When You Can't Afford to Spend Big Bucks on a Wedding

Wedding Planning Guides won't be very useful until springtime hits. I noticed that when I went to a wedding show in my hometown during the spring. I had originally wanted to get married in October, but due to my son's much needed surgery, we pushed the date forward so that he and his brothers could attend the wedding.

Another thing I've noticed is that most brides are planning their own weddings and forgoing the wedding planners. I did almost everything myself, including making the invitations because it was so much cheaper that way. By the time everything was said and done we had spent a total of $60 for our wedding. No, I'm really not kidding. $35 was the license and everything else was either borrowed or bought with a very reasonable price tag. My wedding dress alone was a cash gift from my old boss and cost me a whopping $30 used online, and that included shipping!

So you see weddings do not need to be expensive and they can still be elegant. Shop around and look at different wedding guides Check out the hottest products. More than likely if they're a popular item, it's because they're unique or has a very reasonable price tag. As I said there's no reason to spend a fortune on a wedding and at times like these, it's just insane to do so!

No Gold For Me

A few years ago my mother-in-law bought be gold hoop earrings for Christmas. Why? Because I had never owned anything real as in earrings. Most of my jewelry is costume and still is, with the exception of my wedding band. Sadly, one of the gold earrings came up missing a few months ago as I was out and about, so I no longer have the gold earrings.


Another thing that sort of surprises me. I have never been fond of gold. Silver was my big thing. Fake or not. Yet lately, I've been wearing the color gold. I don't honestly know if I'll ever get anything real as in jewelry again. Who knows though, maybe my mother-in-law will venture down the jewelry path again and buy me something different like a gold chain. One can always hope for some real jewelry again!

Wedding Memories and Why My Aunts Stopped Feuding

For several years my aunts had been feuding with one another. What actually started the misunderstanding, finally ended in a misunderstanding. While I won't go into detail of the exact reason my aunts were feuding, I can tell you, it started tearing the rest of the family a part as well.

Well, on the day of my wedding come hell or high water I decided to invite both of my aunts. The cards were stacked against me and my family constantly reminded me that they might not show up. To my amazement and surprise, they both showed. And neither of them argued with one another the entire time. As a matter of fact they started talking to one another again!

I was so relieved that I told them so. It was then that I learned about the misunderstanding and that I hadn't been the only one trying to get them to talk to each other again. My Aunt C's husband had been doing th exact same thing!

It's wonderful to see that my aunts are talking again and it all started with my wedding. What a wonderful memory!

Weddings and memories are both precious. I remember when I first started looking at all of the different invitations available for weddings. There were sooo many to choose from! At that time going online to look at wedding invitations actually scared me. What happened if I ordered them and they ended up looking like something totally different than I had imagined? I seriously doubt most places would have allowed a full refund of my purchase just because my wedding invitation wasn't exactly how I pictured it to be. So end the end there would have been more frustration than anything.

Planning your wedding should not be about frustration or fear, however. And to make things a little easier I found an invitation website that is doing something about that fear. 1st Class Wedding Invitations has a very unique feature that I have not found anywhere else.

When you go to their website and find a wedding invitation you like, you can zoom over that invitation and see it close up. It's like look at the invitation right in front of you. I love it! My favorite happens to be the Modern Leaf Invitation. Check it out! I really wish this feature would have been available when I got married! Instead I chose to create my own invitations. Which was just as nice, by the way.

Toilet Paper Wedding Gowns

It's that time of the year again. Time for bride-to-be's to decide on their ultimate wedding dress. Nowadays many brides are looking for a more reasonable approach to the skyhigh prices of a wedding dress. While I don't think most would take the following approach (if so, I hope it's a sunny day!), it sure is great to see the fun ways brides can think of saving money. Eat your heart out Vera Wang!

For the past 3 years, cheapchicweddings.com has been sponsoring a toilet paper wedding gown contest. The winner of the best design gets $500. Pretty insane if you ask me! I can't wait to see 2008's creations! Now my only question would be, how did they keep the dress from falling apart?????

