Real Wedding, III
I thought you guys might like to hear a bit more about Ameleah’s wedding…
From Ameleah…
We saved a lot by thinking outside the box when it came to finding our ceremony and reception locations. I wanted an outdoor garden wedding. We looked at a lot of venues, but most had steep site fees and none of them really wowed us. My husband’s family offered to host our ceremony in their back yard and it was perfect, a beautiful, personal location with no site fee! We ended up having our reception at my husband’s favorite Irish pub. The pub is in a gorgeous historic building with high ceilings, wood floors and lovely details. I love historic homes and can’t imagine living in a modern space so this fit my personality perfectly. We had the entire top floor for the day, it included tables, chairs, basic white linens and there was no site fee! It isn’t your typical wedding venue, but we were willing to be flexible and it saved us a lot of money.
We served our guests horse d oeuvres, a delicious three course plated meal and had an open bar. I’ll be honest, we probably didn’t receive the level of service that we would have gotten from a venue that does hundreds of weddings a year. We had to be very specific in what we wanted, double and triple check everything and their attention to detail wasn’t the greatest, but I am probably the only person that noticed the tables were not set up correctly or that the servers didn’t come around to offer wine before the main course was served.
We kept our guest list small. We only invited our families and closest friends. This whittled the guest list down to 90 people. It was tough at times because our parents frequently wanted to add great aunt so and so or their good friend from college, but we wouldn’t budge on this. I love that we had a close, personal relationship with every single person at our wedding.
We took a chance and hired a wedding photographer that was just starting out. I know this is something that many people wouldn’t be willing to do, but we really liked our photographer and we ended up with some very good pictures and a lot of pretty good pictures. There are certainly moments when I wish we would have splurged on a high end photographer that could have given us more polished images, but this is undeniably one of the elements that made it possible for us to stay within our budget.
Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!I am gawking at these lovely photos...Ameleah, you did a wonderful job at creating a personal, chic, elegant wedding! Boy, I wish we knew you so we could have been invited! :) Two questions: What type of vase did you use for the lovely centerpieces you made? And whereabouts (state) was the event?
Hi Rachel - Thank you for the kind comments! Our wedding was in Portland, Oregon. I originally ordered vases from Jamali Garden for our centerpieces, but when I received them, they ended up being too big. Since we were using banquet tables lined up family style, our centerpieces needed to be small, about 6" wide each. The smaller size vase at Jamali garden was out of stock until well after our wedding so I ended up using large chocolate brown paper boxes for the "vase". I removed the top, lined them in saran wrap, trimmed the edge and used floral foam to arrange the flowers. They were so inexpensive! I would have preferred to use the dark bronze colored vases from jamali garden, but since they were out of stock, I had to improvise!
Portland! I knew your street shot looked familiar. I bet you saved some $$ by not having to pay sales tax in Oregon!
I cant believe you only spent around 12k for the whole wedding! Everything looks absolutely beautiful!! You did a fantastic job.
Wow...you really brought a dream into a reality (with a small budget!). I have got to know where you bought your parasols. They are adorable and really adds that touch of whimsy and yet so elegant. Congratulations!
This is a beautiful , tasteful and perfect wedding! Ameleah, kudos! I am a wedding planner and do weddings from 50k-250k and some of my favorite weddings are the simple stylish on a budget weddings. Anything is possible with some hard work, creativity and vision. You proved it! Congrats and best of luck to you!
Angela Nelson
Lulu Events
San Francisco CA
I apologize, but my comments keep posting twice. I have NO idea why. Ameleah, thank you for giving such detail on the centerpieces, what a great idea with the boxes. Do you floral arrange for a living? I have several other questions for you. Is there an email address I can reach you at?
Hi Rachel. No, I don't do floral arranging for a living. I have done flowers for several of my friend's weddings and I really enjoy it, but its just a hobby. If you have more questions you can email me at langtonhall@gmail.com.
Katie- I purchased my parasols from http://www.orientaltrading.com/ ." rel="nofollow">http://www.orientaltrading.com/. > They are the paper "paint your own" parasols.
Simply amazing. I am in awe. The flowers are just gorgeous. I am really hoping to stay around $15k for our wedding. You've given me hope that it's possible! Congratulations!
Your wedding is very elegant! I was wondering you you got your white parasols from? I am looking for something similar and it from the pictures yours look so beautiful.
Thanks!
wow - just wow, stunning pictures and stunning wedding. amazing job :).
i have a question, if you don't mind me asking, how did you guys come up with a playlist for you wedding being you had a new dj? we're having a really tough time figuring out what is "people/dance" friendly. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Ameleah, Thanks for sharing your wedding! Actually, we will soon be holding our wedding at the same restaurant. I would love to talk to you more about your experiences working with them, how the layout worked, etc. Is there anyway for us to connect? Are you on TheKnot or could Abby exchange our emails?
Hi Erin! Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! I would love to talk with you about our experience with Kells. You can email me at langtonhall@gmail.com.
Oh my gosh, this is one of the most beautiful weddings that I have ever seen. Kudos to you. I am especially enamoured of your arch. Please share the DIY on it. I would like to have an arch, but I haven't seen anything that I like already made.
This wedding is gorgeous! How encouraging to see that a beautiful wedding can be done on a budget. I was wondering if anyone could tell me where the mens suits are from? I love the color and am looking for similar suits that are affordable. Thanks for the inspiration. .. :)
Wow i love this wedding.
Just wondering where you got the letters to cover in moss?
wow i love this wedding..
where did you get the letters that you covered in moss?