Photography was the area that was very important to us. However, we also did not want to use the majority of our wedding budget on a photographer. Fortunately I discovered Robert L. Walker Photography. The photography in his portfolio was beautiful but his prices were extremely reasonable. After meeting with him we knew he was the photographer for us!

To see how all the pieces came together here are some of my favorite shots from our wedding…

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I never wanted a dress with intricate detailing or a ball gown skirt…I have always been drawn to simple and clean dresses. Unlike most brides who usually take their moms and bridesmaids to pick out a dress, I went to Priscilla of Boston in Dallas on my own during my lunch break. I have always been a fan of Melissa Sweet’s “Lia” gown so I knew that was going to be the dress I would wear on my wedding day. It was the first dress I tried on and I knew that was it! The only problem was that the dress was ay outside our budget. After talking with the amazing consultants at PoB about my love for the dress but my lack of funds needed to purchase the dress, they were able to give me a discount on the dress that I could not refuse.

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We knew that a band would be out of our budget so we immediately started looking at DJs in the area. David’s step-father had a great contact through his work with Bar Mitzvahs. He was able to give us a substantial discount on his services for both the ceremony and reception. Also, the DJ owns an event production company so we were able to get special event lighting (including ceiling lighting, column lighting in the reception room and cake room, a gobo on the dance floor, and a gobo above the cake). Because the DJ was already going to be at the wedding he also gave us a discount on the lighting since it was not two separate events for him. I highly suggest looking for vendors that can act as double duty! It can save money in the long run!

The lighting on the columns was on a low setting during dinner and then was increased for dancing later.

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Once I got into the DIY groove from the wedding stationery there was no stopping it. Creating the stationery was so easy that I thought I could add my own DIY touches to the rest of the wedding details.

Instead of having a traditional guest book, I decided to have a photo mat with one of our engagement pictures for our guests to sign.

I also created a fun way for our guests to share their wishes, thoughts, and funny stories We called it “Make a Wish, Take a Wish.” I bought two glass containers from Hobby Lobby. I filled each container with the left over shred from the out of town boxes and tied a bow on the outside of each container using the same ribbon from our invitations. I then created two signs using the same process I have previously mentioned: “Make a Wish” and “Take a Wish”.

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After successfully completing our wedding invitations, I knew that I could do the remainder of the wedding stationery myself. I designed, printed, and assembled the rest of our wedding stationery using the same process as I did with our invitations. I created ceremony programs, menus, escort cards, place cards, table signs, table numbers, stickers, out of town boxes, and our rehearsal dinner invitations.

Here are some detail shots of our DIY stationery:

Ceremony Programs. The program quote said, “My greatest good fortune in a life of brilliant experiences has been to find you and lead my life with you.”

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The wedding invitation from my inspiration board became the starting point for designing our wedding…the color scheme, linens, flowers, lighting, stationary, and even the cake were inspired by this invitation.

After contacting several invitation designers for custom quotes to recreate the wedding invitation from my inspiration board, I was left feeling completely discouraged because all of the quotes were completely out of our budget. It was at this point that the thought of a DIY wedding popped into my head. I knew that I would be able to recreate my inspiration invitation if I only knew the process.

After some online research I discovered that my inspiration invitation was not actually created using fuchsia paper with white text printed on it. Instead it was created using offset lithography, meaning that the invitation itself is actually white heavy cardstock and the fuchsia pink is an ink that is printed on top of the cardstock. The text that is visible is actually the white cardstock that was not covered by the fuchsia ink. I also found that offset lithography is the most common form of printing because it is fast, efficient, cheap, and relatively easy to do.

Now that I knew the process of creating my inspiration invitations, it was time to start designing our own invitations.

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With our vision and inspiration board in place, we were ready to start planning. The first step was choosing a wedding date. Because we wanted to keep costs as low as possible, we decided to get married on a Sunday and also keep our wedding to 75 guests or less. We were both very clear that we wanted immediate family and friends only. Because 80% of our guests would be coming from out of town we did not want to make our guests request more time off of work than absolutely necessary. As a result, we decided that we would either have a Memorial Day or Labor Day Sunday wedding since most people get the following Monday as a day off. We ultimately chose the Sunday before Memorial Day as our wedding date and used that date (5.25.08) as a theme that would carry through to all aspects of our wedding.

Choosing a venue was a simple decision for us. We knew with our limited budget that the many beautiful hotels, mansions, arboretums, ranches, and plantations in the Dallas area would be far outside of our budget. So, we chose the next best alternative…a country club with smaller fees and a low food and beverage minimum.

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After getting engaged I suddenly realized that I was completely out of my element. I did not have a clue about how to pull off a budget friendly wedding let alone what the vision of our wedding should look like. I quickly discovered hundreds of amazing wedding blogs (like EAD), photographers, and other online resources all full of amazing wedding details and inspirations.

I must have looked at a million photos, but I finally found the vision for our wedding in a beautiful wedding invitation. I am not sure if it was the bright fuchsia color with the white text, the simplicity of the layout, or the two font types, but this wedding invitation was exactly what we wanted for our wedding… vibrant and simple (yet still classic). We were ready to hit the ground running and create an inspiration board. Since I did not have access to a design program like Photoshop I simply created the inspiration board in PowerPoint. I poured through all of the files I had saved on my computer and finally came up with A “Fruitful” Affair because I found that I was drawn to bright colors like mango, papaya, kiwi, raspberry, and orange.

top row: the knot, the knot, the knot
middle row: unknown, the knot, Melissa Sweet via Priscilla of Boston
bottom row: Jasmine Star, the knot

Now all I had to figure out was how I was going to pull off a Monolo Blahnik wedding on a flip flop budget…it was time to get creative.

Woo hoo! I am so thrilled and honored to be a guest blogger on Elizabeth Anne Designs. I spent more time than I care to admit reading this blog for countless inspiration ideas when I was planning my own DIY wedding.

I want to start by introducing myself. In the blogosphere I am known as Mojito Maven and I live in a suburb of Dallas, Texas with my wonderful husband, Mr. Mojito. We hope to add either a little red Cocker Spaniel or Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy to our family in the near future. I started a blog (Make Mine a Mojito) shortly after we were married to chronicle our life together as newlyweds and, of course, my love for mojitos.

In the fall of 2005, while we were seniors at Southern Methodist University, Mr. Mojito and I officially met in our final math class needed for our majors (we actually lived in the same dorm our freshman year and had other engineering classes together but never spoke to each other). We discovered that the only way to actually pass the rigorous math class was to study together. After a semester of constant studying mixed with flirting, he finally asked me on date just before we left school for winter break. It was not until the following semester that we became official. After almost two years of dating Mr. Mojito proposed in a gondola on the Las Colinas canals and the wedding planning began.

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