So one of my friends had a wedding that cost her 18,000 dollars and she couldn't afford to pay her rent. She was expecting 200 people at her reception and only ended up with about 80...see what I'm saying about friends?
My dad was driving me to the dress rehearsal because I had taken the train in to my home town for my wedding. he was discussing the prices of weddings with me and was discussing how ridiculous it is that people spend over a thousand dollars on weddings. I (semi)patiently explained to him that photographers alone cost about 1,000 dollars for the wedding, and that he was being slightly delusional. I warned him that my younger sister was probably going to be getting engaged fairly soon, and he had better check into reality.
This wedding is dedicated to my dad. It's a slightly more than bare bones beautiful wedding for 50 guests.
Chocolate, Champagne, Ivory
The Concept of Hot Chocolate invokes in me feelings of fluffy marshmallows, velvety whipped cream, Rich Decadent Chocolate, Warm and Cozy, safe and warm, taking your socks and boots off in the kitchen after you come inside from a good sled ride, or building a snow fort. It's relaxing, and comforting. It's all the feelings of excitement of childhood and warmth and coziness of the fireplace, home and unconditional love. In this wedding I have tried to recreate that feeling in fabrics and textiles with an abundance of textures and the warm glow of candle light.
The Concept of Hot Chocolate invokes in me feelings of fluffy marshmallows, velvety whipped cream, Rich Decadent Chocolate, Warm and Cozy, safe and warm, taking your socks and boots off in the kitchen after you come inside from a good sled ride, or building a snow fort. It's relaxing, and comforting. It's all the feelings of excitement of childhood and warmth and coziness of the fireplace, home and unconditional love. In this wedding I have tried to recreate that feeling in fabrics and textiles with an abundance of textures and the warm glow of candle light.
The Setting
Host your wedding at Crescent Lake inn, a bed and Breakfast Inn and Spa in Excelsior Springs. They have nice wedding packages for 50 guests that can include rooms for your out of town guests. Both the ceremony and wedding reception would happen on a Friday Night.
Leaving a small gift in guests' hotel rooms before they arrive is a personable way to greet them.
Leave baskets in each of the guests rooms. Include Local Products such as the Roasterie Coffee, Topsy's Popcorn, Christopher Elbow chocolates and Cookies from Andres.
The Ceremony
For a personal touch, ask a clergy member who's close to your family to officiate at your ceremony and donate to their place of worship as a thank-you. The Inn provides most decorations but it would be nice to sprinkle white and silver glitter on pine cones and tie them to ivory or champagne colored ribbons to hang them from the chairs.
(I think this came off of the Martha Stewart website)
The Reception Decor
I'm pretty sure the Inn will probably already have Christmas Decorations up, so there is not a lot of excess decorations that will be needed. Double check to see if it is okay to set up both a Chocolate, and a Hot Chocolate Buffet for your guests.The Ceremony was late enough in the evening, your guests should not expect to be fed a dinner before they arrived at the wedding. You will have of course fed your few out of town guests and your attendants dinner. This list should be no more than 9 or 18 people total. On the tables fill clear vases with large marshmallows and a dry floral filler such as glittered spiral twigs.
Pile Up these snowy balloon ornaments on the tables on top of circle mirrors you can buy from a craft store. Once the Snowballs are safely in place, set up votive candles on the mirror. The candlelight will flicker off the glitter and bounce of the mirrors creating a warm ambient light across the table.
The Food
Once the ceremony is over, your swing band can immediately get the party started switching in between pre determined itunes mixes and the band. The upbeat tunes, along with passed champagne, will lure the 50 guests out of their ceremony chairs and into the reception area. Throughout the evening, offer a house and local wine, local beer, punch, egg nog and a hot chocolate bar and set out different flavors of cocoa, such as milk chocolate, dark chocolate, peppermint, raspberry, etc. Instead of leaving them in the purchased containers or bags, (unless you can find really cute, coordinating canisters) – pour the dry cocoa powders into individual white bowls, along with spoons or mini-scoops, and label them with placecards clipped onto the bowls or set in front of them. Be sure to also set out mini marshmallows, whipped cream, chocolate shavings and cinnamon!
Because the wedding will take place later in the day (read: after dinner), a fantastic array of chocolates from will be the perfect edible for this romantic venue.
I like the simplicity of this martha stewart winter wedding cake but for this wedding I would kick off the snow men and replace the trees with pine cones.
Have a figurine of two sledding lovebirds sitting a the bottom of the cake. Perhaps one like this one. OR have one custom made for you in the likeness of you and your finance. Sophia seems to be quite talented at it, they do seem to be quite costly, but if you cut corners elsewhere, it might be well worth it.
As favors place hot cocoa cones.
In lieu of a traditional guest book, this vintage postbox holds guests' good wishes; they're inscribed on postcards to be mailed to the couple post-wedding.
The Photography
Since the ceremony and reception will be in the same place without a break in between, you'll only need four hours of shooting, and piper photography can provide that. After the wedding, you'll get a disc of high-resolution images so you can make your own prints. Make your own wedding album on shutterfly.com.The Attire
For a wedding dress, borrow a friends or sisters, go bargain hunting and pick up last years styles and alter them to your liking. Keep the price of the wedding dress under 300 dollars, and say away from big fluffy dresses. Think Cream, not marshmallow. Where a lambs wool fascinater with ribbon in ivory, or champagne. Oh how I LOOOOOOOOVE etsy! Attach a birdcage Veil to the front
bridesmaids should be kept to a minimum, but these little dresses CAN actually be worn again. Unlike other dresses I have bought for $150 dollars and more and wouldn't even have a chance to wear them to a costume party. JCrew has some cute little dresses, at the moment, the sleeved one is on sale. If your Bridesmaids can't swing the cost of the dresses, check out department stores or TJ max to find dresses similar to the styles you like. Sometimes I think company's up the prices on Bridesmaids dresses because they are labeled "bridesmaids dresses." When Anne Taylor runs sales on their Bridesmaids dresses, you can get some for less than $75 dollars!!!
of course "Baby, it's cold outside" So your bridesmaids and yourself will need to make sure you bundle up! These faux fur wraps should help.
