I recently came upon the 2000 Dollar Wedding blog (thanks to a profile from Meg from A Practical Wedding). Sara and Matt are an amazing couple who were married last month in Colorado. They stuck to a strict budget of $2000 in order to keep the wedding planning focused on their goals and to save the money for a down payment on a house (which they moved to, from Colorado to Texas, two days after the wedding!). I have spent the last two days reading the entire archive, over 140 posts, and I feel so inspired. In their words:
Our quest to wrest our wedding from the hands of the Wedding Industrial Complex and make it our own (in a budget-minded, hand-crafted, eco-friendly way)

Their wedding was an amazing and beautiful DIY effort with the help of family and friends. It created a day of true joy and connection! Matt and Sara have been chronicling thier wedding planning process over the last 8 months. The entries are packed with great ideas and insight. Even if you aren’t planning a $2000 eco-friendly wedding, you can certainly enjoy their process and pick up a few ideas along the way!
It can be easy to get caught up in the planning details and forget about the purpose of this special day - Mr. PN and I are guilty of this on more than one occasion. And even Matt and Sara got caught up in the details sometimes, like momentairly wanting a traditional wedding dress, the desire to splurge on custom stamps and second-guessing their decison to serve wine from a box.
One of my favorite parts of their wedding planning was how they always managed to bring it back to their vision for the day. And I must pass along a wonderful piece of advice which I have memorized and will be reciting many times in the next two months:
“It’s about love, commitment, friendship, connection–not _____________.” (Fill the blank with whatever is bothering you, such as “invitations”)

How do you stay centered in a crazy wedding planning world?
Good for them! I think this would be challenging in a metropolitan area (for instance, I noticed their marriage license was $10 - ours was $80).