedding tasks I had to do. Though I had spent many summers living in Newport, I always had my hair done in Connecticut, therefore never establishing a relationship with a Rhode Island hair stylist. And, since I was living in Arizona while planning my wedding, it wasn't easy to jet back and forth for trials.

Based off of reviews on Yelp and WeddingWire, I chose Wedding Tresses. Their estimate was not outrageous and they were flexible to come do everyone's hair and makeup in the hotel suite that the bridal party was getting ready in.

As a person that doesn't regularly wear a lot of makeup (mascara & blush on the daily if I'm lucky), I was worried about having too much put on. My makeup artist kept it as light as possible (wedding pictures call for more makeup than I'd ever used), and I loved how she made me look. I absolutely loved my hair too. They were professional, timely, and kind. They did a great job!








J.Crew

I chose J.Crew for my bridesmaid dresses because of the following reasons:
1) They have excellent customer service
2) The dresses were reasonably priced
3) They offered a variety of styles, colors, and fabric.

The third reason is ultimately why I chose J.Crew. I had nine (yes, nine) bridesmaids, ranging from 21 years old to 33 years old. Each girl had their own personal style and different body types; I just wanted them to be able to pick something they could feel comfortable in. I decided on the fabric and color (silk chiffon and dark eggplant) and had the girls choose whatever cut and length they wanted.

It was also nice to have a store that everybody was familiar with and could access from all over the country (my bridesmaids lived in South Carolina, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois, and California!). The sizes ran pretty typical, too (I've been in a size 14 adult bridesmaid dress when I was 15 and 125 lbs--not typical) so the girls were more comfortable in being able to expect what they were getting. I don't think that anyone had to tailor their dress.

From the feedback of my bridesmaids, it was a relatively easy and positive experience.
In my opinion, everybody looked beautiful!

Hotel Viking, Newport RI

Our Lady of Mercy Chapel, Newport RI

Ochre Court, Newport RI

Ochre Court, Newport RI



April Vendor Recommendation of the Month:
The Regatta Place, Newport (Goat Island), Rhode Island

We primarily chose the Regatta Place because of its spectacular location. How can you beat hosting an event right on the docks, flanked by beautiful yachts and facing the city lights of Newport? Our ceremony was held at Our Lady of Mercy Chapel on the Salve Regina campus, which showed our guests the old-world beauty of Newport. We felt that the Regatta Place showcased the new-world and nautical side of Newport; we loved incorporating both feels into our wedding.
In addition to the venue’s beauty, we picked the Regatta Place because it took care of everything concerning the reception. Everything being: the site, service, catering, bar, tables, chairs, linens, dinnerware, silverware, dance floor, valet parking, and more.  It was surprising how many venue sites were not all-inclusive and how many catering companies only provided the food and not the dinnerware, etc. The Regatta Place helped me in avoiding a huge planning headache in not having to organize all of those additional vendors (especially since I was planning our wedding from across the country).
Not only were the location supreme and the package desirable, the service was quite wonderful as well. Throughout the planning process they were quick to respond and eager to help. They worked with us on ways to cut costs and did not make us feel uncomfortable about reducing our budget at all. The night of our reception, Garrett and I had someone on hand at all times to take care of any needs or wants we had. The food was pretty good (as a foodie, I’m a tough judge) and the service was fantastic. When all was said and done, we couldn’t have been happier about holding our wedding reception at the Regatta Place.
Newport Rhode Island Wedding Venue

Newport Rhode Island Wedding Venue

Newport Rhode Island Wedding Venue

Newport Rhode Island Wedding Venue

Newport Rhode Island Wedding Venue

Newport Rhode Island Wedding Venue

Newport Rhode Island Wedding Venue

Newport Rhode Island Wedding Venue


Newport Rhode Island Wedding Venue


Newport Rhode Island Wedding Venue

Newport Rhode Island Wedding Venue

Newport Rhode Island Wedding Venue

Newport Rhode Island Wedding Venue


March Vendor Recommendation of the Month:
Carlone's Florist, Portsmouth, Rhode Island

