Weddingbee Blog

I’m not gonna lie; Trying to plan the wedding w’d like to have for our guest list (170) on our budget (veeery small) is one of the biggest challenges I’ve ever taken on.

At first, I felt like it was impossible. Thinking about it stressed me out so much that I didn’t plan anything until three months into our 10-month engagement. I lay awake at night with my thoughts racing trying to figure out a way to make it work.

I couldn’t decide on colors, or style, or anything. I’d been reading wedding blogs and was just so overwhelmed with the beautiful possibilities and the reality of our budget. It wouldn’t work. It just wouldn’t.

I had booked one thing — our venue. Unfortunately, its size constrains us to seating 150 people for dinner, with no space for dancing or anything else. The one thing, the ONLY thing, Mr. Bunny had asked of me in planning this wedding was that we could invite everyone. Our family, our friends. Everyone. And our families are so big that they amount to 140 of our guests!

But then one night, I had a breakthrough. What if we… didn’t serve dinner? What if we offered mini hamburgers, chips, fruit… Fourth of July cookout-style finger foods?

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And starting from there, I planned our wedding. I sat up late typing all my ideas into a Google Document so I’d still remember them all the next morning.

I’m pretty sure we’re going to love this wedding, even if no one else does!

The revelations I had that night weren’t anything I didn’t already know. I love to entertain. I’ve been in charge of my family’s Thanksgiving tablescapes since I was in grade school. I just never thought to put those ideas toward my wedding.

Thanksgiving 2007

Thanksgiving 2008

I convinced my mother to invest in a couple new tablecloths and cloth napkins and then chipped in $20 each year toward decor — for place cards in 2007, and for the pears, grapes and flowers in 2008. I used what we had at home with us.

I could have smacked myself for not thinking of that before. With my Thanksgiving tables in mind, I set out to create our wedding out of things I already owned.

So how do I plan to have a wedding that looks like it cost much more than it actually will?

1. I picked our colors because they’re my favorite colors and our rustic, vintage theme, because that’s my style. Almost everything I own is already blue, green, pink or brown, and either looks antique or is antique. That means …
2. I’m using things we already own to decorate. Mr. Bunny and I have similar pack-rat hoarding tendencies. We keep things that mean something to us. Anything with substance and history is a little treasure. That means that both our apartments are full of junk, but it also means that over the years, we’ve collected things that we really love — things we will incorporate into our wedding.

For the sake of honesty, let me say that I have bought some things over the past several months that I’m not counting in my wedding budget. That’s because I would probably have bought them anyway, eventually.

Here’s my dresser … and six things that will be in use on our wedding day.

1. is the silk peony I bought at Michaels to make a flower for my hair (like so many other brides right now). That peacock-colored pitcher just happens to be where it’s living for the moment.
2. are vintage handkerchiefs that my grandmother gave me when she was cleaning out her condo last spring. These are just two of a stack of 15 or so. They belonged to my mother and aunts when they were growing up. I’ll either give these to my bridesmaids or use them some other way. As a sidenote, I’m probably going to stack dark blue books like these, but bigger, on some of the tables to elevate my centerpieces a bit.
3. is a glass cake stand, which also belonged to my grandmother. Our one- or two-tier cutting cake will sit on this stand.
4. is a green drinking glass. I picked up about eight of these from a thrift store for $3 about a year ago. I’m going to use these and blue-tinted antique mason jars as vases for a handful of blooms. Right now, this one is home to the wilting bouquet Jill made me.
5. is a cobalt-colored glass plate my sister bought me for Christmas. This will probably display some of the cookies for our cookie bar. If not, I’ll find some other use for it.
6. is an antique mirror I bought just last week. I found it at a high-end furniture store that was going out of business. A family friend that works there was hoping I would drop $400 for this sofa they were trying to get rid of, but instead I seized upon this mirror, originally $360. I offered the owner $60 for it. Done. We girls can use it in the “getting ready” area at the venue, which doesn’t have any mirrors.

Planning our wedding around what I own is freeing me up to spend a little money on things like flowers and photography (not much, but enough).

Some of what I don’t have, I can borrow from friends and family. I’m hoping to make up some of the difference in DIY projects, but knowing me, these will have to be relatively simple or I’ll totally screw them up.

I’m both excited and anxious to see how it turns out.

Are you using items you already have for your wedding decor? What are some ways you’ve been creative with items you already have?