Category Archives: Real Weddings

27Feb2013

Real Wedding Highlight: Terry & Kristi – Part 3

Terry & Kristi's Real Wedding - Part 3

Photos Courtesy of Kendra Elizabeth Photography and Terry & Kristi's Family

The Ceremony Venue

My husband and I got married on June 16th, 2012, at the church where we are members. We got to know the pastor very well through marriage counseling. He is awesome! He took the time to tailor our ceremony to our personalities and the challenges we may have in our relationship. It was perfect. My only regret is not having it videotaped.

Our church has a gorgeous, ornamental alter and beautiful stained glass windows, so we didn’t feel the need to decorate a lot. We rented candelabras, white bows and ivy from the church to decorate the ends of the pews, which the church’s wedding coordinator’s took care of.

The Reception Venue

We had our reception at Farmamerica, a venue dedicated to preserving a bit of Minnesota’s farm history. The land is home to a 1850s farm, a 1930s farm, a country church and a schoolhouse. These made great backdrops for our outdoor photos. Our reception was in the Minnesota Agricultural Interpretive Center (a.k.a. visitor’s center). The tables and dance floor were set up in the ballroom. The guest book table, cake table, food and bar were set up just outside the ballroom.

How We Saved

1. When choosing wedding vendors, we did two things to help keep prices low. We used local vendors as much as possible, and we used our connections for the rest. All of our wedding vendors were wonderful.

2. I purchased my dress from a store that includes alterations in the price of the dress. I chose a dress that fit my personality and figure, at a cost that was much lower than most dresses ($671).

3. We are members at the church where we had our ceremony, and that made it very affordable. We paid $140 for the ceremony, wedding coordinators, the pastor and the decorations for the church. We did hire a musician, but she was also a member of the church and gave us a very good price.

4. We chose the local bakery for our cake, and found out she does catering, too. We had a buffet to avoid additional costs of table service. We chose plastic plates, plastic silverware and paper napkins to keep prices low. We bought them online to save even more money. We chose a small, decorated cake for display and sheet cakes for our guests.

5. The caterer’s mother was the local florist, so the caterer recommended decorating the cake with fresh flowers to match our bouquets (super cheap). Our bouquets included inexpensive flowers, such as gerbera daisies, alstroemeria, mini carnations and a variety of greens.

6. Our reception venue did not have a liquor license, so we brought in liquor and beer ourselves. This allowed us to offer unlimited free drinks to our guests. We used plastic cups for the drinks and can coolers, which doubled as favors, to keep the beer cold. The venue had a portable bar we could rent, which had unlimited soda.

7. My stepdaughter works part-time for a DJ. Naturally, she asked him to DJ the dance at our wedding. He also brought the pink up-lighting we used to enhance the decorations.

8. My husband and I set a budget before we started planning and agreed to stick to it, but we both chose one thing that was most important to us to splurge on. That happened to be photography. We felt it was important to have quality pictures to remember our wedding day. We interviewed ten different photographers, but the ones we liked were out of our price range. My sister’s friend, who is a photographer herself, helped us out. She found us five different photographers who were available on our wedding day in our price range. She recommended one in particular, which is the person we chose. Her price was excellent for two photographers, unlimited time and rights to reproduce the images.

So there you have it.  All the things we did to have a beautiful wedding on a $15,000 budget. Feel free to comment!  We’re more than happy to answer your questions.

Photos Courtesy of Kendra Elizabeth Photography and Terry & Kristi’s Family.

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26Feb2013

Real Wedding Highlight: Terry & Kristi – Part 2

Terry & Kristi's Wedding - Part 2

Photos Courtesy of Kendra Elizabeth Photography

Our wedding turned out absolutely wonderful. There were things we could have done better, but I wouldn’t change them for the world. We had 200 guests at our wedding, served a full meal, had unlimited drinks and beer, and a dance with a DJ — all for about $15,000. What was even better is that our vendors, friends and family were so great that we didn’t have to worry about a thing on the day of our wedding. We were able to enjoy every minute of it.

