Guess what?! Today’s my 2nd wedding anniversary! Yay! Unlike pretty much every other girl in the world, I never had any desire to have a wedding. No dreams of a princess dress or…um…whatever else girls dream about. Even though I’ve never really understood the whole wedding obsession, I know other girls really like wedding porn, so I figured this was a good occasion to share some of my favorite photos from my own big day – because it was awesome.
Now before I get to the good stuff, let me just say I don’t mean to offend all the women who spend tens of thousands of dollars on their weddings, but for the life of me I will never understand it. By all means, if your life will be ruined without a big, expensive, textbook perfect wedding, don’t let me stop you! But if you’re recently engaged and starting to feel the pressure of the wedding industry crushing you like a swan-shaped ice sculpture, I’m here to tell you: DON’T GIVE IN! You will never look back on your wedding and think, “I wish I had spent more money.” Figure out what’s important and what you can do without. In our case, what was important was having a wedding that reflected us a couple, having a kick-ass time with our closest friends and family, and doing it all for about $5,000. Unique and cheap.
I’m happy to say we succeeded! So with that background in mind, here are some highlights from July 23, 2011, complete with some tips for anyone else who’s trying to plan a unique and cheap wedding. Enjoy!
Oh, and in case there’s any confusion, yes, I am married to another lady. Well, the state of Indiana doesn’t think so [edit 2015: THEY DO NOW!!!], but we do. And yes, I wore black. Because I’m cool like that. You know what else is cool? We made these little cake toppers!
Unique wedding tip: We went with a game night theme, including a table of games at the reception. Because who’s going to care whether you have peony or ranunculus centerpieces when they’re busy playing Apples to Apples?
We started the fun early with these Mad Lib-style RSVP cards – which we printed at home on Target stationery, by the way.
The fun and games continued with these personalized crossword puzzles that were passed out with the programs. Oh, I made the programs too. Just had to buy the paper and ink, and then a cute stamp and twine for decoration. (That’s a cheap and unique wedding tip!)
Cheap wedding tip: Make your own bouquet! I found lots of instructional videos online, then went to a florist who gave me some unsellable flowers for free so I could practice. Then we both made our own bouquets the day before and kept them in water in the church fridge so they stayed fresh.
Cheap wedding tip: We found a friend of a friend with an affinity for photography (see her blog here) who took our lovely photos. We didn’t need to spend thousands on a professional wedding photographer to make our wedding party look awesome because they did it all on their own. So I guess another tip is to have good-looking friends like these!
Unique wedding tip: Everyone and their sister has the same staged wedding party pics. Come up with something truly original and it may just turn into one of you favorite memories. I call this one “Shakespearean Ending.”
Cheap wedding tip: We bridged the gap between open bar and cash bar by buying the first 2 rounds for everyone. No one went thirsty, and no one got wasted. That I know of, anyway.
Cheap and unique wedding tip: We didn’t start our ceremony until 6:30 so everyone had time to eat dinner before. Then at the reception we just served an array of tasty hors d’oeuvres, including a late night snack of popcorn.
This one isn’t a tip. These cupcakes were just freaking delicious.
Unique wedding tip: To tie into the game night theme (and to avoid the hassle of making a seating chart), we set up a table for DIY place cards with colored markers and stickers.
Unique wedding tip: We had guests sign puzzle pieces instead of a boring guest book. And wouldn’t you know it…puzzles are also a type of game! When we do a theme, WE DO A THEME.
We used a lot of Scrabble tiles and old photos to decorate various tables. It was also a good reminder of whose wedding it was. In case anyone was lost.
There you have it! Our special day. Happy anniversary, babe!
If anyone has any questions, please leave a comment below and I will be sure to answer it.
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