Thursday, July 21, 2011

Frugal Wedding Planning - Part 2 and Bridesmaids Dilemma...

Yesterday, I gave you Part 1 of my frugal wedding frenzy...so now I give you Part 2. You can probably plan on a part 3, 4 and maybe even 5 later on down the road...just depends on what else I can save money on ;) For now...We'll start with my dress. I went to David's Bridal for the Memorial Day weekend sale. I can't post a picture of it on here, just in case my future hubby happens to stumble across my blog and get a sneak peak ;) But I can tell you that it is simple, elegant, and almost exactly what I had in mind (which is saying something...my mind is a complex place...). I got my dress for $249.99 + tax...it was regularly priced $550. Yes, please :)

Future Hubby found a foreign guy to custom make his suit. He got to pick the fabric he wanted, and get it sized perfectly for him. He is really excited about it :) I got to see it last night, finally, via the webcam and Skype..it's pretty fancy ;) That was only $200, and it is something that he can wear again! :) His Best Man also had one custom made to match, but he wanted to buy it for it himself :)

I got my shoes on ebay for $19.99 plus shipping. I had originally planned on just going barefoot on the beach, but then I remembered that my groom is an entire foot taller than me, and decided that would probably make things a little bit difficult for our photographer ;) So I decided to go ahead and get shoes. I knew that regular heels would probably be a bad idea...you know, sinking into the sand and all...so I decided to get some wedge shoes. Normally, not my style at all, but I thought they'd be perfect for the wedding :) Plus they are just the right shade of turquoise to go along with our colors (turquoise and orange)! And...I've already got my "something blue" ;)

Now that the bride and groom are dressed...on to the rest of the bridal party!

I am planning on having my beautiful niece and nephew as the flower girl and ring bearer. I haven't gotten very far on clothes for Jaxon yet, but I am thinking some khaki linen pants, a turquoise button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and some brown flip flops. Now if only I could find linen pants for little boys...I'll keep you posted :) For Brooklynn, I have found the PERFECT little ensemble :)


Now tell me that's not precious! I found these at weddingtutu.com, and they are a bit pricey. So I asked my mom if she could make it for me, and she said she would! All I will have to buy are the materials :) I've looked around a little bit for plain white leotards, and have found some promising avenues, so we should be in good shape :)

Now for my most recent find! :) I had been on the hunt for some bridesmaids dresses...and was kinda going back and forth between having orange or having turquoise. I kinda thought turquoise would be better, because turquoise flowers are a little difficult to come by, so the flowers will for sure be orange. But then I had SUCH a hard time finding the right shade of turquoise that I was looking for! So I decided to start looking at orange dresses. I had originally found an Alfred Angelo dress that I really liked, but the cheapest I could find it was for $139 before taxes and shipping. YIKES! I really was hoping to spend absolutely no more than $100/dress on the bridesmaids dresses. Chances are, it's a dress they are going to wear one time, and they may or may not even like it! So as I was on the hunt for a dress to wear for a friend's upcoming bachelorette party, I found a great alternative!


I found these on charlotterusse.com for $32.99 + tax and shipping...BUT, I had a $10 off promo code from ordering the dress for the bachelorette party, so it ended up coming to about $31/dress after taxes and shipping. That's a price I like! (Disclaimer: I swear the dress is not as short as it looks in the picture...keep in mind models for these types of clothing stores are generally between 5'10" and 6'1"...my bridesmaids are not that tall :)

Now for my dilemma...future hubby is only having ONE groomsman, his Best Man, and he really doesn't want to add anyone else. I have done the best I can, but I really can't narrow it down anymore...I have FOUR people I REALLY want as bridesmaids. Two of the girls are two very dear friends of mine, and two of them are my older sisters.

