Native Green: July 2014

So when my husband proposed (in the middle of Sports Authority I might add, lol) we only gave ourselves three months until the big day. May 24th 2014 was the day we decided on and behind all the excitement and joy of being newly engaged, the clock in my head started an inevitable nagging countdown. Did I seriously just give myself 3 months to do this?! Yikes! We knew the wedding needed to be done on a small budget, but that was not going to detour me from having a wedding that we would both enjoy and would represent us to the fullest. I'm all about being crafty and DIYs so I wasn't intimidated to take the wedding by the horns and make this happen...but where in the world do I start? I had never helped plan a wedding before although I had been in four to date: my sister's wedding about 17 years ago, an old roommates about 15 years ago, my brother's about 10 years and most recently my dear friend Nicole's. Luckily her wedding was recent enough that I had some idea of what I needed and remembered that it was all of the cool little details she had that made it so unique and special. So, you guessed it...I gave her a call. First thing is first she said, "you need to pick a venue!".

I had called around different locations in my area and was overwhelmed at the pricing. A loaded $1500 for 2 hours was way more than our budget allowed and the traditional church ceremony (although very lovely) just wasn't my style. If I was honest with myself, I sincerely wanted an outside wedding. I absolutely love being outside and Spring/Summer is my favorite time of year which is largely in part why we chose the month of May. I knew an outdoor celebration was risky with the unpredictable Texas weather, but it was a chance I was just going to have to take.
There is a special spot on the local bike route Rodney and I like to ride that we have always loved. It is a quiet and blissful place pushed back away from the road surrounded by trees and nature. No playground, no pond, no loud traffic or screaming kids running around, just a simple pavilion. So I called the city to see about renting the space. We quickly booked the location for a half day, 2pm-9pm, for a total of $125 with $75 of that being refundable after event. I was siked and felt like we were off to a great start! If you want an outside wedding, never hesitate to check local park locations and venues owned by the city. Chances are you can get them for a much lower rate. Never underestimate public parks, people were very kind and respectful and we had no issues with outsiders coming in or unwanted guest stealing cake ;)
Venue...CHECK!

View of area as approaching pavilion. See it way back there in upper left hand corner..

Area surrounding pavilion

The pavilion is new & nice, but this was definitely going to take an imagination and creativity!

About half way down side walk to pavilion looking back towards street

Next on the list was organizing the wedding party and making sure all my girls would be available. Seeing as how I have ladies in my family that I'm super close to and a best friend of 20+ years, it was kind of a no brainer when selecting my bridesmaid line up! My older sister Lori, my sweet sister (in-law) Emily, my BFF Jamie and adorable teenage niece Sydni. The girls were all on board and excited. So as they went on a bridesmaids dress hunt, I would move onto the invitations.
I chose to use www.mixbook.com to create my own personal invitations and design them the way I wanted. I was able to choose the layout, colors, design, fonts, details, and design both the front and back of invitation. It was awesome! I ordered 75 of them for grand total of $100.50.
Invitations...CHECK!

Click link below to take you directly to the invitation online for design, paper, size & price detail.
http://www.mixbook.com/cards/all/floral-sprig-copy-10799403?vk=mSXW7mTgPN

We had decided to keep the wedding small and intimate at a number of 75 guests, at which 80% was family coming in from out of town. I knew it was not only going to be helpful, but necessary to provide a map to our destination, especially because this park pavilion was only a small remote area of a much larger park and had no physical address to look up on Google maps or a GPS. But how to make this? It was going to take some finagling and cut and paste, but I would figure it out! So, on my iPad (this is key), I googled the area since I knew the precise location and zoomed in to the appropriate size. I then took a SCREEN SHOT picture on my iPad of the map and saved to camera roll. I then used a fun app on my iPad called A Beautiful Mess where you can edit and add little images or verbiage over a photo you have taken. That is where I wrote out the details and added cute little arrows and hearts to the image and once again saved the new updated version to my camera roll. Once I had done that for both a map and written directions, I simply emailed the images to myself. It was easy to then print the attachments onto cardstock paper and cut to the same size as my invitation. I know this may seem complicated or like a lot of work, but I assure you it is not. You just have to manipulate these apps and websites to give you the images you desire and then use the screen shot function on your phone or Ipad. (For those that are still wondering what a screen shot is...You can always take a picture of what is showing on your phone or computer screen by simply pushing two buttons simultaneously. For my Ipad it is the round home button at the bottom of device and the power button at the top right corner).

I put a heart around the ceremony site and the word 'wedding' next to it since it was removed quite a ways
from the parking lot.

