My sister and I both got our dresses from Anthropologie, of course. I made my own little hair flower out of some fabric and lace I had lying around. I made my bouquet out of homemade crepe paper carnations and my mom finished it off with some ribbon. I got the beach mats and parasols down in L.A.’s Chinatown. I painted some little flourishes on the parasols using acrylic paint so that they would tie into our invites. The officiant was chosen for his ability to grant us a marriage license without having to go to the LA County Clerk’s office and wait in line.
He turned out to be great and very easy to work with. He’s got ceremonies you can choose from on his site after you’ve booked him. We chose his ’modern companion’ ceremony because it was more about mutual love and respect for each other as individuals who want to be with each other. We then went to Duke’s Malibu for lunch because they would host up to 25 people without the cost of a private room or ’event menu’.
Cost Breakdown (rough estimates):
- Officiant: $550 (remember: no LA County Clerk’s line)
- Photographer: $100 (she’s just starting out and she’s so nice and easy to work with)
- Decorations: $125 (beach mats and parasols in Chinatown, sand buckets to hold cold water from Target, shepherd’s hooks from Home Depot, made poms out of trace paper)
- Lunch: 20 people for $400 (Duke’s doesn’t charge a cake cutting fee, so my uncle made some bundt cakes for dessert, no charge)
- Dress: $100 (Anthropologie)
- Groom’s outfit: $40 (new shirt from Gap, old pants from some discount designer store, my hat from a vintage shop in Italy)
- Invitation: $25 (paper and envelopes from PaperSource, and I used those cute new love stamps)
Total: $1340
All photos taken by our fabulous photographer Leasa Eisele
Did you have/are you planning a ~$1K wedding celebration? What are some tips you have to share with other brides to pull off a stress-free day?
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