Planning the Wedding

I don’t consider myself a fashionable person, and I hate decorating. I’m not good at it. So when it came time to plan the wedding, I kept things simple. I started with the color fuchsia and from there we chose our invitation. We wanted an invitation that was simple, yet formal enough for a wedding. We chose Ann’s Filigree Perch invitation with black ink. Filigree Perch is a thermography invitation, which means the ink is raised. That made the invitation elegant yet simple. After choosing our invitation, we decided our colors would be fuchsia, black and white.  I wanted my bouquet to be full of bright colors, including fuchsia to match the bridesmaids’ dresses and some greens to balance it out. We planned our reception decorations using the flowers from the bouquet and the filigree design from our invitations.

Planning the Reception Decorations

You might remember me mentioning above how much I hate decorating. Well, planning our reception décor was probably the most difficult thing for me. We were on a budget, but I didn’t want it to be so plain that it was boring.

We started out thinking we were going to have to buy or rent all of the pieces for the decorations, and then take the time to assemble them. We did a bit of shopping around and found the rental prices for vases, table cloths and lighting to be very expensive. Plus, we would be the ones decorating the reception venue before the wedding. My mother-in-law suggested we see how much it would cost for a decorator to do it.

The Decorator

We met with the decorator at her showroom and she had all kinds of centerpieces and other displays. I would never have been able to come up with these ideas on my own. She told us to pick items as if we were going to be able to afford everything we wanted. When she told us to dream big, we were a bit scared of the price tag. About a week later she sent us the estimate. It was too much, but not so much that we couldn’t handle it if we did some trimming. We met with her again to make some changes.  She pointed out the more expensive items and gave us some alternatives that cost less. We ended up choosing four different centerpieces to have on the tables. Our initial estimate was $1,400. After adjusting our centerpieces and removing a few items that were not needed, our new estimate was $1,200. The estimates were based on 300 guests, but we ended up having only 200. In the end, we paid $1,050 for the decorations and decorating services. They set it all up, and they took it all down. It was stress free and gorgeous!

Suggestions for Decorating

A good rule of thumb when shopping for centerpieces is the higher the centerpiece the higher the price.  Choose multiple styles of centerpieces that range in price. Use the expensive centerpieces less and the inexpensive ones more. This works out really well because taller, more expensive centerpieces can block the guest’s view of the people sitting across from them.

Another way to save a ton of money on wedding decorations is to use silk flowers instead of real flowers. If we had used real flowers in our centerpieces, we would have had an additional $500+ in costs. As you can see by the pictures, our centerpieces were beautiful and the overall look of the room was gorgeous.

Come back tomorrow for more pictures of the wedding and to find out how I saved money when choosing our venues and vendors. We’d love to hear what you think or answer questions if you have any. Just leave a comment on this post and we will respond.

Photos Courtesy of Kendra Elizabeth Photography.

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25Feb2013

Real Wedding Highlight: Kristi & Terry – Part 1

Terry & Kristi's Real Wedding - Part 1

Photos Courtesy of Kendra Elizabeth Photography

Yep, that’s me, Kristi the Bargain Finder.  My husband and I got married on June 16th, 2012.  It’s not very often I get to show pictures of my wedding on a blog for everyone to see, so I jumped at the chance. I hope you enjoy our story, and maybe get some inspiration from it, too. Come back Tuesday and Wednesday to see Part 2 and Part 3, and feel free to leave comments with questions if you have any.

Our Love Story

Terry and I met in May of 2004 at a softball game.  I love the game of softball.  Every Friday night I played in a co-ed softball league.  I had my own team that I played on, but because I loved it so much I would often find other teams who were short players and play in their games, too.  When my friend asked me to sub on her team, I played third base and he was the pitcher. My friend introduced me to him after the game and that’s where it all started.  Something about his gorgeous blue eyes made me wonder if he was the one. Turns out he was, and we started dating around Christmas that same year (Christmas Eve, to be exact). It took him four years to propose and another three for us to get married.

