Wedding Blog

Jen and Andy - Dec. 29, 2007

Location: Laguna Hills, CA

Initial Budget: $35,000

Guests: 220

Planning Time: 10 months

Wedding Day Costs

Ceremony: $1,100 for Grace Hills Church, Aliso Viejo, CA. $800 covered the sanctuary rental (including the one hour rehearsal the night before the wedding), a sound technician, and the church’s coordinator on the day of the nuptials. It cost $300 to rent the church’s fellowship hall, where my in-laws held a separate Korean-food-only reception for their invited wedding guests.

Reception: $18,000 for Pacific Hills Banquet, Laguna Hills, CA. We had a two-reception wedding, the first one was held right after the ceremony for our “Koreanized guests” who typically like to eat and run ( which they did!) and the second one was held down the street at a little jewel called Pacific Hills. Our guests at this second reception enjoyed themselves with the often soft bar and hors d’oeuvres while we greeted our “first reception” guests. The timing worked out perfectly, as my groom and I hightailed it over to the “second reception” with time to spare. Included in the cost of our reception venue: a 3 entree plus 3 salad buffet lunch, open wine/beer/soda bar, a chocolate fondue bar, our wedding cake, Chivari chairs and cascade lighting. Our venue contact, David, also added in contrast lighting around the perimeter for us.

Bridal Gown /Alterations: $280/$120. Having loved Mrs. Ladybug’s Amsale gown and Mrs. Peach’s similar Moonlight Bridal gown, I knew that was what I wanted. I did the unthinkable … I purchased my gown (via Netbride) without ever trying it on. It is a good thing I found an amazing alterations woman who hemmed the dress a good 4 inches and sewed up a bustle and bra cups! The dress fit like a glove and I felt absolutely fabulous wearing it.

Bridal Accessories: (Veil, shoes, necklace, garter set). The cathedral length veil was purchased from a fellow Knottie ($25), the Kenneth Cole wicked red shoes from Zappos ($80), the Nadri necklace from Nordstrom ($110) and the SF Giants garter set from eBay ($20).

Groom’s Attire: $820 for the Hugo Boss suit, white vest and tie. Following Korean tradition, my parents bought Andy a new suit before the wedding. While he and I were at Nordstrom trying on various suits, we decided to forgo tuxedos and make the new suit from my parents his wedding day attire. All of the groomsmen also wore suits. I think we made the best decision because not only were all of the groomsmen able to keep their suits (our gifts to them) but my groom looked incredibly handsome in a suit he knew was bought especially for him.

Bridesmaid Attire: $430. Wanting the girls to look unique but still cohesive, we went with three different Bill Levkoff dresses that looked great on each girl. One had straps with tulle in the front for extra oomph, one had a slimming bust that gathered on the side, and one had a coordinating sash that hung down the back like a train. I bought the dresses for each girl at Netbride, and was able to purchase each one for more than $100 off than prices at the bridal salons.

Groomsmen Attire: $390. Wanting to gift the groomsmen with their wedding attire, I stumbled upon Men’s USA, a suit store in Los Angeles. We dragged all three GMs by the heels down to the shop and had them each try on suits. Finally deciding on the one above, we haggled the cost down to $130/per suit.

Stationery (DIY save the dates, wedding invitations, programs, seating chart, table names, thank you cards): $500. Everything was DIY — just how I like it. Not being incredibly design-savvy, I created everything in MS Publisher and it worked out just fine! The invitations, programs and table names were printed on my home color inkjet. The paper was purchased from Paper Source and Paperandmore.com. The seating chart was printed at Kinko’s — two nights before the wedding! The save the dates were done at Vistaprint.com. The thank you cards were printed at Overnightprints.com. The fun part about doing our own paper products was including a common theme around them all. A baseball theme ran throughout our reception — tables were named after different major league baseball teams and guest names were listed in alphabetical order on the seating chart poster, each assigned to a different baseball table.

DIY Monogrammed Aisle Runner: $10. In the process of painting my runner a week before the wedding, I groaned to myself, “What did I get myself into?!” Especially when I unfurled the entire bolt of fabric to find that the muslin was cut right in half! (I bought nearly an entire bolt of new muslin and the lady just handed me the entire bolt, without unfurling it for me to see. Ladies, ALWAYS check your fabric before leaving the store!) But after a few iron passes of Stitch Witchery, the runner came out looking like new, just in time for some adorable wedding day photos!

Photography: $5000 (main photographer) $300 (second shooter) $400 pre-bridal photos. The two best decisions we made in regards to photography was (1) hiring a second photographer for the day-of, and (2) taking pre-wedding bridal photos in San Francisco. After having paid the deposit for our main photographer, I had a gut feeling that I had made the wrong decision (fellow brides — ALWAYS listen to this gut feeling of yours in regards to wedding vendors. There is too much money and memories on the line to not listen to your intuition). At the last minute, we hired Hana Chung (of Hana Chung Photography) as our second shooter — at the time, a real up and coming photographer, but now full-fledged in her own successful wedding photography business. Having her there as a third shooter saved our wedding day memories.
The decision to take pre-wedding bridal photos was a no-brainer as well, as I wanted professional photos taken in full wedding garb in my beautiful hometown of San Francisco. Andy (begrudgingly) indulged me in this extra photo treat, and it turned out to be an incredibly fun photo shoot that produced beautiful, artistic photos that we’re sure to admire for years to come. (Please ask me in the comments if you want read my review on our main photographers.)