Written directions from the hotel or North Central Expressway

Cost of this was a total of $0. I used nothing but apps on my phone, google, some left over card stock paper we had and the ink left in my printer.
Directions for Invitations...CHECK!

Now to get these suckers in the mail so I can move forward with décor and allow our guest enough time to RSVP. I wanted a cute cool way to address the envelopes since I was hand writing them all myself and had seen some really cute fonts and ideas on Pinterest. Here were the results...

Cute stamps are a must!

Fun way to spice up an invitation or mail!

Okay so venue has been chosen, bridesmaids on board, invitations ordered and mailed and now for colors. Since the wedding was outside I knew we would have the most beautiful of greens for a back drop. So what color pallet would flow and compliment each other while creating the serene and peaceful environment I was going for? Yup, I knew right then what I wanted! I absolutely love all shades of blue, particularly the lighter versions. If you've ever been in my home you know I use these colors a lot to create my happy place. I knew that committing to this decision would make things easier by allowing me to collect things from around my house to aide in the wedding décor. Never think you have to buy all new things for a wedding. That's just silly. Some of the most precious and beautiful items I had were from my grandparents garage and yard. I then started frequenting places such as Target, Michael's and Hobby Lobby to catch items on sale that I might be able to use and get creative with. Here is where I can't give the particulars on exactly how much I spent. Through the daily grind and process of every day life with a side of wedding planning, I failed to keep all receipts or records of finances. I just knew it was with in my budget and kept pushing forward. Ha. I will do my best however to give a ball park figure and where you can find these types of items.

Simple décor for our featured table was really the focus. It coordinated and helped pull all things together, but was not too overwhelming that it took away from the rest of reception. Take a look...

The white caged bird house I had at home already. I rounded up a nice vase and a few glass jars I had saved and used them as the center piece to hold the fresh flowers I would buy. The wood slab and burlap roses in the center jar were from Michael's. Wood cost me $12.99 and the burlap flowers cost me about $1.99. I just simply unrolled the wire stems, straightened them out and tossed in jar. The "flowers" in the large vase are not Baby's Breath, but still offered a soft and dainty vibe and only cost a few bucks for a large bundle. The wooden R and S letters were also purchased at Michael's. I'm not sure exactly how much, but I think they were about $5 a piece. I then found a sheet of blue burlap paper in the Scrapbook section of the store for $1.99. I purchased one for each letter, traced around it, cut it out and hot glued it on. Voila! The other pieces you see, the blue watering bucket and porcelain bird were also items I had at home. Michael's is always offering coupons and special deals, so before going in to make a large purchase, sign up on their email list for additional 20-25% off your entire purchase. It's definitely worth it.

The large framed photo of our family with black bird stand was also something we already had at the house. I simply bought a $6.99 frame from Garden Ridge in a similar shade of blue and added photos of me and Rodney when we were young children. This was much easier than the slide show idea some people have used and still gave our guests a glimpse of where we had come from. These would also be added to our front table. Here is how it turned out...

I also wanted to have a table available for cards or gifts and such. I decided to make a cute card stand using a white wire wagon I had at home. I needed to somehow make a sign to hang over it so guests would know what it was there for. I purchased the small wooden flag style pieces from Michael's as well for maybe a couple bucks. I painted them with black chalkboard paint I had and free hand wrote out the letters with simple white acrylic paint. I got online to find a font I liked and went for it. I already had a roll of jute rope to string them up with but now I needed a way to suspend it over the wagon...so I had an idea. I went out into my backyard, found a couple decent size sticks, broke them down to the same size and would use those as my poles. Once I tried to get them to stand on their own in wagon I knew I was going to need a little more height and stability. So I grabbed a couple Home Depot paint sticks I had (which are always free) and started to wrap them up. Soon we had our card stand.

*TIP - wrap a piece of masking tape around the end of jute rope to make it stiff and easy to thread

Here is how it turned out on wedding day...

Rodney and I both wanted a way to honor people who had and are a big part of our lives but could not be there with us that special day. We decided to make a memory tree. My mother had this tree at home and let me borrow it for this occasion. Simply hang photos of your loved ones for guest to look at and enjoy and say something from the heart. Now my grandma Gwen is a huge part of my life and heart. Unfortunately she is unable to leave her residence in Oklahoma and could not be there. So although she is not deceased, I definitely wanted to honor her and show her just how much she really was there with me. I framed a lovely photo of her and wrote her a note letting her know she was missed. I know this made her happy and feel more apart of my special day. Again, this cost us $0, but was a huge part of making the wedding décor more personal and sentimental.