I'll go ahead and say it: floral arrangements were not top priority for us in our wedding planning/budget allocation. I wanted a pretty bouquet, yes, but I didn't feel the need to overdue centerpieces for the reception. First of all, I dislike heavily being at a table at an event that you cannot see or speak across because of the overwhelmingly large centerpiece and, second of all, I felt that our reception venue already offered a lot for the eye to see without adding copious amounts of flowers.
That being said, I didn't want to not have flowers or compromise the table layout at our reception. I just wanted the flowers to go along with our wedding style: simple and classic.
Simple to me did not mean white. It meant arrangements of in-season flowers, matched together by beautiful coloring and complementing petals. It meant small and beautiful but nevertheless there to add onto the beauty of the wedding, not distract from it.
The first florist that I met with overwhelmed me completely. I went in knowing what I wanted--color, elegant simplicity, local in-season blooms--and left agreeing to the total opposite--white, ostentatious extravagance, imported off-season flowers. The florist himself was charming, knowledgeable, and pushy; a combination lethal to my level of agreeability. I left with a confused excitement. Luckily, one of my bridesmaids and best girlfriends had come along to the appointment and was not swayed. She knew what I wanted, was quiet upon or departure, and gently reminded me when I got home that he completely nixed what I wanted and what he offered was all wrong. I mean, he suggested WHITE flowers for an already neutral-colored venue. Yes, the Regatta Place sits on a dock surrounded by beautiful boats, twinkling seas, and facing the city of Newport, but the tent itself in which the reception was held was cream and the linens were ivory. It was all (off-) white inside, and white flowers, however gregarious the arrangement might have been, would have gotten lost in all of the lack of color.
Anyway, this isn't a review about the florist I didn't choose. It's just important to contrast the difference between my first and second appointments with different florists. The appointment with the second florist, Carlone's, was a total 180 from the appointment with the first one. 
Carlone's Florist is a family-owned business based out of Portsmouth, RI that has been up and running since 1954. Our appointment was with Carol, the daughter of the couple who initially started the business, and the woman who now runs it all with her son Brian. Our meeting was relaxed, informal, and...easy. She listened to what we wanted and our budget concerns. She had a ton of different flowers at her disposal and, in a matter of minutes, put together an arrangement of what my bouquet would look like. It was perfect.
If she was put off by our spending limit, she didn't show it. She was happy to listen and give us what we wanted and even recommended flowers that would reduce our costs. I left our meeting feeling relaxed, comfortable, and relieved. I had found a florist (it feels so good to cross things off of your to-do list, and finding a florist is a big one).
When we received the proposal a couple of days later, everything looked reasonable and fit within our floral budget. She reiterated that she was open to having us cut costs even more (like if we wanted to provide our own vases or do any of the arrangements ourselves), and only needed the finalized agreement a couple of weeks before the wedding.
Carol made the deliveries herself the day of the wedding. She stopped at the hotel where all of the ladies were getting ready first and was quickly in and out, went on to drop off the boutonnieres to the men at their location, and made her final stop at the Regatta Place. My bouquet was exactly what I wanted, the girls’ bouquets were beautiful, the boutonnieres and pin corsages were spot on, and our centerpieces were perfect. Carlone's Florst gave us the elegant simplicity that we were looking for.
 Carol was professional, easy to work with, ready to please, and made me feel as if she had everything under control--which she did, of course. As a bride, you will most likely be overwhelmed with the need to control everything, so it's nice when you can pass things off to the control of those you trust. If you're getting married in Newport, Middletown, or Portsmouth, use Carlone's Florist!
Carlone's Florist

Carlone's Florist

Carlone's Florist. Hydrangea arrangement.





February Vendor Recommendation of the Month:
Ashley DaCruz Photography,  New York, New York
http://www.ashleydacruzphotography.com/
Ashley DaCruz Photography Blog
Ashley DaCruz Photography FB Page
Ashley DaCruz Photography Etsy Shop

If you know me, you probably know that I. love. pictures. So, when people advised me to not care too much about my photographer, I thought they were crazy. People said things like, "don't waste your money on a photographer--nobody ever likes their pictures, anyway," or, "my photographer was awful, and I haven't even printed my wedding pictures from our wedding seven years ago." These "words of wisdom" did not offer me the attitude and excitement that I was looking for to start our search for a wedding photographer.

Garrett and I met with a couple of photographers in person and spoke to a few over the phone. What we found out was: wedding photographers are generally expensive, and generally aren't that good (in our opinion). We felt like we were seeing the same photos, the same angles, and the same lighting over and over again, for ridiculous prices.