Videography: $1,000. Videography was one thing that we knew we wanted, but didn’t want to spend a pretty penny. After meeting with (no joke) 6 different videographers, we found Zack of Frequent Flyer Productions and finally plunked down our deposit. Due to some issues with scheduling, it turned out that Zack wasn’t able to film our wedding, so we had Eric on the day of, and he was great! Zack still did all of the editing of our final wedding video, and even included a few extras for our inconvenience. Andy and I are quite pleased with the results and are glad that we spent the money to have someone capture our special day on film.

Ceremony Music: $125 + gifts Andy’s cousin plays for weddings professionally, so when she offered her services for our wedding, we jumped on it. Add in one cellist (that we paid for) and my very good pianist friend from college, and you get the sweetest sounding trio that ever practiced only a mere hour before the wedding! They were amazing and it only cost us $125 for the cellist and we got lovely gifts for the pianist and violinist!

Reception Music (DJ/MC): $700 for Tim Coy of Pacific Events, Orange County, CA. We hired Tim after hearing him DJ/MC at a friend’s wedding. His smooth voice and professional demeanor was exactly what we were looking for. Tim was an absolute delight and played exactly what we asked him to. He was the best $700 we could spend on a DJ/MC.

Flowers: $1,600 (main florals) + $300 (loose orchid blooms) from Flower Allie, Fullerton, CA. Allison (of Flower Allie Flowers) is a favorite amongst Southern California florist vendors. And with good reason — I simply gave her my budget, a few inspirational flower photos, and left the rest to her floral imagination! When, just weeks before the wedding, I decided that I wanted her to include some floral centerpieces for the reception (read: was too lazy to finish the DIY centerpieces I had in mind!), and she was right on top of it and came up with beautiful arrangements! She did an amazing job with the limited budget I gave her and is just an incredibly sweet woman.

Favors: $300 Peanuts & Cracker Jack + $20 cello bags from Nationwidecandy.com & Papermart.com. Andy, being Major League Baseball’s #1 fan, suggested the idea of giving out peanuts & Cracker Jack as our wedding favor, taken from a line out of Take Me Out to the Ballgame. They were a huge hit with our guests, since they all know what a complete baseball nut he is! The favor tags had the lyrics to Take Me Out to the Ballgame, and our thanks on the front complete with, “See you at the ballpark!”

Wedding Cake: Included with reception package from Cinderella Cakes, Costa Mesa, CA. Choosing the wedding cake was the simplest decision Andy and I made throughout the entire wedding process. Our cake was included in our reception package at Pacific Hills. All we did was stop by one afternoon, choose from a booklet of cake designs, choose the flavors, and verify the guest count a few weeks before the wedding, and that was it! No muss, no fuss, and the beautiful cake was delivered (stand and all) the morning of the wedding and was as delicious as it looked gorgeous!

Officiant: $500 honorarium. There was no question that our Pastor from our home church would be the officiant for our wedding. He tailored his sermon to our own personal situation and it was quite touching. He gave us a few months of pre-marital counseling on his own time before the actual wedding, and after the wedding, we gifted him an honorarium for his time and support for us.

Coordinator: $500 (day-of only) Jennifer DeShields of Charming Occasions, Orange County, CA. I was lucky enough to snag a $500 “day-of only” special that Jennifer was running a few months before the wedding. Jennifer turned out to be so much more than just a “day-of” coordinator, as she allowed herself to be available to us even before the wedding, attending with us our final meeting with the reception venue. She was a dream to have in our corner on the big day, as we were able to hand over everything — with complete confidence — to her.

Hair/Makeup: $400 bride H/MU (includes preview) + $580 3 BM & MOB H/MU, Design Visage, Newport Beach, CA. I specifically requested Nicole Thompson for my hair & makeup after seeing what gorgeous jobs she did for other Southern CA Knotties. Nicole and a fellow makeup artist came by our hotel room at the insane hour of 6 AM in order to be done by 8 AM. The two of them were able to get through 3 bridesmaids, my mother, and myself with time to spare. My BMs had no clue how they wanted their hair or makeup, so the girls made suggestions and they all came out stunning!

Wedding Party Gifts: $315 Burke Williams facials for BMs + $80 wedding day ties & socks for GMs. I treated my girls to Burke Williams’ spa-style facials the day before the wedding as a way to wind down and as my gift to them. The groomsmen were given their wedding day ties and socks (both from Banana Republic) as Andy’s gift to them. Their socks were identical to Andy’s.

Additional Costs:

Wedding Bands - $1,300 from Capri Jewelry, Los Angeles Jewelry District
Honeymoon - $4,200 (all-inclusive + airplane) 5 night stay at Couples Swept Away, Negril, Jamaica

GRAND TOTAL: $39,500

WHERE WE SAVED:
- having an afternoon reception
- having a buffet, not sit down, reception
- cake included with our reception package
- buying all dresses from NetBride
- DIYing all paper products, aisle runner and favors

WHERE WE SPLURGED:
Andy and I wanted our bridal party to be treated like kings and queens, so we tried to minimize all costs for them to take part in our wedding by gifting them with as much as we could. We wouldn’t change a thing when it comes to our closest friends.

WHY WE WENT OVER INITIAL BUDGET:
- hiring a second photographer
- having the pre-wedding photo shoot
- last minute addition of floral centerpieces
-purchasing groom’s suit, rather than renting tuxedo

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