There were a couple more things I wanted to add. One being an 'Oops I Forgot' box and the message in a bottle. Seeing as how the wedding was outside and many of our guests were from out of town, I thought it would be nice to have some items available..just in case. There was bug spray, tissues, hair ties, wrinkle free spray for pics, etc. You get the idea. I bought the wooden crate and sign at Michael's and all the travel size items at Target for anywhere from $.99 to $3.00. I simply painted the words on sign and was done. I had seen the message in a bottle idea on Pinterest and thought it was pretty cool. It is a tool for guests to leave you any advice, $1.00 a piece in the Target dollar spot.

Now for table décor. I have to admit that I am one lucky lady and have amazing friends who were very supportive in helping make this day happen. Like I mentioned before, not only did my friend Nicole lend advice, she also lent me many items she had used at her wedding. From lace table cloths, to burlap runners, she had more than enough options for me. Combining that with what my grandma Betty had given me, I had plenty to dress this park pavilion up and turn it into a simple vintage rustic style wedding. My bridesmaid Jamie had also ordered about 15 black table cloths from her work for me. Her manager was kind enough to let me borrow them for free as long as I returned them all when done. So awesome! That took care of the tables for me and one less thing to spend our budget on. The other thing I was going to need for the tables were center pieces. I wanted something to compliment our surroundings yet still be simple. I decided to use various glass jars I had been collecting and random bird cages. Now I had one from home I could use and my mom brought some down with her as well. I only needed to purchase two bird cages and I found them both at Garden Ridge for $14.99 a piece. I alternated using them on every other table and rotated the flowers. One table would have a bird cage on doily as center piece with a small jar of fresh flowers on each end and the next would have a large cluster of jars with fresh flowers on lace center piece. This kept things from being too redundant, but more of an eclectic feel. I only used fresh flowers on my tables and I went to Sam's to purchase them. They had a nice selection of styles and I bought all I needed for about $100. Here is a glimpse at tables.. They were much prettier in person I have to admit, but this will give you an idea.

All table décor...CHECK!

Now I should mention, one of the perks of renting a space at a public park was that these large oversized picnic tables were already there and moveable. So that took away from needing a table budget. Double bonus!

Next was food and cake. Luckily my husband is a tattoo artist and many times clients like to 'trade' with him. This time we were blessed when a friend of mine who is an amazing baker, volunteered to make the cake and cupcakes in return for some ink. Now of course this wasn't free per say, but it sure did help out with our wedding budget cash flow. Tanisha nailed it when she created this beautiful and chic blue cake adorned with fresh coral and dainty white flowers. The cupcake wrappers were purchased at Michael's for $2.00 a packet I believe and contained 50 in each so I bought two. The cupcake stands were lent to me by my mom and worked out beautifully. It was such a lovely set up!

The food was a gift from my husband's parents and they chose some killer finger foods from the Gordon Biersch Brewery. It was absolutely delicious! An extra money saving tip..pick up your catered food instead of having it delivered. Saved about $75. The drinks were made by me. I chose pink lemonade, water with mint and southern style tea with sweetener available. I bought the lemonade and tea premade in jugs and just added the fruit and mint myself. The canisters were of no cost because I already had one from my daughter's b-day party and Nicole let me borrow two from her. Again the little signs were purchased from Michael's for about $1.00 a piece. I painted the labels on each and hot glued some paper flowers on the bottom that I also got for $.99. To ensure I had enough to drink for our guest, I kept additional jugs underneath the tables in ice chest that way no one was going thirsty. A couple family members volunteered to keep their eyes on the canisters and would refill if necessary. Remember you will want to elevate the canisters so folks can fit their glasses underneath the spout. So I bout 3 cheap metal flower stands from Garden Ridge for $6.99 a piece and loosely covered with lace tablecloth. Two of my dear friends who are experienced Starbucks workers offered up a cold coffee station and had frappuccinos available as well. So yummy

We were definitely going to need glasses or cups to put drinks in and what better way than the ever infamous Mason Jars. (with handles! woo-hoo) Again, these were loaned to me at no cost. Amazing. I housed these delicacies in a very large and very old tin bucket my grandpa had sitting in his garage. I laid a lace table cloth inside and it was absolutely perfect. Now to stay in theme and offer a cute way to display the plates, napkins, plastic ware and straws, I used a couple items from around the house. Seriously, random glass jars from your fridge come in handy way more than you might expect and are the perfect straw holder. I found some really cute blue polka-dot and striped ones at Michael's for $3.99 per pack of 50.
Cake and food set up...CHECK!

