When I pictured my wedding with Mr. Monkey I never imagined something posh, but I did picture us getting married somewhere pretty. When it came to picking our venue, both of our parents agreed that it made sense to have the wedding and reception at my dad’s church, where he’s a pastor. As a PK (”pastor’s kid”), I kinda had no choice about the venue or the guest list (400+ people).
Now, I love my church and all but I never imagined my wedding reception taking place in the church basement. Everytime I read wedding magazines and saw pics of gorgeous venues, I felt kinda sad. Mr. Monkey, being the super positive person he is, saw it as an opportunity to be creative & have fun with the space…so, we did a few small things that helped brighten the space. *A lot of this stuff has been done before, but I just wanted to share a little bit of what we did to spruce up our venue.

Mr. Monkey & I knew long before we planned anything wedding-related that we wanted cupcakes at the wedding. Since we were anticipating 400+ guests, we knew that we’d be on a bit of budget. It also seemed like it would be a whole lot easier to distribute cupcakes to 400 hungry people than to slice up a lot of wedding sheet cake.
We did some research on cupcake places in the city (Magnolia, Tribeca Treats, etc.) and even with the lowest possible price (a buck fifty for a plain cupcake), it was still way out of our budget. Sooo…we decided to go local.
Mr. Monkey & I have been buying cupcakes from our local Super Stop & Shop for years and although they’re supermarket brand, they were always tasty. I inquired about prices and found out that by buying them in bulk, they’d cost less than $0.50 each! In total, we spent less than $300 on all our cupcakes.

My attempt to get Mr. Monkey to wear a diamond men’s wedding band failed miserably (see old post)…so, we came up with a better idea.
Instead of buying a wedding band for Mr. Monkey…I’m going to try making one!
I’ve taken a few jewelry and beading classes here and there at the YMCA. And I’ve told myself that if I ever win the Lottery or win a crazy amount of money playing slots in Vegas one day…I plan to be a full-time “jewelry design class-taker”! (and, on the side, start a doggie day care where I can play with Juby, Gromit, and other cute dogs allll day)
Here are the details: I’ll be making a ring for Mr. Monkey at a jewelry/arts workshop in the city called “Make Workshop.” If you’re interested in taking jewelry design classes, knitting, or even learning letterpress…this place seems to offer it all. I haven’t taken any classes here yet, but I think it’s going to be really fun.
195 Christie Street
New York, NY 10002
If all goes well, Mr. Monkey will be wearing this ring on September 8th…
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Throughout the wedding planning process, Mr. Monkey has tried implementing many of his “creative” ideas into the wedding…and I’ve pretty much rejected everything from the groomsmen wearing monkey suits idea to entering the ceremony with Mr. Roboto playing in the background idea. I’ve been feeling bad about not using a lot of his ideas…so, I’ve decided to give in to one of his requests.
Introducing….Our Wedding Invitation Stamps!