And then my good friend Amelia recommended that we talk to Ashley. Ashley was a close friend of Amelia's sister, and hails from our home town. I remembered who she was, but as she was a senior to my freshman in high school (a four year age difference was so much back then), I never got to know her too well.

Immediately upon looking at some of Ashley's photography on her blog, Garrett and I liked what we saw. Her work was different, colorful, and...real. She seemed to find beauty in things that we normally wouldn't afford a second glance to. And the best part? She wasn't even a wedding photographer (yet). We were sold by just looking at her pictures, and sealed the deal after talking to her. We were excited to be her first wedding, and never doubted her abilities.

Come the wedding day, she was fantastic. She was sweet and professional, an utter joy to work with. I really, really liked that she didn't try to pull Garrett and I out of what we were doing throughout the day just to snap the perfect photo. And I really, really liked that she managed to take thousands (yes, we were provided with over 1,000) of perfect photos in her quiet and respectful way. In fact, I was actually worried that we wouldn't have enough photos, but was proved wrong when we received the disc about a month later (she had fast turn around, too!). We were provided with a ton of wonderful, classic, non-manipulated, beautiful photos...many of which were printed immediately and hung throughout our home.

I'm glad I didn't listen to those photography naysayers.

Both Garrett and I would recommend Ashley to anyone for any photographic needs they might have.

See some of my favorite Ashley DaCruz Photography photos from our wedding below (and you'll see more throughout this page):













































The Regatta Place





January Vendor Recommendation of the Month:
The French Confection,  Middletown, Rhode Island

The French Confection baked our wedding cake for us, and we couldn't have been happier. The bakery is owned and ran by a husband and wife; both were wonderful to work with. When I had come to them, they had just moved their buisiness from Maryland to Rhode Island--ours was actually the first Rhode Island wedding cake tasting they had! Karen (the wife), was really present and laid back (a quality that I came to appreciate in those associated with weddings), and made our cake tasting enjoyable (I brought along 3 bridesmaids). Xavier (the husband and chef) came out to meet us at the end, and it was clear that he loved his work (he was straight out of France--how could he not rock as a pastry chef?). The bakery itself was really cute and a nice place to be in; I actually think it has since become a local favorite for coffee and pastries. Anyway, the whole cake tasting was a great experience. And what was even better? They were really well priced, under what many of the other local bakeries charged.
The icing on the cake (hehe)? Come our wedding day, the cake was awesome. It was beautiful and delicious. I had sent Karen a picture of my dress, and they worked to replicate the lace with the frosting. They did a great job! Many people approached us, saying that ours was the first piece of wedding cake that they actually finished and enjoyed. Yay!

In a nutshell: The French Confection is a family-owned and run businnes. The people are pleasant to work with. They make a great product. Their pricing was awesome. I definitely recommend!

Ashley DaCruz Photography

Ashley DaCruz Photography

December Vendor Recommendation of the Month:

I used this online company for all of my wedding stationery. They have a wide array of unique templates to fit anyones needs and a team that was wonderful to work with. We LOVED their "By the Shore" set http://printablepress.com/item/By-the-Shore-Invitation/531/pgc5); it fit our wedding by the sea perfectly without pushing the nautical theme too heavily. When I found them they only offered invitations in the "By the Shore" set, but quickly created a Save the Date to match at my request. There is now a more complete set offered on the website. They were also very kind in letting us use their template as a base for our menus and ceremony programs (as those aren't offered) at no fee. You can also tweak the colors at no cost and change the sizing/font/etc. for a little extra. They didn't offer printing at the time that I used them but they do now; they also offer options for printing at home, a copy shop, with an online service, or a professional shop. I found A Printable Press to be a wonderful company; they were extremely professional, responded quickly, and were funt to work with. And, best of all, they fit my budget. I definitely recommend checking them out!






Keys to Successful Wedding Planning: Be Open Minded, Use Your Resources, and Prioritize

Be open-minded

·         Decide what is important to you and what you want most out of your wedding. Stick like glue to that idea but be open to new and non-traditional ways of approaching and executing your dream wedding.

o   How being open-minded helped me cut costs:

§  The biggest cost reducer was holding our wedding on a Sunday instead of a Saturday (this almost cut the cost of the reception in half!).