Since we had the wedding at a public park, we wanted to display some signage to let others in the area know what was going on in hopes they would avoid coming and lingering around. Although we had rented the pavilion for private use, the ground and area around it wasn't officially reserved for us.
I thought it appropriate to post a small sign in the parking lot to let guest know that in fact they had arrived at the right location because you can not see it from the road. Next I made a cute little arrow sign to continue guiding them in the right direction and finally our vintage bike display to officially welcome them to our wedding. The parking lot sign, letters and stickers were all cheap purchases from Michael's as was the arrow sign. Again, I had the chevron burlap at home already so all I had to do was hot glue the pieces together. The parking lot sign was less than $7.00 and the arrow was actually two separate pieces that I glued together and it cost me about $10.00. I added some cute paint and a white arrow and was done. Very simple. The bicycle I already had as well as the wicker basket. I laid some left over fake flowers in it to compliment the ones from the ceremony (which I'll get to soon). The 'welcome to our wedding' sign is actually the reverse side of the one I had hanging in our backyard over my garden box. I used some white primer we had hanging around the house and just used light strokes to create a worn and used look on this weathered piece of wood. I then used acrylic paint I already had and painted on the verbiage.
Welcome signs...CHECK!

There was one more detail that I wanted to add to the pavilion to change the atmosphere and create a little more spark. I had also seen this idea on Pinterest and thought it was brilliant. Hula-hoop chandeliers! I bought 4 cheap hula hoops from Dollar Tree for $1.00 each. I then took an old white sheer curtain I was no longer using and cut it into long strips about 5 inches wide and wrapped it around the hula hoop until it completely covered the bright pink color underneath. The I took some more of that jute rope I had (you can buy inexpensive jute rope at just about any craft supply store) and strung it up from four sides so it would be easy to suspend. Next I put some tiny white lights, with WHITE wire, that I purchased at Garden Ridge for about $7.99 a box and loosely draped them around the hula hoop. Once hung from the rafters it made for a pretty adornment. It is kind of hard to see them hung in these pictures, but hopefully you'll get the idea...

Pavilion décor and set up...DONE!

Daddy Daughter dance :)

Now what better way to celebrate a wedding in the park and really give it that easy going backyard bbq vibe...yard games of course! I knew there were going to be kids there and parents who were going to need some entertainment for them. I took an old bean bag toss board we had used from time to time at home and gave it a fresh make-over. I painted it with the same white primer I used for welcome sign and then added some random blue and green stripes to tie it back into the wedding colors. Strips of painters tape placed horizontally in no specific sequence helped me keep those lines straight and even. I also took an old wooden crate I had, slightly larger than the Oops, I forgot box which you can purchase at Michael's for $15-20, applied the white primer again and filled it up with large oversized empty wine bottles for the ring toss. (make sure to wash them out good in order to prevent bugs from being attracted to the sweet wine smell). To make the rings I purchased swimming pool rings from Dollar Tree for about $3.00 and covered them with left over scraps from my hula hoop chandeliers. My brother lent a hand by bringing his wooden croquet set which was a blast! I also brought from home a bucket full of things we take to the park, like balls, Frisbees, bubbles, etc.

Now my most favorite part of the park entertainment had to be the photo booth. This has been a very popular idea the last few years at parties and I can definitely see why! I got an old frame from our garage and strung it up on a tree low enough for everyone to see through it. Next I borrowed my daughter's over sized chalk board and used that as our sign so guests would know what to do. My super talented sister Lori whipped it up in no time and it turned out great! For the props we used some items we had purchased and painted Michael's for about $.50 a piece. We had a fun top hat, got creative and painted a sombrero, a couple mustaches and of course glasses. This was a blast and we all had so much fun taking pics here. Family and friends were snapping away with their cameras and phones and posting with hastag 'rodneyandsarawedding' so we could all share with each other.
Another cool detail we added was blue lights on various trees surrounding the pavilion. Our dear neighbor Glen had dozen or more boxes of blue Christmas lights and was so kind in offering them to us. They really added a fun element as the sun set and the sky grew dark.

Park games and entertainment...CHECK!

