Weddingbee Blog

I didn’t realize how much junk went into budgeting, and this will have to be part one- the clothes and accessories for us and the wedding party.

As most of you know, Mr. Kiwi and I paid for our own wedding, although we did have a few gifted items here and there! Since the total cost of our wedding (give or take a few hundred dollars I didn’t keep track of in the beginning) was $12,688.51- in Los Angeles, this is pretty much a bargain.

Here’s the breakdown in order according to my budget sheet:

Flowers

We had never really wanted a lot of flowers, just the bouquets, boutonnières, corsages and two altar arrangements. Our florist Laura (of Utopian Designs), was easily the most personable of our vendors. I just adored her. She was very friendly and knew almost exactly what we were looking for. Our flowers consisted of calla lilies, roses, freesia, ranunculus, and hypericum berries. At first our estimate was for $800.00, still a bargain! Once we really started discussing what we wanted, the final total became: $644.60.

Attendant’s gifts: We bought the flower girl a butterfly t-shirt, and a flower girl barbie, my MOH a personalized bag from LL Bean (at the perfect time to get a sale!!), and the Best Man a bottle of wine. As per the request of the Best Man (and father of the ring bearer), he told us to not get anything for the ring bearer. So, the total cost for all included gifts for the wedding party: $50.00.

Next, my dress:

My very wonderful and kind mother in law paid for my alterations. Had she not, I’m sure my dress and expenses would have been a LOT more expensive. As it was, my dress with tax was : $1,253.00. Way more than I wanted to spend. Perhaps that’s the reason I didn’t like my dress so much?

Next up is my veil/hairpiece (doesn’t that just sound like a toupee?) and my jewelry.

All together it was about $220.00. This also includes my shoes! Luckily my veil was free, as it was my cousin’s.

Mr. Kiwi’s suit was a gift from his brother, lucky us! Along the lines of Mr. Kiwi’s ensemble, his ring was $65.00. It was engraved titanium, and he loves how light it is! My ring was $280.00- thank goodness for hookups.

My hair was a free gift from my hairdresser, as she was an old family friend.

My makeup was done by Michelle Miracle, who also works for Bare Escentuals. I loved her. She was probably one of my favorite vendors- so happy and sweet! At 5:30am, no less. Altogether it was $100.00 for the trial, and $200.00 for the day-of. Total: $300.00.

The parents’ gifts totalled $66.00. The mothers were given engraved picture frames, and my dad was given a set of PJs from Nordstrom. How was I able to get things so cheap for the parents? Gift cards, baby.

Next post will be catering, DJ, invites and all the other good stuff!!