1. I worked full time at a bank, but I got a second temp job a Michael's craft store to save money for the wedding faster.

2. This was not my original wedding dress. I had ordered an ivory tea-length lace strapless dress from Blue Velvet vintage but I bought it too early, got too happy gained 15-lbs a month before the wedding. I couldn't zip the dress up and had to order a bigger dress. I went with a different style that I thought was more flattering anyway.

3. My Marilyn Monroe style dress cost $80. I think the site was called Discount Dress Up or something like that.  I removed the rhinestone brooch from the waist, my mother added the modesty panel to cover my excessive cleavage, and I made the crinoline by chopping up my stepmother's full length, full volume bridal petticoat.

3. I bought our shoes using gift cards from our wedding shower.

4. Speaking of wedding showers, we were blessed with four! I thrown by his church, one thrown by my church, one by my family, and one hosted by my coworkers. We scored so hard at those showers, and we were so grateful!!

5. I originally didn't have a color choice for my wedding. Well what I had pictured was every color but purple and orange. For some reason no one could understand that concept so out of sheer frustration I picked hot pink and orange with a punky-quirky theme. I soon realized that I was really just copying the bride's that I saw on the website Offbeat Bride and I wasn't really staying true to myself or my husband. I realized I was totally following a trend so I changed my colors to soft pink pink and pale yellow, with accents of Ivory and black. We didn't really have a theme but we were going for earthy, simple, and rustic.

6. Because I bit off more than I could chew, and didn't ask for enough help, our wedding reception was actually A MESS, but thanks to some quiet behind-the-scenes work, it turned out okay in the end. Well, I mean it turned out okay for our guests, but I was actually quite devastated for a very long time with how terrible it turned out for me. So what went wrong? Will the people I did ask to help me, in people who volunteered to do certain jobs... DID NOT DO THEIR JOBS. Sigh. It's a long story.



I'm not going to get into that one right now... but I will tell you that someone volunteered to do the food. We were going to do it potluck style and assign certain family members and friends to bring foods. Well, when I get to the reception I see that we only have crackers and a fruit/veggie tray to feed over 100 guests because that person FORGOT that they volunteered to take care of the food! Photo proof in the photo above.


7. My husband wore a vest from a vintage suit he already owned and our wedding party wore their own clothes because I think matching wedding outfits are booooooring.

8. Our friend is a florist and she did our flowers for a very low cost using very affordable flowers. We took the flowers from our altar pieces and took them apart to fill up the vases on the tables at the reception.

9. Our cupcakes came from... drum roll... WALMART!! A friend added the little flowers.



10.  My wedding was featured on Offbeat Bride and my outfit on 2000 Dollar Wedding.


11. I forgot to budget in our photographer and had to pay him with out honeymoon money. We ended up going to Dallas instead of New Orleans for our honeymoon but we're going to go for our anniversary next year!

12. Two friends brewed the beer for our reception and a lot of people brought their own drinks as well. It was a total unintentional boozefest lol!



BONUS FACTS:

1. Me and my fiance were late to our own wedding. We had gotten into a big argument right before the wedding. Because we had a lot to do to set up for the wedding before the wedding, I needed him to get up early and help me. Well, he didn't. GRRR!!! AND his phone was off so I couldn't get a hold of him and I had no idea where he was. I was FUMING when I finally got face to face with him. We went to our new house where I was moving in that day and got ready together while I was huffing and puffing, ready to punch him in the nose. We looked at the clock, realized how late we were running, calmed down and finished getting ready. We were like, "what are they going to do? Start the wedding without us? We'll get there when we get there.


2. My stepdad did the wedding.

3. Want some TMI? My wedding night was my... um... first time. Yup! We waited!

4. All of our wedding music were Beatles originals and covers except for the song we all excited to which was mr. Blue Sky by ELO. Our moms interred the sanctuary to Here Comes the Sun, the wedding party entered to Rufus wainwright's cover of Across the Universe, and I walked to Blackbird.

5. We danced so much! More guests arrived later in the night and a huge dance party ensued after me and the husband left for the night. We didn't find out about it until we got our photos in. It was SO funny to see everyone getting their boogie on, people I never thought would get down and funky and I'm so glad we gave them a reason to do it!