First and foremost, I hope everyone had a nice, lazy weekend! If you haven’t already, I would LOVE for you to email me (abby@abbyjeanpress) your info (name/closest city/age) for my upcoming “little black book.” Not to worry, all information will remain completely confidential. Secondly, I wanted to let you know that I have posted the Winners of the Inspiration Board Contest. Thanks again to everyone!
During our Inspiration Board contest, I fell in love with Avalon’s board…the colors, the styles, everything. It seemed to me to be the perfect board, so I was curious to know how her actual wedding translated. Brace yourselves people, this is going to be good.
Here are some photos from her recent wedding…
(photos by Amy Schubert)
Now here is the real kicker…Avalon and her fiance had this beautiful affair for under 20k. Yep, you heard me right. They managed to design a magazine-worthy wedding for under twenty thousand dollars. The average wedding in America costs roughly $30,000. And let’s face it, the average wedding in America…looks nothing like this!!
So, Avalon has been kind enough to share with us some of her cost saving tips, for an oh-so-chic wedding:
1. Prioritize. When you don’t have a huge budget, it’s essential to focus on a few excellent ideas you can execute well than to try to accomplish too much and spread yourself thin. I would caution you to really think twice about buying an expensive dress if you are having a lower budget wedding. Everyone will think you look beautiful on your wedding day no matter what, and there may be areas where an extra thousand dollars will make a bigger difference.
2. Be flexible. Although it wouldn’t have been our first choice, a Friday morning wedding gave us a lot of leverage with vendors who would have otherwise declined to work within our relatively small budget. We ended up loving our intimate brunch and now we can’t imagine having done it any other way.
3. Pick a low-cost venue. Look at parks, museums, and other lower cost alternatives. These sites can also cut down on the amount of decorations you need by providing dramatic (and free) backdrops.
4. Choose vendors carefully. In most cases, we couldn’t afford the vendors whose portfolios we loved. Instead, we chose those we could talk to and showed them a lot of pictures we liked. It took some micro managing, but we ended up with great results for a fraction of the cost.
5. Do it yourself. Make as much as you can yourselves, but only if it will save money AND look good.
6. Don’t over-do-it-yourself. DIY has its advantages, but too many projects will just make you feel stressed out and weary. We only did what we felt we could pull off expertly. A homemade feel can be charming, but if projects look too unfinished, it may be better not to do them at all.
7. Buy it yourself when possible. We were able to buy our own alcohol, which definitely saved money. We also bought a lot of décor items, like vases, trays, and frames, which we now use in our home. Our vases cost less than the cheapest options our florist gave us and we got to shop around for styles we loved.
8. Splurge selectively. It’s counterintuitive, but spending extra on a few key areas will focus people’s attention and they probably won’t notice other things are missing. Having an espresso bar wasn’t necessary, but definitely made our brunch seem more special. We decided letterpress invitations would be an awesome way to set the tone for our wedding, even though they cost more.
9. It’s all in the details. I think this is the most important tip. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Repeating your color scheme and various themes with some subtlety is key for a pulled together look. We used stamps to repeat the birds and leaves motif from our invitations on the escort cards, guest book, and table numbers. We couldn’t afford to make welcome baskets, so instead we made packets of information on our home computer in coordinating colors and distributed them with locally made chocolates.
10. Don’t forget it’s a party. It should be fun, and most of all, it should reflect the two of you. Getting wrapped up in the “once in a lifetime” way of thinking makes it easy to overspend. Try to remember that the event is a celebration of your love and not a competition. I guarantee you won’t even care if things don’t go exactly as planned when it is all said and done.
Comment by Maria Cooke on 4 September 2007:
Beautiful! This is great advice - especially the splurge selectively bit.
Comment by Oh Happy Blog on 4 September 2007:
I am impressed… somehow reality was able to outshine the vision… and on a budget- BRAVO! I really love the subtle touches that bring cohesiveness to the event- the table mimicking the dress… the colors throughout… the cake’s modern design… I try to tell ALL my brides, but especially the budget brides that a cohesive flow, a “branding” of sorts will polish off even the MOST budget-concious affair…
LOVE LOVE LOVE and can’t wait to see more before/afters
Comment by Kelly on 4 September 2007:
Yeah… before and afters! What an awesome idea. I think this is my favorite part. Cant wait to see more.
By the way Avalon your wedding is simply stunning… bravo! Hope my June wedding will be magazine worthy!
Comment by Anna Bella on 4 September 2007:
Abby,
It’s been so fun to watch your blog evolve into this amazing information hub for everything wedding related! Best wishes - can’t wait to see what’s next!!
-Dawn
Comment by katie on 4 September 2007:
I’m looking for vases for my wedding to hold the bridesmaids bouquets at the reception. Been looking lots, but haven’t found anything great. Does anyone have any good tips where to find reasonably priced fun vases?
Comment by Lauren on 4 September 2007:
I love her dress! I was hoping to find out what is is and where its from, Thank you!
Comment by Avalon on 4 September 2007:
Thank you all so much for your kind words.
Katie - We purchased cheap ($3 - $5) vases from the Crate and Barrel outlet near us and from Cost Plus. The more sculptural ones were on sale at Kenneth Wingard for $10 - $15.