2007 Winner

2006 Winner

2005 Winner

Renaissance Wedding Invitations

When I had my wedding, I missed out on a few things that just weren't the same, when they're not done professionally. For example: Wedding Invitations. I wanted my wedding invitation to be unique. 1st Class has some really unique wedding invitations that I love.

Their Bride and Groom in Carriage Invitation would have been perfect for the wedding I had. I wanted something with a bit of Renaissance Flair, and this is perfect.


One great thing that I found with 1st Class is that their website very easy to browse. I love the fact that you can view invitations by theme and by color. But, what makes their site even better is, you can also view the invitations by paper type. How cool is that?

There is also a FAQ page where you're able to find answers to many of the questions you probably already have. There is also list of links from that page where you can get answers to your questions about organizing your invitations, wedding etiquette, planning and even expenses.
Have a question about your wedding invitations that's not on the website? You can easily contact them by email or call their toll-free number.

If you're planning a wedding and you're not sure where to begin when it comes to wedding invitations, please check out 1st Class. After all, your wedding is special and your wedding invitation should be too.

The Blurry Side of Things

While I did manage to buy cameras for the wedding, no one managed to snap photos with my cameras. So instead, I am waiting for my aunts to send me some photos from the wedding. While in wait, my uncle did manage to email a few. He tried lightening them up a bit, which made them somewhat blurry. So, while I am waiting on the real photos in the mail, I thought I would share with you, a few that my uncle and aunt did send to me.

This and That

Tomorrow is the last day to vote on my story, if you'd like. For more on that, see my Last Post.

Moving on, a few people have mentioned that the purple on my blog is a little harsh on the eyes. Because it has been mentioned by more than one person now, I am considering changing the colors. I am not sure what colors to go with and I doubt I will get to it this week, but I will get it done eventually.

Today has been a very busy day with people coming in and out all day long. I finally managed to get chairs for the wedding and my Aunt has volunteered to bake my cake, so the only thing left to do is to pick up the license tomorrow, get white dress shirts for all of the boys, a pair of black dress shoes for Q and get some decorations. Whew! I still have to find out whether or not it will be raining that day or not.

The interesting thing will be... I invited both of my aunts who have been feuding with one another for several years now. Sigh. I am hoping they will be respectful enough to at least hold the feuding for that day. And I am sure they will. Heck, maybe they'll even get over their battle and forget the past. Of course that is wishful thinking!

I still have to write up the ceremony for our friend who is marrying us. I guess after work, I will do that tomorrow. Speaking of work I just submitted 40 article ideas to my boss. That should keep her busy for a while. HA!  

My goals for this month is to pay off a past bill that my fiance didn't know he had. Not sure what's next after that. I will probably pay off a small bill that I have been paying on from my past. I am really excited to be getting the bills paid off and to be debt-free! This month will be hard though because of the wedding, T's birthday and Q's appointment. Then In September we'll be headed to Oklahoma for my oldest son's surgery.

Well, it's time for me to say goodnight. Until tomorrow......

Procrastinating My Ass Off!!!

I don't know what has possessed me to do everything else, but what I need to really be doing lately, but here I am not doing it! Generally, I can wrap out about 4-5 articles a day, if I set my mind to it, but lately it's dwindled to struggling with 1 article a day. Not good since I have a deadline to meet by the 30th of this month. Now you would think since I'm kid-free for a few days I would really get some work done, but nope! My housework hasn't gotten done either. I just don't feel up to do anything. sigh. So to cure me of this mess I have gotten into, I've decided to borrow the idea of another blogger and write my goals on my blog. Maybe if I do that, I can accomplish a lot more. Right now my main goal is to get everything wrapped up and ready for the wedding. This hasn't been that easy of a task. I sent invitations out a week ago and yesterday, I realized that I would have to move the wedding to accommodate all of the guests. Thanks to a very dear friend of mine, I now have a new site for the ceremony which is right around the corner from the original site. I still have yet to talk to the officiant, get the cake, rings or marriage license. I also need to get white dress shirts for all of the boys, chairs to seat the guests in and wedding decorations for the reception and ceremony. Whew! My first priority is to re-send my invitation to my cousin. I received it back in the mail yesterday with a insufficient address label on it. So I checked the address I have for her and it was correct. I called her to confirm the address and it's the same address. I wonder who screwed up at the post office?? Sigh. After getting the invitation sent back out, I will finish an article that is due. Then I am off to shop for bridesmaid dresses with my friends. After that I will start another article and if not two and get those done. Then I'm going to bed and starting my day all over again. I should actually start a things to do list again since that helped my procrastination problem, somewhat. I big goal after the wedding is to pay off our debt and save money for the trip to Oklahoma for my oldest son's surgery in September. A lot to do, but I think if I break it down, it will help!