·         My sister is a wonderful negotiator (something that I am not), and worked really hard to get our reception costs down. Our reception venue was “all-inclusive”, so to speak, meaning that their price covered the site rental, chairs/tables/linens/dinnerware, catering, alcohol, service…you name it, they do it. Anyway, my sister worked with them to find where costs could be reduced and walked away with a pretty improved deal. When she called me with the deal she told me that it could be even better if…we changed the Saturday to a Sunday. With almost a 50% price cut, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. Most people were traveling to our wedding and treating it as a vacation anyway, so they opted to travel Friday-Monday instead of Thursday-Sunday.

§  I was open-minded about our invitation source.

·         I wanted our invitations to be beautiful, yes, but I didn’t need them to be hand-made or have a huge presentation. A Printable Press offered a design template that happened to be exactly what we were looking for at a price we were happy with. We also used digital calligraphy instead of hand calligraphy for the addressing of the invitations. Hyegraph Calligraphy, a San Francisco-based company, addressed our invitations for a fraction of the cost of other calligraphers.

§  I was open to using in-season, local flowers.

·         Using flowers that are in-season save you a ton opposed to using ones that aren’t. I told the florist what kind of flowers I wanted to use (hydrangeas, calla lilies, roses), and was open to her suggestions of similar flowers or ones that would go well with what I wanted, both of which wouldn’t break the bank.

§  We passed on having an immediate honeymoon.

·         We decided to hold off on the honeymoon because a) we didn’t have the luxury of taking a ton of time off of work and b) we simply didn’t have the funds to have the trip we really wanted. Instead, we made sure to have extended time in Newport (one of our favorite places to be) before and after the wedding, and took short weekend trips to Montana and San Francisco in the month after. Plus, my sister is getting married in Belize in May, which gave us enough time to save some money and PTO to take an extended trip J.


Use your resources

·         There are SO many free resources out there to gather ideas, offer advice, learn about vendors, etc.

o   Pinterest is great for all things wedding! You have the option of browsing the wedding page, or narrow your search down to something specific. I love how everything is offered first and foremost in picture form—that’s what catches our eyes, right? Being able to see images and then having the options to read up on them is, in my opinion, brilliant. It’s like a magazine in reverse.

§  How I used Pinterest: I found and used ideas off of Pinterest for my hairstyle, makeup, wedding favors, table numbers, and flower arrangements.

o   Wedding Blogs are full of great ideas, recommendations, how-to’s…anything and everything, really.

§  How I used wedding blogs: I relied heavily on a couple of Catholic wedding blogs to put together our ceremony program. A number of our guests weren’t Catholic, and as we had a full mass I wanted to give them as much direction as possible—hence the importance of the ceremony program. While our church provided us with a basic outline, putting together a program turned out to be much more work than I thought. I was very grateful to the past brides who posted their programs online for me to reference when putting together mine.

o   Gigmasters.com is where I found our reception band. They are an excellent live entertainment booking source, offering everything from African bands to Irish bands, jazz singers to folk singers, etc. etc. In addition to a wide selection of musicians they offer client reviews, pricing, contact information, and availability. We found a band that we loved with a fee that we loved even more. Because of Gigmasters.com, we didn’t have to give up live entertainment as we had feared.

o   Review Sites like Wedding Wire  and Yelp are good for referencing real past experiences that brides, grooms, and families had with wedding vendors.

§  How I used Wedding Wire: Wedding Wire is not just a review site; however, it does offer a ton of review on wedding vendors. Not all of my vendors were reviewed on Yelp, my usual review site; what I couldn’t find on Yelp I found on Wedding Wire. I chose my hair and makeup stylists off of Wedding Wire, as there were numerous detailed reviews that allowed me to make a decision based off of what I was looking for.

§  How I used Yelp: Yelp is all about connecting people with local businesses, which is exactly what it did for me. It helped me locate wedding vendors, gave me their contact information, and, most importantly, offered reviews that played a role in my decision making.
Prioritize

·         This goes along with being open-minded. Once you have a vision of what you want out of your wedding, make a list of what is most important to you and what you’re willing to work on. Is purchasing a designer gown important to you? Is music so important to you that you need a live band? Do you want to blow your guests away with the centerpieces?

o   How I Prioritized:

§  What was important:

·         A full Catholic ceremony. The ceremony is when you get married, after all. We wanted to do it in full.

·         The aesthetics of the church were almost as important to us as the ceremony, so a pretty church was a must have.

o   Although we spent a chunk on the church, what we didn’t have to do was spend a lot in decorating it. It provided a beautiful enough setting without any additions.