Lauren - My dress was from Jessica McClintock. It is called Isabella and is still available online. I purchased it in ivory.
Comment by Martha on 4 September 2007:
You picked the best inspiration board to showcase Abby. What a lovely bride and beautiful wedding.
Comment by Jessie on 4 September 2007:
Ever think of becoming a wedding planner Avalon?
Comment by Robyn on 4 September 2007:
BEAUTIFUL! My fiance and I are strongly considering a brunch/lunch reception. Avalon, I hope you don’t mind my asking, but I was wondering 2 things:
a. What was your timeline (time of wedding and start/finish time for reception)
b.What you served
Thanks so much for sharing your gorgeous day!
Comment by Avalon on 4 September 2007:
My husband and I want to say thank you to everyone for their sweet comments and to Abby, especially, for featuring our wedding!
Robyn - Our ceremony was from 11-11:30am and then we had our formal pictures on site while guests had mimosas and coffee drinks. The reception began around noon, we had brunch, a ton of toasts, and then mingling. The cake was cut at 2:30 and we were gone by 3:00…off to the airport for the honeymoon!
We had baskets of freshly baked breads and pastries on each table and a buffet with fruit and cheese platters, grilled chicken sausages, sliced honey smoked ham, oven roasted red creamer potatoes, “pie” with spinach, ricotta and parmesan, “pie” with pasta, onion, parmesan cheese and basil, smoked salmon filet with onions, capers, lemon, sliced tomatoes, fresh cream cheese and fresh baked small bagels.
Hope this helps.
Comment by Annie on 5 September 2007:
I love your bouquet!! What types of flowers did you use?
Comment by Sarah on 5 September 2007:
Avalon,
Thank you for being such an inspiration to all us brides who don’t want to break the bank when it comes your wedding. My fiance are trying to keep a smaller budget also so we can save up for our first home. Was it the friday morning brunch that help cut down most of the cost? Or was is carefully selecting vendors and alot of DIY projects
THANKS!
Comment by Avalon on 5 September 2007:
Annie - I wanted peonies, but they were just out of season. We used garden roses and blushing bride.
Sarah - I would say that it was a combination of everything…but the Friday morning brunch really helped keep costs low by making things like a dj, lots of alcohol, and lighting unnecessary. Of course, that means save the dates are a must to be courteous to your guests, most of whom have to take the day off work.
Comment by Nancy on 5 September 2007:
Avalon, you, your guy and your wedding were all gorgeous! I just love the sweets bar! It was so fun to look at and the colors were even coordinated there! Who would think to use powdered sugar mini donuts at a reception, but they just look amazing! Great job on the planning and the budgeting!
Comment by anney on 6 September 2007:
Thank you all so much for your kind words.
wedding jewelry wholesale http://www.lpearls.com/Wedding-jewelry/c129/index.html
Comment by TCB on 9 September 2007:
This wedding is gorgeous. I love all the ideas. Super cute. Did you have any problems w/ guests planning a Friday morning celebration?
Comment by Avalon on 11 September 2007:
Thank you! We sent out save the dates with maps and hotel block information almost one year in advance. Almost all of our guests were from Southern CA or out of state and most arranged to fly in on Thursday afternoon. We had a party for everyone at a cheap Mexican restaraunt on the water rather than having a small rehearsal dinner, which made it feel like more of a weekend event, even though we left for our honeymoon Friday afternoon. I think those who didn’t attend did so mostly for financial reasons related to planning a trip and not because of the Friday wedding. Good luck!
Comment by Avalon on 11 September 2007:
Thank you! We sent out save the dates with maps and hotel block information almost one year in advance. Almost all of our guests were from Southern CA or out of state and most arranged to fly in on Thursday afternoon. We had a party for everyone at a cheap Mexican restaraunt on the water rather than having a small rehearsal dinner, which made it feel like more of a weekend event, even though we left for our honeymoon Friday afternoon. I think those who didn’t attend did so mostly for financial reasons related to planning a trip and not because of the Friday wedding. Good luck!
Comment by emily on 16 September 2007:
What a beautiful wedding! This is seriously such an inspiration. Where did you find the chocolate brown suit? I’ve been looking all around for one and have only found pinstripe brown suits. Thank you!
Comment by Avalon on 19 September 2007:
We bought my husband’s suit at Zara in early August. They may still have it.
Comment by emily on 20 September 2007:
Thank you so much! We’ll be in SF soon and will have to see if they still carry this suit. Again, congratulations on putting together such a simple, artistic and elegant wedding
Comment by emily on 20 September 2007:
Thank you so much! We’ll be in SF soon and will have to see if they still carry this suit. Again, congratulations on putting together such a simple, artistic and elegant wedding
Comment by Jessica on 12 October 2007:
First off I have to tell you that you have given me hope that I can plan a beautiful wedding for around 20k (my budget)! I love the stamps you used for the table numbers and escort cards! Where did you find them?
Comment by Avalon on 15 October 2007:
Jessica - The table numbers are from the Martha Stewart craft line at Michael’s. The escort card numbers are from Paper Source. Good luck!