Missy is my best friend from college. I can truly say that she is the very first "Best Friend" I ever had where the best friendship actually went both ways. Even though we live far apart now, I know I can trust her with anything, and she would not hesitate to drop everything for me if I really needed her. She will be my Matron of Honor, just like I was her Maid of Honor when she got married :) Jesse is one of my closest friends now. She has been there from the beginning of Walter and I's relationship, and has been such a blessing to me through all of it. Her and I have always had a special bond and have had the opportunity to help each other through some difficult times, with both of us dating, and now marrying, military men (she's getting married in September to her love, and I get to be there to stand up for her! :). She is someone that has already been such a great friend, and I know for the future, I can really count on to help support me and my husband in our marriage because she will understand exactly what it takes to make a military marriage successful.
I have also always wanted to have my sisters in my wedding. Sarah is my oldest sister - the one with the beautiful flower girl and ring bearer :) - and in a lot of ways, she has been my rock. I'm not sure that there is anybody that understands me the way she does. For most of our adult lives, we have lived hundreds of miles apart...but even still, she's almost always the first person I call when I need to vent, or when I have some excited news and just want someone to be happy with me :) Cassie is my other older sister. She has probably had one of the more profound impacts on me than just about anyone else in my life. She's been the person I've almost always looked up to...I even wrote a paper for my Comp class in college about her (our teacher made us write about someone who we looked up to)...haha...I don't think I ever told her that. She can be very sassy, but she's got a huge heart and will do just about anything for someone she cares about. In fact, in the 3 months I've been engaged, she has been the most willing to help me with wedding stuff, and was the very first wedding guest (and only member of my family or friends to this day) to book her stay for my wedding. AND she's even been after all her friends, trying to get them to come to Cozumel, just so we can get our wedding for free! haha :)

So...since I can't narrow it down anymore, how do I make four bridesmaids and one groomsman work? I am open to suggestions! Walter really doesn't want to add anybody, and I feel like asking him to add someone is just as lame as asking me to give up someone. I just don't want it to look weird or be overkill at a small wedding. I thought about having Walter, his Best Man, and Kyle (our minister, who also happens to be Missy's hubby) just walk out to the front together at the beginning of the ceremony...then having Cassie, Sarah, Jesse and Missy walk down the aisle individually during the processional, maybe having my sisters sit in the front row with my family (really, who likes standing for the ceremony anyways?...haha) once they get to the front, and Missy and Jesse stand next to me. Then for the recessional, having Sarah walk out with her two kiddos, Marlon (best man) escorting both Cassie and Jesse out, and then Kyle escorting Missy out. Is that dumb? Or does anyone else have a better idea?

I guess the good news is, this has really been the only "stressful" thing about planning this wedding so far...

Do you have any frugal wedding tips? And do you have any ideas for making uneven numbers of bridesmaids vs. groomsmen flow? I'm always open to new ideas :)

5 comments:

  1. Sounds like a beautiful wedding. I say, you should have whoever you want in your wedding. If I think of a pretty way to do it, I'll let ya know!

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  2. Wow sister! What you said about having us all in your wedding was touching! Thank you! I love you so much and I couldn't be more proud of you! As far as your ideas on how we should all enter and exit, it sounds perfect. Just one question, does Jaxon come out with all the other guys or does he walk Brooke down the aisle?

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  3. By the way...I appreciate the disclaimer on the dress...you had me a little worried for a minute there...lol :) Also, I am planning on booking this week. My hold up has been deciding whether I want to book the airfare now too, or not. Four tickets are expensive and I can't decide if I want to brave standby...decisions decisions...

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  4. You're more than welcome :) And yeah, I thought I'd have Jaxon and Brooke walk down the aisle together :) haha, you were actually one of the first I thought about when I put the picture up...you are the tallest :) But it really isn't that bad. I ordered you a Large just so hopefully that will give you some extra length. The dresses are kinda big on top, so we'll probably have to have that taken in, but I figured it would be better to take the top in and have a longer length for you :) Airfare is expensive...I totally understand. I have actually been dragging my feet on booking our airfare too, because two plane tickets are expensive too...four is definitely a lot :( I even have the money, I just keep hoping the prices will go down. haha.

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  5. I went to priceline last night and "named my own price" and the cheapest I could get them down to was $470pp. That is much better than the published fares of $570 I was seeing before that though, but I too am holding out for cheaper, and we are flying out of Dallas because it saves several hundred dollars as well. I looked at flying into Cancun as well, but I don't think we want to hassle with the ground transportation in a foreign country so I think its worth the extra to fly straight to Cozumel.

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