It's Been a Long Night...

I'm up because I'm still draining the pool. Earlier today, my best friend came over and we tackled the really nasty pool that needs a major cleaning! While we were tackling the pool, we also discussed wedding ideas and whether it should be held in the front or back yard. I think the front yard is soo much nicer, but the main problem is, room and all of the rain. If we seat chairs in the front yard, they will more than likely seep into the ground. On the other hand, the backyard is a cemented area. But the garage is old and decrypted, and the pool of course is really gross. Not to mention we need to get a lawn mower to mow the yard. I wanted to try to look for one at a yard sale this weekend, but it looks like that's out.

I was actually thinking of making my own cake for the wedding. I'm a little unsure of this, however.. Since most of my cake attempts are a little on the crappy side from past experience.lol

On a brighter note: I found the photographer that my fiance and I wanted to hire for our wedding! We'd kept her card and for the longest time (still have it)and I kept checking with the website she had posted on her card. I guess it took her a bit to get the website up and running! lol

She does some awesome work! Unfortunately, we can no longer afford any photographer. Maybe in the future for another event. I do want to share her work with you. Her website is: www.janalinhood.com

I remember when we first saw her work, there was a photo of a couple standing at a dock in front of a lake for their wedding photo. It took my breath away.

If you want to see more of her work, you should also check out her blog at: http://www.hoodstudio.blogspot.com/, I promise you will not be disappointed! I know if I could afford to, I would hire her on the spot! If you live in the Chanute, Kansas area and are looking for a photographer, you should definitely contact her!

Ohh, and she's offering a mini-session if you live in the area and can help her figure out how to upload an FTP file for a slideshow, and reference it to a blog! Just check out her June 18th post on her blog page.

Okay, I'm off to check on the pool. Hopefully the darn thing is done by now. I am ready to go to bed and I already know that tomorrow is going to be another long day!!!

Why is it Not Okay.....

Why is it not okay for me to have a say so in my own wedding? It's dejavu all over again.

I remember this nearly 15 years ago at my first wedding. Why is it happening again??? For once I would like to be able to make some decisions at my own wedding. It's very frustrating when it is obvious that I am being told No, it's not going to happen.

It doesn't feel very good and it's very hurtful to more than just me. :( Eventually it will come down to I'll be pissed off and then determined that nothing is going to rain on my day. I'll work around the problem if I have to. But for now... I am wondering why it's not okay for me to have a say so in my own wedding. Am I just not worth a damn? Did I do something wrong? I have to honestly wonder at times. Why? Sigh. :(

My Wedding Dress

I finally recieved my paycheck from my boss, so I was able to do a little with some of the money. I wanted to have a wedding dress this time around and since I was unable to purchase a new one, I did a little shopping on Ebay. It's a wonderful little dress for a small event. Nothing really fancy. I've always been into the simple dresses anyway, so it all works out. :)I did have another dress that I fell in love with, but as a friends pointed out... $2000 is a lot of money! Instead I paid $30 for the dress I did buy. Well, $33 to include insurance. I've included photos of both my dream dress and the dress I purchased. Feel free to comment. :)

My Wedding Dress

My Dream Dress

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