·         A reception venue that provided everything. In addition to planning a wedding on a budget, I planned it from across the country. There were so many venues that only provided the location itself and not the catering. And then there were catering companies that provided the food, but not the dinnerware or linens. That was all too much of a headache.

·         My wedding gown—I’d been browsing bridal magazines for years. A good-quality, designer gown was a must. No ifs, ands, or buts.

·         Organized transportation for the wedding party. We had a wedding party of roughly 25 people, and I didn’t want them to have to worry about getting themselves to and fro.

·         Live music for the reception. Garrett and I LOVE live music, and we didn’t want to risk having a cheesy, steal-the-show DJ.

·         My hair, makeup, and nails had to be done professionally—this was something I couldn’t do on my own.

·         A photographer whose work we loved.

·         A traditional wedding cake.

§  What wasn’t as important:

·       The food at our reception. I’ve only been blown away by the food at one wedding (my girlfriend’s last February). Other than that, the dinner has just been ok, no matter how nice the presentation or cut was. We wanted to provide good food, yes, but didn’t feel the need to pick the most expensive menu offering.

·       Extravagant floral arrangements. We didn’t feel the need to spend a lot on our reception décor, as the venue itself offered so much to the eye as it was.

·       A top-rated wedding photographer. Good pictures were important to us, but we learned that a well-established wedding photographer does not necessarily mean a good wedding photographer.

·       A honeymoon suite the night of our wedding. We rented a house with a bunch of our friends for the week of the wedding and had our own condo off of the house—we stayed there the wedding night as well.



Bride
Gown: Priscilla of Boston

Veil: Priscilla of Boston

Rehearsal Dinner Dress: Diane von Furstenburg

Shoes: Badgley Mischka, Salsa in ivory

Earrings: Nina 

Hair Comb (for reception): Nordstrom, Cara Vintage Hair Comb

Bracelet: gift from mother-in-law
Hair and Makeup: Wedding Tresses


Nails: Star Nails

Groom
Tuxedo: Vera Wang for Men's Warehouse

Bow Tie: Tie Bar
Shoes: Cole Haan
Wedding Ring: Wooden, hand made by Ebeniste on Etsy

Bridesmaids
Dresses: J. Crew - chiffon eggplant in the cut of their choice

Shoes: Anything pewter and not too strappy of their choice
Necklace/Earrings: Double stranded pearls and pearl studs (gifted from me)
Hair and Makeup: Wedding Tresses (or themselves!)
Nails: Star Nails

Groomsmen
Tuxedos: Vera Wang for Men's Warehouse

Shoes: Their own...anything BUT the shiny ones

Vendors
Church: Our Lady of Mercy Chapel, Salve Regina University


Reception: The Regatta Place

Caterer: The Regatta Place
Transportation: Newport Wedding Trolley

Ceremony Music: Ben Healy, organist
Reception Music: The Ivy Leaf
Florist: Carlone's Florist


Cake: The French Confection

Photographer: Ashley DaCruz Photography
Invitations: A Printable Press

Invitation Calligraphy: Hyegraph Calligraphy, San Francisco
Registry: Sur la Table, Macy's, and Pottery Barn
Rehearsal Dinner: Sardella's
Friday Night Get Together: Crowley's

Misc.
Wedding Party Accommodations: Rental house found on VRBO.com
Guest Accommodations: Newport Hospitality Group
Bridal Suite for night before wedding/getting ready day of: Hotel Viking Marble House Suite
Off-site Photography Location: Ochre Court, Newport RI

