I got married in the dark ages before everyone and their dog owned a digital camera, so our wedding was captured on film (gasp! the horror!). So after many years of putting it off, I finally had my negatives digitized thanks to a Groupon to ScanDigital.
Looking back at the wedding photos made me realize I hadn’t shared them on the Cheap Ways To blog. This, folks, is how it all got started – the inspiration behind the book Cheap Ways To Tie the Knot. So sit back and enjoy this blast from the past. I hope you find a tip or two you can use when planning your “Cheap” and fabulous wedding!
This was the lobby of the church where we were married. The church has beautiful furniture so there was very little we had to do. Since we were married in the fall we carried out an autumn theme. The lobby table was sprinkled with dried leaves and paper leaves that we asked our guests to sign. These paper leaves were incorporated into my wedding scrapbook.
I designed the wedding invitation and kept it simple. The quote set our theme “Love is the only gold.” Gold was used throughout the wedding in addition to other autumn colors. The “heart” you see in this double image is part of the decorations that were painted by an artist friend of ours. We chose words that represented our day and the artist painted them onto transparent cloth tied to branches. These hung from the ends of the pews going down the aisle.
A closeup of the dried flowers that the church had on-site. Again, we used what we had available to us already so as not to spend extra money.
These were the wedding programs. I designed and my family helped put them together. I love how they turned out!
Here’s a shot going down the aisle. Instead of rose petals our flower girl tossed dried leaves which we used throughout the wedding (in the lobby and also the reception – we hung them from the ceiling with fishing line and paper clips!)
The happy groom and bride … I had my dress made from a favorite pattern and got the fabric on sale. We had a friend who makes wedding cakes make our cake from a picture I gave her from a magazine (carrot cake!). Instead of doing a full course meal, we offered a dessert buffet and hot chocolate bar for our reception since the wedding was in the afternoon.
A shot of the groom’s cake. I was happier with how this one turned out than the main cake, I think! The chocolate looked delicious!
My ultra creative friend decorated the reception for us and had so many great ideas that made our day special. One of my favorites were the centerpieces. She spray-painting pumpkins gold to match our theme. So creative and they made such a lasting impression on our guests.