Have your Flower Girls pick out Chocolate Brown and/or Ivory dresses from The Best Dressed Child. Tie a cluster of Candy canes or Sparkle twisted twigs together to form a Bouquet. Have your ring Bearer walk in with a wrapped present that can be untied and your rings will be waiting on a soft inner lining inside the box.
The Formalwear
To up the formality of your cocktail reception, have your groom sport a chocolate brown or ivory tux. He can rent one, as well as shoes and all the trimmings, from Men's Wearhouse.The Bouquets and Boutonnieres
Forget the traditional bridal bouquet.
Create your own pine cone and maribou Bouquet. Add a few white and ivory roses to the mix from fiftyflowers.com with some bouquet jewelry. A chocolate brown cute clutch you made yourself, or you purchased from ebags.com for the bridesmaids would be both practical, and a perfect thank you gift. The men can skip the boutonnieres and get ivory or Chocolate silk handkerchiefs from Men's Wearhouse to tuck into their breast pockets. And instead of corsages, buy sparkly snowflake brooches or tweed wool flower brooches for your moms from etsy.com. They can double as thank-you gifts.
The Hair & Makeup
I say, splurge on your hair. Not that getting your hair done should be expensive, but you should be comfortable with your stylist and confident you are going to be taken care of. Before the wedding, head to Macy's for a makeup consultation and application and pick up a few items and ask the girl or guy at the counter to teach you how to apply your makeup. Do your own makeup on your wedding day or enlist a bridesmaid or a close friend to help.The Stationery
The venue calls for custom invites with quiet personality. Whether it's a high-impact invite on dark card stock with light lettering or a fashionable damask print in bright colors, I'm particularly fond of myjeanm.com.
Purchasing their DIY kits might save you money. Then again, considering you only have 50 guests, you might want to consider forgoing the hassle. Brides.com shows these plexi-glass invitations. I'm in love with the look, but not particularly fond of the price, or the practicality.
i think you could recreate the look by layering vellum over top of a chocolate brown invite with white lettering, and spraying the outer sides of the vellum to look like frost on a window.
Reception | |||
| Req. | Item | Budget | Actual |
| $3550 | |||
| Andre's Cristopher Elbow 3 Women and an Oven | $750 (50 x $15.00) | ||
| $500.00 | |||
| Included in Wedding Package | $0.00 | ||
| SUBTOTAL $4,800.00 | SUBTOTAL $0.00 | ||
Attire + Beauty | |||
| Req. | Item | Budget | Actual |
| $350.00 | |||
| Etsy | $70.00 | ||
| $200.00 | |||
| New Creations Salon | $100.00 | ||
| $150.00 | |||
| Free with Rental of 4 other Tux's Men's Warehouse | $0.00 | ||
| $0.00 | |||
| SUBTOTAL $920.00 | SUBTOTAL $0.00 | ||
Ceremony | |||
| Req. | Item | Budget | Actual |
| Included in | $0.00 | ||
| $100.00 | |||
| $60.00 | |||
| SUBTOTAL $160.00 | SUBTOTAL $0.00 | ||
Flowers + Décor | |||
| Req. | Item | Budget | Actual |
| fiftyflowers.com | $150.00 | ||
| ebags.com | $50.00 | ||
| Mens Warehouse | $14.00 | ||
| $3.00 | |||
| $32.00 | |||
| $400.00 | |||
| $140.00 | |||
| SUBTOTAL $800.00 | SUBTOTAL $0.00 | ||
Music | |||
| Req. | Item | Budget | Actual |
| Friends | $100.00 | ||
| $100.00 | |||
| $600.00 | |||
| SUBTOTAL $800.00 | SUBTOTAL $0.00 | ||
Photography + Videography | |||
| Req. | Item | Budget | Actual |
| Piper Photography and Shutterfly | $1038.00 | ||
| SUBTOTAL $1038.00 | SUBTOTAL $0.00 | ||
Stationery | |||
| Req. | Item | Budget | Actual |
| $107.00 | |||
| zazzle.com and kinkos | $230.00 | ||
| SUBTOTAL $327.00 | SUBTOTAL $0.00 | ||
Wedding Rings | |||
| Req. | Item | Budget | Actual |
| $150.00 | |||
| $150.00 | |||
| SUBTOTAL $300.00 | SUBTOTAL $0.00 | ||
Transportation + Lodging | |||
| Req. | Item | Budget | Actual |
| $0.00 | |||
| Pech Limo | $200.00 | ||
| SUBTOTAL $200.00 | SUBTOTAL $0.00 | ||
Gifts | |||
| Req. | Item | Budget | Actual |
| Allowance for Grooms Presents | $50.00 | ||
| DIY | $100.00 (50 x $2.00) | ||
| Allowance for Fathers Presents | $50.00 | ||
| SUBTOTAL $200.00 | SUBTOTAL $0.00 | ||
TOTAL COST OF WEDDING | Budget Total $9,495.00 | Actual Total $0.00 |
| Amount left to spend: $10,000.00 | ||
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