Wedding Planning

I'm getting married in 452 days. That's a lot of days to plan, dream up and think of the perfect details for our wedding day. That's also 452 days of worry, anxiety and stress over money, details and life in general. Again, I probably wouldn't have as much done for the biggest event in our life, besides the birth of our son, if I wasn't a SAHM. I love being able to stay home but financially I'm worried since we don't have the two incomes. However our venue isn't on the higher end and we will be doing our ceremony and reception in the same place. This means one prices not two! I'm doing my own wedding planning and here's how I'm doing it on a one income budget!

Venue

Our venue is Five Pines Barn in Irwin, PA. We are having our ceremony in their gazebo on site. The reception will be in the barn. We also have the venue Friday until Sunday, not just one day. This made our decision really easy! Every where we looked was one day only, set up and tear down and on top of that cost a fortune! A lot of the other places we checked out made you use their vendors which hiked the prices up like crazy as well. Using this barn saved us a lot of money. The cost is $4,000 for the entire weekend as well as tables and chairs.

The Barn

The gazebo where we'll have the ceremony

Inside the barn

Someone's wedding tables all set up inside the barn 

Photography 

This is one of the few things we are splurging on. Well, my MIL is splurging on. She has a wonderful contact that she used to work with who is a photographer. MIL said she'd pick up the photography price. We are very thankful on that. Plus the photographer doesn't print the pictures but instead gives you all the rights to the pictures and we can print them wherever we'd like! I honestly think this is the way to go because printing from a photographer get expensive. Plus on top of that, we can make a wedding book ourselves from a cheaper place and grab some coupons in the process. I'm not sure about your families but ours LOVE pictures. If we gave them a picture for every holiday or birthday that you give gifts on they'd be so happy and wouldn't care if they received anything else but maybe a frame to put it in. With that in mind, they're going to want a lot of pictures from the wedding for themselves. If we tried to print enough for everyone in our HUGE families, it would add up so fast and would just be insane. Getting the rights to pictures means everyone can print their own, pick the ones they want and in the end save money because they'd get more for their OWN money! Our photographer is Kristina Serafini and she charges $1,200 for 8 hours but is giving us 9 hours because she knows my MIL.

Bartender

Originally, we wanted to go with a flair bartender for our wedding. I didn't care one way or the other. I thought our wedding would be too laid back and simple for something so lavish but Hubby wanted it and I let him. However, the bartender would have cost nearly as much as the venue which is just ridiculous. So now we're stuck! Who do we get to tend bar for us?! Well luckily the venue has their own bartenders and on top of that, are only $100! Awesome way to save money. Sometimes you don't need to spend a fortune on something when in the end you'd save nearly $2,000!

Cake

My aunt has been baking cakes and decorating them for YEARS. She's amazing too. She has made all of my step son's birthday cakes, from a jeep to a dinosaur and I cannot believe she said she'd do our wedding cake as a gift for our wedding day! I'm so glad because I think paying that much for cake is just insane. It's just cake and Hubby doesn't even like cake! Haha, so my aunt will be doing our cake and that saves us a ton of money too. So if you're looking to save some dough on your wedding day and know someone who makes cakes, see if they'll do it for a cheaper price or even free! It will save you a ton in the long run especially if you aren't picky or a big cake person.

My baby shower cake

Will's baptism cake

My step son's 4th birthday dinosaur cake

My step son's 3rd birthday Jeep cake

Well the babe seems to be stirring and I gotta go feed the little piggy! That's all I got going for now.. hopefully I can write about our decorations soon. That's what I really wanted to get to today but my little peanut does not want to nap. Happy anniversary to Jenna and & hubby over at The Three Little Birdies! Go check her blog, she is the sweetest person on earth and her daughter is gorgeous. Hope you all have a wonderful week! It's gorgeous in Pittsburgh and hope it is where you are too!