My Master Wedding List
Bride
Gown: Priscilla of Boston
Veil: Priscilla of Boston
Shoes: Badgley Mischka, Salsa in ivory
Earrings: Nina
Hair Clip (for reception): Nordstrom, Cara Vintage Hair Comb
Bracelet: gift from mother-in-law
Hair and Makeup: Wedding Tresses
Nails: Star Nails
Groom
Tuxedo: Vera Wang for Men's Warehouse
Bow Tie: Tie Bar
Shoes: Cole Haan
Wedding Ring: Hand-made wooden ring from Ebeniste on Etsy
Bridesmaids
Dresses: J. Crew - chiffon eggplant in the cut of their choice
Shoes: Anything pewter and not too strappy of their choice
Necklace/Earrings: Double stranded pearls and pearl studs (gifted from me)
Hair and Makeup: Wedding Tresses (or themselves!)
Nails: Star Nails
Groomsmen
Tuxedos: Vera Wang for Men's Warehouse
Shoes: Their own...anything BUT the shiny ones
Vendors
Church: Our Lady of Mercy Chapel, Salve Regina University
Reception: The Regatta Place
Caterer: The Regatta Place
Transportation: Newport Wedding Company
Ceremony Music: Ben Healy, organist
Reception Music: The Ivy Leaf
Florist: Carlone's Florist
Cake: The French Confection
Photographer: Ashley DaCruz Photography
Invitations: A Printable Press
Invitation Calligraphy: Hyegraph Calligraphy, San Francisco
Registry: Sur la Table, Macy's, and Pottery Barn
Rehearsal Dinner: Sardella's
Friday Night Get Together: Crowley's
Misc.
Wedding Party Accommodations: Rental house found on VRBO.com
Guest Accommodations: Newport Hospitality Group
Bridal Suite for night before wedding/getting ready day of: Hotel Viking Marble House Suite
Off-site Photograph Location: Ochre Court



Use your resources, namely family and friends! It's an exciting time in your life and theirs. Many will want to help...take advantage of this! I am a person that has a generally hard time accepting help from people, but that changed in the case of my wedding. People love weddings and, if they love you, they will love to help in any way they can. Let them. This is how I let people help me:

1) Wedding favors....oh, wedding favors. I heavily disliked the bulk of what was out there in the wedding favor field. Trivial items at high cost that people have no use for? No thank you! But I couldn't just nix the wedding favor gesture--people were traveling near and far to celebrate the beginning of our marriage and I had to show thanks somehow. And I didn't want to show my thanks through giving them a candle that had Garrett & Audrey 7.22.12 engraved on it. Would they really want that on display in their own home? I didn’t think so. Thus…

         These were the ideas that crossed my mind: flip flops for dancing, personalized bottles of wine (the local vineyard offers these), tiny bracelets attached to a poem that was about tying the knot...but everything was so expensive. And, other than the wine, I didn't love those ideas enough to spend top dollar on.

o   Cue Pinterest and Etsy browsing and stumbling upon favors of jams and jellies with quirky personalized labels...ah ha! THIS I could make happen. With the help of others, of course.

§  My mother has been making homemade jam on an almost yearly basis for as long as I can remember. She had been looking for ways to help with the wedding planning, so when I asked if she could make a batch (or hundred) of her homemade strawberry jam as wedding favors she readily agreed.

§  Pinterest gave me the idea of having labels that read "Spread the Love / Garrett & Audrey / 7.22.12" on the jam, but I wasn't quite sure how to execute them. Plenty of vendors sold personalized labels on Etsy and there were free printouts available online, so I was going to go with one or the other, until I mentioned the labels to my sister Lizzie. Lizzie is a master of many things and, fortunately for me, label designing just so happens to be one of them! After asking what we were looking for, she designed a few for me to choose from, and they were perfect! In addition to designing the labels, she took care of printing them too. Yeah, I know, I’ve got a pretty sweet sister.

§  Come wedding week, all we had to do was peel the labels and stick them to the jars. My mom, Garrett's mom, Annie, and Lizzie, along with a couple of friends helped with this task (thanks, guys!).

§  Not a jar of jam was left at the end of the reception.

This is the label that we chose for the jars...

...and this is the label that we used for the tops!
(picture of assembled jam jar to come)

2) My sisters were (and still are) ah-mazing. I could write a book about how much they helped me plan, organize, assemble, budget...the list goes on and on. For the sake of this post, though, I'll share the physical things that they contributed to my wedding.

         After browsing through wedding DIY ideas, I decided that I wanted to use wine corks as place card holders. After expressing this to my sister Lizzie and her fiancé Kevin, they jumped at wanting to help. Kevin had been collecting wine corks for years and generously offered to be our supplier. We were thrilled at his kind gesture and eagerness to help. Especially because, although I had been collecting wine corks for some time, I did not nearly have enough to fill my needs. With Kevin's offer came a major item off of my to-do list!

o   For the place card holders, we cut off the bottom of the cork so it would sit flat and cut a slit along the top for the card to sit in. Easy, but laborious. I'm horrible at this kind of thing (I can barely cut paper in a straight line with scissors), so again, I was lucky to have the help of the abovementioned women a couple of days before my wedding.
The wind blew our wine cork place cards over...but they still looked good!