Combining Our Families

Terry and I both have a child from a different relationship. His daughter was 14 when we started dating and my son was one. Terry became a father to my son, and treats him like his own child, which is one of the many reasons I love him so much. Terry’s daughter lived with her mother most of the time, but would spend some weekends and holidays with us. I have to admit it was a bit strange in the beginning, for both of us, because I am only 13 years older than she is. Caroline is a great kid, and during the eight years her father and I were dating, Caroline and I created a relationship that was comfortable for us. She respects me as her stepmother and I respect her as an adult (she’s 21 now). When we finally started planning our wedding, Caroline jumped at the chance to help – we only had four months to plan our entire wedding – she drove 124 miles, from college to our house, almost every weekend to help us plan. We couldn’t have pulled it off without her help.

Come back tomorrow to see more pictures of our wedding – I’ll talk about how we chose our colors, chose a theme and how we were able to hire a decorator while still staying within our budget. Part 3 will be posted on Wednesday. I’ll talk more about how the venues and vendors we chose helped us keep the cost of our wedding within our budget of $15,000.

 

Photos Courtesy of Kendra Elizabeth Photography.

 

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25Jan2013

Real Wedding Highlight: Country Wedding Details

Yesterday we shared a little about Becky and Andrew’s country wedding. Becky and Andrew were married in Montgomery, Minnesota, at Shepherd’s Hill Farm. The details for this gorgeous wedding were inspired by a gift from Becky’s grandmother – her great grandmother’s wedding band set from the 40s.

With such a meaningful gesture inspiring her wedding look, we wanted to share more of the beautiful details with you.

Becky and Andrew's Wedding - Part 2 Want to learn more about Becky and Andrew’s wedding? Read yesterday’s blog post, Real Wedding Highlight: A Country Wedding with Becky and Andrew.

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24Jan2013

Real Wedding Highlight: A Country Wedding with Becky and Andrew

Becky and Andrew were married in Montgomery, Minnesota, at Shepherd’s Hill Farm. We asked Becky to share a few photos from the wedding day and her inspiration behind creating such a gorgeous look.

“Andrew and I met in college, became friends and started dating about a year later. We laugh all the time, which is why we became friends in the first place :) Andrew and I dated for 6 years so I had lots of time to think about what I wanted for a wedding, which was great because we only had about two and a half months to plan everything (we got engaged July 22). 

Shepherd’s Hill Farm is a beautiful property with a hundred-year-old restored barn that fit my vision for the reception and a big space outside for the ceremony. My grandmother offered Andrew my great grandmother’s wedding band set from the 40s, which ended up being kind of the inspiration for the whole wedding from the invites to the food and the décor details. Everything sort of fell into place perfectly. Lots of friends and family were involved in different ways (I had lots of help!).

I shot weddings all summer with Erin Benner (Angelic Jewel Photography) and was so happy to collaborate with her on my wedding shoot that fall! We had so much fun with the engagement shoot, too.”

Becky and Andrew's Country Wedding 

To see more of the adorable wedding details, check back tomorrow!

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01Nov2012

Our Favorite Ways to Make the Bride and Groom Kiss

Wedding guests love to clink their glasses and put the happy newlyweds in the hot seat for a little PDA. However, couples are getting clever and creating their own versions of this fun tradition. Here are our favorites…

Double Up

Keep the respond cards you get back in the mail, tuck them into a cute basket and bring it to your reception. When guests clink their glasses, pull out a card to see who will be joining you in a kiss. Make them stand up, too!

Love, Love, Love

Make your guests sing a song with the word love in it. (Okay, you can let them just recite the lyrics if they’re too shy, but don’t tell anyone that.)

Story Time

Make your guests tell a story about the bride and/or groom. This can be risky, but a lot of fun!

 

Game Show Style

Make your guests answer a trivia question about one or both of you. Give the trivia questions to your DJ prior to the reception so he can facilitate the game.