Lights in background to left

Ceremony details. This I kept super simple for a couple reasons, 1) I already had a lot on my plate and 2) sometime the less adorned, the better. I used www.letsjumprental.com for my white folding chairs. They had the best prices, an inexpensive delivery charge of $14 and were unbelievably nice! They service the entire DFW metro-plex area, so if you ever need to rent any type of party or event equipment, be sure to give them a call. My total for 75 chairs, weekend delivery and set up was around $165. They even adjusted my delivery time for me and came 3 hours earlier with only a two day notice. I would definitely use them again! For our stage area we laid down an old flat blue rug we owned so we would have something smooth to stand on. I wanted an arch way and at first had a hard time finding one. After buying my wedding dress and the flower girl dress for our daughter, the budget had taken quite a hit so I was being super conscious of spending. I looked on Craig's list a lot but people still wanted more than I was willing to pay. Until one day while browsing Garden Ridge I found there 4 ft wide black rod iron arch way on sale for 50% off which ended up being only $40. I was definitely happy about this! For wedding day we put some fake flowers over arch way and down the side. Super easy. Looking back though I do wish we had put more flowers on it and loaded it up, but regardless it worked. I also wanted something at the end of the aisle to kind of mark it off and create an entry way of some sort. So my mom suggested large ferns which just happened to be on sale at Walmart for $6 a piece at the time. I then bought two large pots to plant them in and used these metal plant holders my sister had given me a couple years before and spray painted them a shade of blue. Turned out pretty nice and simple.

Ceremony décor...CHECK!

Now that all wedding décor and plans were set and done it was time to really focus on wedding party, especially my girls! Originally I had wanted all the girls in a different dress. Anything that fit and complimented their body type, as long as it was a shade of blue. I love the eclectic look and it looked so cool when I had seen other wedding parties done this way. However, I got a call one day that changed my mind. My sisters and niece were all at JC Penny's together one day (we all live in different states by the way so it was all going to have to be done via phone and picture text) and found a really awesome maxi dress. It was my most favorite shade of blue and was simple and flowy yet done in a chiffon fabric that gave it more of a dress up feel. At the bottom was what they call a pineapple pattern that added just the perfect amount of detail. The girls all loved the same dress and it fit them all so well AND it just happened to be on sale for $45! I quickly ran to a local JC Penny to see it in person and just loved it! So the girls had their dresses and at an unbelievable price. Nice. I still wanted a unique and individual look for each girl somehow because I knew the guys were not all going to look the same. So I decided to make them all a sash/belt to wear with their dress in the same style my gown had. I bought some off white satin ribbon and a dozen fabric flowers from Hobby Lobby. This in total cost me about $75. I hand sewed each belt and used them as apart of the girls bridesmaid gifts. They loved them and it turned out so pretty! Now for my and my daughter's gowns. I ended up going way over my budget, but from what my mom and sister told me, $300 wasn't much to begin with, ha. I ended up buying a style completely different than I had originally wanted. Isn't that how they say it usually goes. I found a beautiful vintage style lace gown at Alfred Angelo on sale for $600. Although the price made my stomach flip for a second, the way the dress made me feel and the look on my mom and sister's face made it pretty worth it. Although I live in Dallas, I had met my family in Tulsa, Ok that weekend and we utilized the time together to dress shop. I have to say I was completely impressed and blessed with the wonderful ladies at that boutique. So kind and helpful and truly made it an amazing experience. If you are in that area and need a dress, go see them! I wanted to find my daughter something of similar style and color and ended up finding hers at a boutique here in Dallas for $75. She was in heaven twirling around in her 'princess' dress and stole my heart. Sold.

Rodney and I had decided the guys would be pretty good to get their outfits on their own if we gave some simple guidelines. Dark denim jeans, a khaki vest and any shade of blue button up woven underneath. They did a great job and everyone looked great together.

Wedding party attire...CHECK!

Lastly, the flowers. After a couple appointments with local florist I realized that spending $500-1000 on flowers just was not feasible. That's when my mom suggested we just try fake flowers. So off to Michael's we went (for probably the 20th time in two months) and I started searching. I ended up finding some really cool and realistic succulents, tiny wispy white flowers, blue and white ones and some awesome greenery. I took them home, broke them all down and started messing around to see what I could some up with. The end result was beautiful and very realistic. I did the bridesmaids flowers in shades of white and green, my daughter's and mine in shades of blue and white and the guys in the tiny white flowers with greenery. I wrapped the girls bouquets with various ribbon and tied it up with my jute rope. It was so easy and I was surprised at how fast I got it all done. Here are pics of the creative process, but you can see more of end results in pics above.

Bouquets and Boutonnieres...CHECK!

Bridesmaid's bouquet

Flower Girl bouquet

Bride's bouquet

The last thing to mention is also very important...the music! We hired two violinist from a local music school to play before, during and after ceremony at a cost of $125. Our minister and friend Tyrone let us borrow some sound equipment from the church so we were able to have a mic and speakers which was great when it came time for the best man and maid of honor to speak. For our music, we put on a fun dance Pandora station and let it ride!

There you have it! The Emberson/Carrera DIY wedding on a budget. It was fun, eventful and quite an experience..that I will only do once! Ha.

Here are some more pics for your enjoyment!