Awesome sister help story #2:

o   I'm not sure if it's a Newport thing or a current day thing, but many of the churches and venues that we met with while planning did not want the flower girl to throw flower petals. Thank goodness for clever florists that are ahead of the game and offer kissing balls, a round ball made of real or silk flowers that the flower girl carries by a handle. No thanks, though, to the cost of these kissing balls. $60 for a ball of faux flowers (recommended for children, real flowers would be destroyed too easily) that a six year old girl will mostly have in pieces by the end of the day? No way, José!

§  After looking over the florist's proposal to see where we could cut our numbers, my sister Annie offered to make the kissing ball herself (her daughter, Lucy, was our flower girl). I immediately accepted the offer. It looked great AND stayed pretty throughout the day. It was something that Lucy got to take home for our wedding, too, which I hope she enjoyed.
Just LOOK at those beautiful colors in the beautiful kissing ball!

Who has two thumbs and the best sisters ever? This girl, that’s who.


3) As I've mentioned before, I used A Printable Press for my Save the Dates and Invitation set. My OCD wanted to keep all of the wedding stationery consistent, so I wanted the ceremony program and menu to match the "By the Shore" template that we used from Printable Press. They didn't offer ceremony program or menu templates but gave us the go ahead to use their design to make our own. Yay! Step one: completed. Step two: who could we find that was savvy enough to make programs and menus for us?

         I barely had to ask around before an offer fell into my lap. A co-worker of Garrett's father, Diane, offered to help us at no cost. How lucky were we? I'd never even met her before! Diane was so, so generous and provided us with a perfect end product of ceremony programs, menus, AND place cards that came from both A Printable Press's template and my type-ups.

Here's the PDF version of our menu.

And here it is, nestled in a napkin!
 (the ceremony program will be a whole other story)


We were really, really lucky in all of the help that we received from others. There was SO much more help from other people involved in our wedding, but I thought that above might 1) encourage other brides to not be afraid to ask for/accept help and 2) see how wonderful accepting the help of others can turn out!


I LOVED my bouquet, so I definitely didn't want to just toss it after our wedding was done. I did throw it, though; luckily Garrett's cousin Sarah returned it to me after she caught it. Thank you, Sarah, I really appreciated that.

I loved my bouquet so much that I traveled back from Rhode Island to Arizona with it in my hands. Yep, I carried it through the airport, clasped onto it while I was sleeping on the plane, and stuck it under my arm when I had to lug around my other bags. If that's not commitment, I don't know what is. I mean, look how pretty (I'm talking the bouquet, not me):


After schlepping my bouquet across country, I hung it upside down in my apartment for about two weeks, until everything was well and dry. After that, I stuck it in an empty mason jar (one left over from our homemade wedding favors), and it now sits on a shelf in our living room.






Yay!



This weekend, I took on the task of repurposing my wedding invitations into an ornament. How, you ask? Well, I went off of this Pinterest idea:


But this is what mine ended up looking like:


So, it didn't turn out quite as good. But I still love the idea!

You will need four items: one wedding invitation, a glass or plastic see-through Christmas ornament, scissors, and a pen.

1) Start with your wedding invitation. Cut it into small strips (about 1/4" worked for me...the mouth of my ornament was pretty small).


2) Twist strips of invitation around a pen.


3) Remove top from ornament and insert the now-twisted invitation pieces into the ornament. Note: pieces will stay curlier if the ornament mouth is larger (the one on mine was pretty small).


4) Replace top onto the ornament and hang!





If you're on a budget and don’t have excess money to spend on small details, take advantage of DIY projects as much as possible. Doing my own flower arrangements, etc. was too ambitious for me, but I felt up to the task of adding small personal touches to the reception via smaller DIY projects.


                
DIY Table Numbers

Ashley DaCruz Photography

Products you will need:

You will need frames, craft paper, spray paint, and numbers. This is what I used:

IKEA Kvill Frame, $4.99 each   
     *Craft paper from Michael's, priced roughly$.45 each. I got 9 sheets for the 9 tables. Each one
      had a different pattern but had either purple or gray coloring.
     *Spray paint, Michael's $3.87/can. Purchased one purple and one gray (sorry, can’t remember
      the brand).
     *Mailbox post numbers, metal, Home Depot numbers 1-9. $1.99 each.


