A Walk Down Memory Lane

Red and aqua has kind of exploded as the uber-popular color combo lately, and everytime I see it, it reminds me of my wedding.  We were married over three years ago, when red and aqua was hardly heard of.  Everyone thought I was crazy, except my art teacher, who obviously saw the beauty in this palette.  There was no pinterest back then, so it was really hard to find inspiration, but it was such a fun process.  Since the creative juices have been running dry here lately (I think the constant white powder falling from the sky may have something to do with that), I thought I would go back in time and share some photos with you and some details on how I did everything at our wedding - all for under $5000.

I made our programs in a photo editing program and then printed them.  There were four layers, all bound with red cardstock and aqua ribbon.  My bridesmaids helped me assemble, and thank heavens they did, because they took FOR-ever!  It was worth it though!

Here is my daughters flower girl dress - it was a major score at $50 from an online store!

Wedding dress shopping was a major experience for me - and when I say major, I don't mean good.  Our wedding was in December, so I went shopping in May for a dress.  I had a total nervous breakdown, tears and all in the dressing room.  I was so scarred that I put a down payment on a dress on a rack that I didn't like just to get it over with.  Then, I had a change of heart and finally got the nerve to go back in September.  Of course by that time, I had no choice but to buy off the rack, but thankfully I lucked out on a dropped waist gown that was brand new, only tried on once, and got it for just under $600!

My shoes were what I considered a splurge - $125 at Town Shoes.  I was determined that we all had red shoes though, and I absolutely loved the bow detail on mine.  All of the girls had red shoes... aren't they gorgeous?

At the last moment I realized I forgot about the Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue tradition.  Here's what we did for the something blue - my bridesmaids all wrote messages for me on the sole of my shoes.

Here are my bridesmaids - I chose white bridesmaids dresses because it seemed to suit the winter wedding, and used aqua in the sashes and red shoes.  My daughter was the only one in color, because she is the color of my life!  I ordered them from Modern Bridal in Florida, and had them brought up to Canada - we scored an awesome deal at $110 a dress.  The same dresses sell here in Canada for over $300.

Here are the guys - the color is in sepia, so you cant see, but their ties are aqua, to match the girls sashes.  My husbands is white, to match my dress.  The tux rental place didn't have the right tie color, so I found them on Solid Color Neckties for about $14 a piece!

We wanted our ceremony to really look like a winter wonderland, and it was amazing because our church did all of this decorating!  We didn't have to do a thing.  It looked amazing!

My daughter must have been getting bored :)  I am so thankful that my wonderful photography captured the little moments like this.

When we were married, we only had our first daughter, and we had a small commitment ceremony to her as well as part of our ceremony.  We gave her a little ring and she helped us light the candles.

Our cake cost us nothing!  My husband's grandma made it for us - it was sooo good too.  Lemon Pudding cake, my favorite.  The big diamonds were from Michaels, and the cake serving set was one we already had at home but never used.

This was a place setting at the head table.  We used the vases to put our bouquets in.  The diamond confetti and diamond napkin rings were all bought on eBay, and I had rock candy as part of the favours.  

We found these napkin covers at Jysk, a store kind of like Ikea.  It was part of their Christmas clearout, and we got them for $3 for 12!  It was the perfect addition to our damask theme.

This is a guest table.  We rented the black table cloths, but the white ones were included with our hall rental, as were the napkins.  The damask table runners were made by my husband's grandma, and again, cost us nothing.  The only thing we hired a decorator for were the chair covers and head table backdrop.  The centerpieces were supposed to be very full carnations that gave an almost ruffled look, but they didn't open all of the way - one of the things that didn't work exactly as planned.  But they were a gift from a friend who worked at a floral wholesaler.

The table numbers - wrapped on the bottles of wine.

Our menu cards.  My husband and his friends are trained chefs, so they prepared all of the food.  It was amazing, and since we had our wedding at the hall where my husband works, we got all of the food and wine at cost.  Our final hall rental and food bill for 100 people?  $900!

The gift table.  I found the three tiered boxes at Winners, stacked them and cut a slit in the top, and decorated them.  The S's were spray painted silver and then coated with glitter and hung over the table.  

Some pictures of us when we were little and a recent one.

Our seating chart.  This was one thing that was made at the last minute - my original idea was supposed to be on foam board and standing on an easel, but my easel broke a few hours before the wedding started and this was total last minute, but it worked.

Custom water bottle labels that I made and my husbands aunt glued on!

Our bouquets - red roses and daisies with crystal picks and white feathers.  Because I supplied the ribbon, crystals, and feathers, I only ended up paying $60 for them all.

Here we are, married!

Hope you enjoyed browsing through my total DIY wedding!  I wish I had another one to plan now :)  Here's one last shot of us as newlyweds!

P.S.  Don't forget about the Household Organizer Giveaway - head here to enter.  I'm giving away 5 copies once we reach 200 followers!