 

Got Skills?

Have your guests come to the front of the room and play whatever game you have set up: bean bag toss, a putting green game or darts are all great options. You only kiss if the guest scores.

 

Newlyweds’ Choice

Make a list of people you want to see kiss — parents, grandparents, friends — and when the clinking starts, choose a couple to kiss in your place.

 

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14Sep2012

Real Wedding Week: See what invitation Rachel and Danny chose for their wedding!

Today is the last day of Real Wedding week, and that means we get to see what the couple chose for their budget-friendly weeding invitation! The winner is…

Option 2! Forever and Always

 Rachel and Danny's Invitation

Rachel and Danny really loved the elegance and romance of the Forever and Always wedding invitation, but they also liked the accents from the other invitations. They chose to add a green rhinestone to the invite’s design and they punched holes at the top of the invitation to thread with ecru satin ribbon. They added a coordinating envelope liner to complete this gorgeous ensemble. 

 Rachel and Danny saved money on postage for the R.S.V.P. by utilizing an online R.S.V.P. service. They had the website and a few instructions printed on the respond card instead of the traditional response wording. This option is becoming more and more common among today’s couples, and can be done with any invitation. Just call Ann’s customer service team to put in a custom order for no extra charge.

Rachel and Danny also saved money on their wedding by inviting a certain amount of guests to the ceremony/dinner, but had other invitations printed for guests invited to the dance portion only. This allowed them to save money on food at the dinner reception yet still have extended friends and family join in the celebration later on. Very smart!

And finally, photos from the big day…

Danny and Rachel in the Church

Rachel and Danny at the church.

 Rachel with her Bridesmaids

Rachel with her Bridesmaids

Danny with his Groomsmen

Danny with his Groomsmen

The Happy Couple - Danny and Rachel

The Happy Couple – Danny and Rachel

*Photos Courtesy of  David Svendsen, New Sky Photography

Thank you so much to Rachel and Danny! We love the amazing budget-savvy ideas you came up with for your wedding invitations. Congratulations on a beautiful wedding and we wish you many years of happiness.

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12Sep2012

Real Wedding Week: Ann’s reveals 3 budget-friendly invitation options for Rachel and Danny!

When Rachel and Danny came to us for advice on budget-friendly invitations, we decided to throw together a few different ideas. After careful consideration of their needs, we narrowed the choices down to three invitations.

Which one will they choose?

Here are some things we considered when coming up with options:

• Wedding Look – Rachel and Danny’s wedding colors were champagne, sage and brown. They wanted a look that was elegant with touches of flair. 

• Affordable Accents – We looked at things like ribbon and rhinestones, which could be added to most invitations for a little extra pizzazz without adding cost.

• Guest Count -Rachel and Danny knew a smaller wedding would help them save money, and fewer invitations means less time assembling. This frees up time for fun, DIY accents!

• Money-Saving Details – To keep the cost as low as possible, we looked at easy money-savers like different formatting options, postcard responses and all-in-one invitations.

Option 1: Dreamy – Seal and Send Invitation

Option #1 - Dreamy Seal and Send Invitation

The Invite: Seal and Send invitations feature an all-in-one design, which means the wedding wording and reception wording are printed on the invitation and a detachable response postcard is included at the bottom. Response postcards require less postage. Another nice thing about seal and sends is they are self-mailing. Just fold, seal and send!

The Extras: The swirl design featured on the Dreamy invitation is elegant all on its own, but we added a sparkling rhinestone between the couple’s names for an easy touch of glamour.

The Cost: $99.99 per 100. All necessary pieces included! $3.99 per sheet of 25 rhinestones.

Option 2: Forever and Always – Separate and Send Invitation

Option #2 - Forever & Always Separate and Send

The Invite: Separate and Send invitations come as complete, coordinated stationery sets. Each invitation comes with two enclosure cards (respond card and reception card) on one convenient sheet. The enclosure cards are perforated for easy separation. Invitation envelopes and respond card envelopes are also included.