Steps to follow:
1) Separate front and back parts of frame, remove glass and set aside
2) Lie frames out flat on a cloth or something that you don't mind getting spray paint on
3) Spray an even coat of spray paint on the face-up side of each frame, using whatever color you desire
4) Let dry (read spray paint bottle for indication of dry time)
5) When one side is dry, flip it over and spray the other side, and allow that side to dry
6) Repeat as necessary until you get desired opaqueness
7) Cut sheets of paper to fit in frame
8) Replace glass in frame
9) Center number on top of glass, facing out. Make sure that it is placed correctly!
10) Lay paper behind number, with the pattern facing away from you
11) Close frame together...and you're done!

Total Cost: $4.99 (9) + $.45(9) + 3.87(2) + $1.99(9) = $74.61, or $8.29 per table number




Ashley DaCruz Photography


I was really, really worried about buying my wedding dress. I’d been looking at wedding dress catalogues since I was 12. My favorite designers were among the likes of Priscilla of Boston, Oscar de la Renta, and Monique Lhuillier. After studying their designs for years, there was no way that I was going to buy a dress from David’s Bridal (not that there is anything wrong with David’s Bridal…it just isn’t what I wanted). I knew that I was bound for a big price tag, and I knew that my pockets weren’t deep enough to cover it. I made a deal with myself: if I didn’t find a dress at Priscilla of Boston (favorite designer of all), I would try a couple of small local boutiques. If I didn’t find a dress there, I would try David’s Bridal. If I found a dress that was too expensive, I would find a seamstress to copy it. If I found a dress at David’s Bridal, I would find a seamstress to copy it. Are you stressed out yet? I was.

My first bridal appointment was with the Priscilla of Boston in San Francisco. It was a wonderful experience but, luckily, I didn’t find anything that I liked. My sister, the San Franciscan, told me she would join me in Scottsdale a few weeks later and we’d scope out a few wedding boutiques.

In the meantime, I got an email from the Priscilla of Boston server saying that they were having a sample sale at their Scottsdale store. It was being held on a day that I would have normally worked but for some reason had off. I already felt like it was fate. I went to Priscilla that morning, waited outside of the doors with about 10 other women, and busted in at 8:00. I leafed through the dresses, paused at one that had pretty detailing but a plain shape, and kept going. After going through all of the dresses, I only pulled one off of the rack. I went back to the one with pretty detailing and grabbed it.

The first dress that I tried on was beautiful, but not awe-inspiring. The second dress I tried—the one I thought to be plain—was the one. I knew it instantly. You see, it hung on the hanger as if it had no shape—but when I put it on, it seemed instantly that it was made for my body. Shit, I thought to myself, I found it! I love it! And I’m all by myself. I got over that sadness pretty quickly, though, because I just found my wedding dress!

 I stepped out into the main parlor and people stopped in their tracks to stare. Yep, I thought, this is it! It didn’t have a price tag. I had a limit that I needed to adhere to, so I got a little nervous. When the associate came back to tell me the price, I almost collapsed. With glee. It was half of what I’d saved up to buy. In that moment, I didn’t care if I changed my mind down the road…hell, I would be able to sell this dress for more off of eBay if I wanted to. I bought it. And I never changed my mind. And it was absolutely perfect.






(Photos courtesy of Ashley DaCruz Photography)


So here’s some advice for buying your wedding dress, whether or not you’re on a budget:

  Don’t sell yourself short. If your wedding dress is really important to you, like it was to me, try hard to get what you want. Trying hard includes going to sample sales and trunk shows. If you want a high-end dress but don’t have a high-end budget, the two are a must.

  Go into appointments with an idea of what you want. Lace? Tulle? Mermaid style, empire waist? That being said, be open minded to trying on new things. I knew that I wanted lace, a fitted bodice, and a timeless look. However, what I ended up with was different from many of the clippings that I had pulled out of magazines. You never know what flatters your body until you try it on.

  Don’t romanticize “the moment” of finding your dress before you actually find it—this may lead to disappointment. I was a little upset that I found my dress without a family member or friend by my side, but that sadness only lasted for a moment. But that’s just me—if it’s important for you to be surrounded by family and friends during bridal appointments, then make it happen. Just be ready for the possibility of strong opposing opinions.  Just remember, it’s all about the dress, and how it makes you feel.

  I reiterate: it’s all about the dress. (And in my case, the veil. But that’s another story for another time.)




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