This is lizbobiz's Green Wedding!

So I was frazzled. I knew lady slipper would be expensive and I could not find fake ones anywhere! Thanks to my step-mom Sylvia and my dad (who actually didn't know about any of this) decided she wanted to buy my bridal bouquet. So YAY I get lady slipper orchids, but I have to keep the bouquet under $300. I have a few appointments with florists in the next couple of weeks so we will see how it goes!

Otherwise, I was thinking of casablanca lilies for the bridesmaids. Their bouquets will be fake, and we will be making them ourselves.

I also plan on making the boutineires (sp!) and corsages ourselves with fake flowers (Garden ridge seemed to have good prices).

This is a list of things that have been decided!

The location- $3000 The Hanging Gardens Event Center in Duncanville

My dress-$550 from David's bridal

The cakes-$801 (my cake is the yellow one--imagine it all white with green detailing where the black is) The bridal cake will serve 150 and the grooms cake will serve 85. We are getting the cakes from A and J's bakery in Dallas.

The Tuxes- $500 from Men's Warehouse (that's tuxes for the 5 groom's men, Tyler's tux, and one for the ringbearer)

The Bridesmaid's dresses- $68 from Forever 21. I dont have pictures but they are these cute little black dresses. My Aunt is a seamstress and will be doing the alterations.

The flower girl dress-$38 from Sears

The Photography- $1500 Lizzette photography, a great deal!

The DJ- I work with one $400

The Food- $1225, A carving station, 2 sides, rolls and tea. (including dinnerware!) That's a meal for $7 a head!

Save the date cards- $38 As seen in my introductory post. They were designed by my brother-in-law and we used Vista Print to print them super cheap. Will be doing the same thing for the invitations and response cards.

So total we have spent $5120.


So what's left?
Alcohol, but this will be cheaper than usual because we will be making the beet ourselves.

My veil, shoes, dress alterations, and hair.

Flowers- I hope to keep this expense low, we will be buying fake flowers and making the bouquets and boutinneires (sp!) ourselves. (My step mother offered to pay for my bouquet, so it will be real, but not included in the budget)

Personalized napkins and matchbooks. Plates and forks for the cakes.

The officiant. Need to pick that one soon!

The favors-- We will be doing magnets with our picture on them and seeds from the flowers that were used in the wedding.

Invitations and response cards--Thanks to my brother-in-law and Vista print!


Things I am not including in this list:

The Honeymoon- We are going to Maui for a week at a cost of $100 total. Thanks skymiles and my dad's high school friend with the condo!

The Rings- They will be bought on credit fromt he jewelry store, so I didn't feel it necessary to include them in the budget.


So, what am I missing?

I never thought I would ever blog but here I am! There are two main reasons for starting this thing:

First, I need to start getting organized (my bookmarks are really starting to fill up) so I have decided to keep this as a place for my ideas.

Second, I am doing a large wedding for under $10,000. I have found nothing helpful on other wedding websites on how to do a weding on a budget without giving up something major (like having a styrofoam cake or appetizers instead of a meal). I (so far) have been able to stay in my budget while still getting what I want and I want to let everyone out there know that it is doable.

I have an appointment with a florist this afternoon, and I hope everything goes well.

By the wat, I just wanted to say that on a day-to0day basis I am horrible with money. I always find myself wondering what happened to all my money and its a week before payday.