The Extras: The “forever and always” design creates such a beautiful element on this invitation, we wanted to accent this meaningful phrase with a clear rhinestone. We also chose lined envelopes to coordinate beautifully with the ensemble.  

The Cost: $129.99 per 100. All necessary pieces included! $3.99 per sheet of 25 rhinestones. An additional $20 for lined envelopes. 

Option 3:  Elegant Filigree – Invitation

Option #3 Elegant Filigree Invitation

A traditional-style invitation featuring a gate-fold front and luxurious embossing. The cost of this invitation will be higher since enclosures are sold separately. Rachel and Danny would need both the reception and respond cards, but this is still an affordable option especially for a traditional invitation ensemble with rich embossing.    

The Extras: The gate-fold closure of this invitation makes it a unique choice. We decided to tie it closed with a shiny satin ribbon. We also added a lined envelope to coordinate.

The Cost: Invitations are $69.99 per 100. Reception cards are $46.99 per 100 and Respond Cards are $51.99 per 100. Satin Ribbon is $28.99 per 100-yard roll, which can also be used on decorations, bouquets and gifts. An additional $20 for lined envelopes.

Let us know which invitation is your favorite and what you like about it. We’ll reveal Danny and Rachel’s choice on Friday along with some fabulous photos of the big day!

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10Sep2012

Meet our Real Wedding couple, Rachel and Danny. Follow this week as Ann’s helps the couple choose a budget-friendly invitation.

Rachel & Danny

Meet Rachel and Danny, a young couple from south central Minnesota who met in February of 2010 while attending college at Gustavus Adolphus. Rachel was a Management major with a focus in Human Resources and Danny was pursuing a Communications major. They started dating in November of 2010, and one year later on November 18, 2011, Danny proposed to Rachel.

They chose August of 2012 for their wedding date and decided on a Friday evening — a smart budget move as many of you may know. Their colors were champagne, sage and brown. Overall, they wanted a clean, classic look with touches of flair to spice things up.

Since Rachel and Danny were still attending college while planning the wedding, the couple wanted to keep it very low-budget but still elegant and fun. When Rachel and Danny contacted us back in the spring wanting some advice on how to find the right invitation to fit their style and budget, the Ann’s team was happy help!

Rachel and Danny's Invitations Consultation We provided several options for them to consider. The final choice came down to three different invitations…which we will reveal on Wednesday! Check back to see all three invitation options, and be sure to let us know your favorite. On Friday, we’ll reveal the invitation they chose along with photographs from their beautiful, budget-savvy wedding.

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12Jan2012

Real Wedding couple, Jake and Ellen, got married! See pics from the wedding…

Jake and Ellen were married on December 17, 2011, at the Grand Event Center in Northfield, Minn. The wedding was beautiful, but what you really want to know is how the dessert buffet table turned out, right? Here are a few pics for you to take a peek:

Jacob and Ellen's White Sox Candy Buffet

Here’s the happy couple next to their baseball-themed buffet table. The look was inspired by the Game-Time design created by our very own party planner, Carynn. See the other looks Carynn came up with when you visit our post, “Check out the looks we pitched to Jake and Ellen.”

Treat and Candy Buffet at Wedding Reception

We LOVE how the black and white wedding napkins add a touch of dramatic style to the spread. The fish bowls of treats with scoops and the vase of baseballs make great additions to the setup.

White Sox Themed Treat and Candy Bar

The glove filled with baseball candies is super clever, and the wooden crates lined with fake grass create a fun backdrop for the entire table as well as a fun spot to display more treats.

Wedding Reception Treat and Candy Bar

Personalized favor bags are easy to arrange and easy to use, making them a big favorite with today’s couples. Plus, they create a nice, clean look as a part of this buffet spread.

We’re quite pleased here at Ann’s Bridal Bargains with how well the dessert buffet table turned out. Thank you so much to Jake and Ellen for letting us be a part of their special day, and thank you to everyone who followed this Real Wedding Story.

 

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