Real Wedding, II
Here are a few more images and details from Nole’s wonderful little wedding…
More details from Nole…
In order to stay in our budget, we kept our guest list to only our closest family and friends (around 50 people) and prioritized some wedding elements (such as food and photography) over others (such as floral arrangements). We also tried to do as many DIY projects as we could.
We made most of the big decisions pretty early on, including our color palette, flower choices (but not a florist, which came much later), caterer, bakery, and photographer. For the flowers, I knew that I wanted a bouquet of lilacs and sweet peas, ever since I’d seen a similar bouquet in Martha Stewart Weddings a couple of years ago. For the reception, I wanted a mix of spring flowers — peonies, ranunculus, anemonies, etc. — in shades of purple and white.
For our caterer, my husband and I are both big foodies, so having great food at our wedding was a big priority. We also knew that we wanted a global-inspired tapas meal service for the reception, and worked with our caterer to develop a menu that included Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Latin dishes with enough choices to satisfy all of our guests. For the cake, we used three 9″ cakes from a famous DC bakery called CakeLove, which makes just the most amazing cakes and cupcakes. Our families are big coffee and tea drinkers, so we also bought heart-shaped sugar cubes and sugar swizzle sticks from Sur La Table to use as sweeteners when the coffee and tea was served with dessert.
For photography, it was important to us that we have a photojournalist-style photographer that would document the entire day, particularly as we had some important family members (my grandmother) who were not able to travel for our wedding. We found our photographer, the amazing Punam Bean, via Weddingbee, and instantly fell in love with her work and documentary-style approach to wedding photography.
Throughout the planning, we looked for ways to save that wouldn’t affect the overall look and feel of the day…we saved a lot by having a friend play the music for the ceremony and using our iPod to provide the music during the reception, both which probably saved us thousands of dollars. We only served wine (which we purchased directly) rather than having an open bar at the reception. And we find a lot of our decorations on ebay, including the mason jars used to hold the floral arrangements and moroccan lanterns which lined the entrance path to the venue.
We ultimately spent around $13,000 on the wedding, so we didn’t do too bad – particularly since we live in one of the most expensive cities in the country!
We have MANY more pictures to come, so stay tuned!
just beautiful!!
Wow, I am so in love with this wedding! Every details is so beautiful!
the photo under the tree is so amazing! you get such a beautiful sense of the two of you together in that exact moment and place - simply amazing!
such a beautiful wedding!
Wow! The details in this wedding serve as beautiful inspiration for a bride in planning! Elegant, understated, and simply gorgeous :)
Wow! Another DC bride on a similar budget... This serves as reassurance that IT CAN BE DONE! I love the Damask table runner. The colors are exquisite. Nothing beats a cake from Cake Love! BRAVO!!
Beautiful! This is exactly the style wedding I want to have (and to spend!) but in the Atlanta area. Any suggestions out there? I love Serenbe but I don't think we can do it with a limited budget.
AWWW!! So cute! LOVE the little details. :)
I'm still on the hunt for a good caterer in the DC area. Do you mind sharing who you used?
What a gorgeous wedding! I think you have captured my dream... Can I ask where those globe centerpieces are from?
Hi Vanessa - we used BasiKneads as our caterer and would highly recommend them for your wedding. You can find our vendor info and reviews on our knot bios - the links are contained in Abby's third post on our wedding. Send me an e-mail if you want a more detailed review or advice on working with them.
Hi Julie - the globes were from Anthropologie. I think they're completely sold out now, but every now and then a few pop up on ebay. But depending on how you plan to use them, you can find tons of small vintage globes on ebay for pretty cheap. You could arrange a few in a cluster as a great centerpiece arrangement. Good luck!
Gorgeous! Really, really gorgeous!
I love the simplicity and beauty of the details. Gorgeous
Hi Nole,
Wow it was certainly a beautiful wedding! How did you manage a Monique L'huillier dress on a $13,000 budget??
Hi Alyce...Abby here. Just wanted to let you know that she bought the dress used from someone. Isn't it gorgeous!?
Hi Nole, What lovely pictures! I have been wondering how couples are managing their ipods while enjoying their weddings. Did you enlist a friend? You have any tips to keep the music flowing smoothly all night?
Hi Abby -- our Day-of Coordinator managed the iPod, although my brother took care of setting it up. I created a wedding playlist literally the night before our wedding and just set it on "shuffle." Our reception lasted roughly three hours, but my playlist was well over four hours, so we didn't have to worry about the music running out. And since we weren't planning to have a first dance or other specific dances, we didn't need to worry about managing the music flow too much. But if either of those issues had been a concern for us, then yes, we would have asked a friend or two to play iPod DJ for us over the evening.
Hi Nole--
I'm another DC bride on a budget, and am also thinking of going the iPod route for the reception. Did you rent a sound system for your wedding, or did the venue provide the equipment? If it was the former, would you mind sharing the name of the rental company?
Thanks!
Hi Liz!
We used our own equipment - literally just one of the Bose iPod speaker units. Since we had a small reception, we didn't need anything larger, but if you needed a more powerful soundsystem, I'd suggest working with an event rental company (your florist or caterer can typically help you with this) to rent a larger sound system and any other necessary equipment.
I hope that helps!
Hi Nole- Your wedding was just beautiful! I was wondering where you got the white vases? Did you rent them or purchase them? I love the look of them and really would like to duplicate it in my wedding decor.