Our DIY, Budget Friendly Wedding: Part 3

Here is the final installment of our wedding pictures. Looking at all the pictures really brought back a ton of memories. Our wedding day was so blessed. We had wonderful friends and family there to help out and to share in our wonderful day. The weather was beautiful. Everything just seemed to work out. I know my husband was super stressed and super busy that day. I told him all I wanted was a wedding that was not full of stress, was cheap, and was fun. Joe may have been stressed but he kept the stress away from me so that I could have the perfect wedding. I love my husband; he makes so many sacrifices to always ensure that I am happy.

I gave my niece a note to hand to her Uncle Joe. I saw this idea on Pinterest and I thought it was perfect. Joe and I work at the same school and when we first started dating we would always leave each other "love" notes. So I thought it was perfect to give Joe a note right before we said "I do."

It says "I can't wait to kiss you!" I didn't remember to do this until the last minute; so I just grabbed a scrap piece of paper and jotted this down very quickly...which is how most of our notes to each other are created anyways. I didn't take a picture of it at the time and I thought maybe it had been thrown away but I should have known Joe had saved it. I found it in the box with all our wedding stuff.

I insisted a couple days before the wedding that I wanted the door to be red. When I was younger and dreamed of my wedding day I always wanted to get married in a church with a red door (I must have seen it in a movie?). Since we weren't getting married in a church I wanted our front door painted red. I think Joe and I debated on for a while but I finally won out and it turned out beautiful.

I told my dad he could wear whatever he wanted. He is not the suit and tie kind of guy. Plus, he was working all day long trying to make sure his little girl had a perfect day and I think after all that he deserved to be as comfortable as possible. 

Right before we kissed I realized we probably should have practiced our kiss. It's not very often that a couple kisses in front of a whole audience and it was kind of awkward. But It looks like I got cheek kiss down...I didn't think anyone was watching then though. 

Here are these cuties again! Ellie, my niece, kept saying she wanted to give me a kiss but then she would turn away; so we never actually got a picture of her giving me a kiss just these "almost" photos. She is such a little stinker. 

The groomsmen wore shirts to match their wives who were my bridesmaids. The only exception to that was the guy in the pink...he is not my sister's husband he is one of Joe's friends. The flower girls and ring bearer wore dresses to match their mom's and dad's attire. My goal was to have all the families get family photos out of this since they were all matching; but there just wasn't enough time for that (once again that all boils down to getting my hair done and like I said before I won't talk about that because it will ruin this whole experience.). 

I thought the price of cake toppers was too expensive, so I decided to make my own. I saw a version of these cake toppers on Etsy and they were ridiculously expensive. So I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some grapevine wire (I think that is what it is called?) and I made my own. I was not present when they placed the cake toppers on the cake. I think I had decided not to use them at all. I liked how plain and simple the cake looked (If you haven't figured out yet I like plain and simple). But someone put these on and I am glad they did because I think the cake looks great. It also tasted amazing!

I found that cake plate at a flea market. I thought it was so cute. I think my mom told me it was probably from the 70's. She said they were popular then and couples would get them engraved. I think I only paid a couple dollars for it. I got the box that the cake is on from a garage sale. They actually gave it to me for free. The wind had blown over a clothes rack they had and helped pick it up and I guess the box was my reward for being kind. I try to teach my students all the time that kindness pays off. I never thought to buy a cake cutter...I think my sister brought hers from her wedding...another unnecessary cost avoided.

This is the bride and groom table. It doesn't look very good in this picture; but this is the only one I could of it. The wind was crazy that day. Those milk jugs were found on the farm...I had been eyeing one that I saw in the old barn for a while and I finally had Joe go get it for me. I wouldn't get it myself because there were too many wasps buzzing around it. The table and chairs used to be my Grandma's before she passed away. I thought they worked perfectly for this. 

The rooster and chicken were found at a flea market. As a little girl I always went to flea and antique markets with my dad and I saw these chickens and roosters everywhere and I always wanted to collect them; not sure why but I did. When I saw them at a flea market right before the wedding I knew they would be the perfect decoration for our bride and groom table. The little bowl on the table is filled with mints that my Grandma and Grandpa Jones made for us. They were delicious. And the little bowl is from Joe's Aunt. She gives a piece from this collection to me at major holidays and she gave me this bowl at my wedding shower. The collection used to be Joe's Grandma's. I can't wait someday to have a bigger house so I can display all the pieces she has given me. 

Oh, I just found this one...it shows the bride and groom table a little better. 

We had snow cones at the wedding. The kids loved them and they were a perfect treat for a summer night.  

I bought these printable coloring books from the Etsy shop SquishyCuteDesigns. I think I only paid $5.00 for the PDF printable, but that was two years ago. Now it is $7.99; but I think that is still a great price for something as cute as these coloring books. You send them the information and they send you a PDF back with your information and then you print them off. I already had the ink from printing off the save the dates, so all I had to do was buy some card stock and printer paper. Not too costly for something so cute. 

We used mason jars as drink ware which of course you can see this idea all over Pinterest. I bought the mason jars from an estate sale. I got a great deal on them. The best part of using these jars is that I didn't just use them for the wedding...now I use them to can vegetables from my garden. The straws and the bags came from the Etsy shop DimeStoreBuddy. The tags were so people could write their names on their glass so they wouldn't get them mixed up with others. I don't know if anyone actually did this... but it seemed like a good idea. My husband made the "drink station." I saw something on Pinterest that led me to the girl. Inspired. blog that I thought was so cute and so he decided that he would put his own spin on it and made the above. I was wanting something a little cuter but Joe's version actually worked out better because now we use it in our outdoor entertaining area and it "fits" better than something girly and cute would. 

We borrowed this tent from our town. They use it for the town fair. This saved us a lot of money...tents are expensive. It is also what gave us the idea to have a county fair type wedding with hot dogs, popcorn, snow cones, and peanuts.

That's it...that's all the photos from the wedding. We planned this wedding in three months while teaching summer school, running physical education grant programs, and Joe coaching his off season basketball program. It was a lot of work; but it was worth it. I think it turned out perfectly!

I hope you enjoyed looking through the pictures of our wedding.