Real Wedding
I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! I love to start off our week by featuring a reader's real wedding...for some reason, the creativity and approachability of the weddings that you guys create just completely inspires me for the week. So, that is just what we are doing today!
Ameleah sent me these pictures from her July wedding...brace yourselves people, this wedding is STUNNING...
The sweet but sophisticated color palette, the dreamy ambiance, the abundance of gorgeous flowers...everything is magical. But what I love most about this wedding is that Ameleah designed this fairytale on budget! And, she is here today to share with us her vision and her practical ideas for creating magazine-worthy style while keeping your budget in check!
From Ameleah...
When we first got engaged I had a million grand
ideas floating around in my head fueled by all the gorgeous weddings featured in
bridal magazines and on the internet, but I knew that we couldn't have
everything and stay within our budget. We set our priorities early on and that
guided our decisions about where to splurge and where to save. We decided on a
summer garden wedding. The look we were going for was fresh and casual yet
elegant. Our top priorities were the flowers and food.
We ended up spending the most money on these two elements, but we got creative to come up with ways to save as well. We also used this reasoning to pick out the elements we were willing to compromise on in other areas. When I looked at invitations I found that I was drawn to simple invitations on lux paper. Ideally I would have loved letterpress, but it just wasn't in the budget. I ended up buying lettra letterpress paper in bulk from Crane then designing our save the dates and programs myself, a talented friend designed our invitations, and had them printed and cut at kinkos. I ended up with invitations on the high quality paper I loved, but at a fraction of the cost.
More to come, so stay tuned!
Absolutely gorgeous! So clean and fresh looking! I love the light colored suit that the groom is wearing... any idea where that is from?
Posted by: Jessica | March 24, 2008 at 08:15 AM
Hi! Ameleah here. We actually rented the suits from Jim's Formalwear, it’s called the Alfresco Tuxedo. They have retailers across the country. The cost to rent the jacket and pants was a little under $100 each. We purchased the shirts and ties for the groomsmen and they provided their own dark brown shoes.
Posted by: Ameleah | March 24, 2008 at 09:55 AM
Wow, the flowers are amazing! There was a budget? I can't wait to see more. I would love to know where the wedding took place. Looks amazing.
Posted by: Amy | March 24, 2008 at 10:12 AM
Absolutely beautiful, and the photography is breathtakng!
Posted by: Jessica | March 24, 2008 at 10:44 AM
Incredible wedding. Can you tell me where the bridesmaids dresses are from?
Posted by: Laura | March 24, 2008 at 12:51 PM
Jessica - The bridesmaids dresses were purchased on sale at BCBG. I asked my girls what size they wear and purchased the dresses off the rack. It was a gamble, but I think all the girls felt comfortable in their dresses!
Posted by: Ameleah | March 24, 2008 at 01:09 PM
The flowers are fabulous! What were the resources for the DIY flowers, especially the archway?
Posted by: Melissa | March 24, 2008 at 06:34 PM
Your wedding was beautiful! I love the flowergirl dresses, where did you get them?
Posted by: Sara | March 25, 2008 at 09:55 AM