the young cheapskate's guide to getting married in June...

Hi ESB,

It's that girl-who-proposed-with-a-hand-gun again. I didn't know if you'd be interested in some wedding pictures.

Our formal photos were done by an amazing friend, plus a lot of my favorites from the day are from various iphones and cameras that people brought to the wedding. I don't know, do you have to have more styled pictures than this to get on blogs? Consider this the young cheapskate's guide to getting married in June without losing your mind.

We were married in the square outside my work, and had the reception inside/outside. We were very fortunate to have my boss gift us this space to use on a day the shop was closed, and one of my coworkers worked the bar as a gift, too. I really didn't decorate at all, but my boss & coworker surprised me with balloons and streamers the morning of the wedding. I hand made (aka glue-gunned clips onto fake flowers from the dollar store) all the flowers everyone is wearing in the pictures. The wife of one of Sean's groomsmen basically saved the wedding by taking my to-do list out of my hands before the rehearsal dinner and finishing all the set up the morning of the wedding.

My dress was one of too many contenders. Even though I never wanted to be "that girl" I agonized over what to wear, spent endless hours on Etsy, bought several ridiculous vintage fancy things (purple lace! sequined collars! sheer polka-dots!), got three different dresses altered and dry cleaned, and ended up just wearing a dress (maybe nightgown? jury's still out) I bought at Goodwill for two and a half bucks. I wore my mom's veil and Nine West heels. My lipstick is Vasanti USA layered over NYC (99 cent lipstick yeah) Lipstain in "Smooch Proof." It was, in case you were wondering. Earrings were another Goodwill find, and my necklace is my engagement ring on a chain.

Two of my bridesmaids couldn't make it at the last minute due to travel, so my brothers stepped up as my "brides-men" and loved every minute of hosting my bridal shower and buying me too many beers the night before the wedding. They also manned the ipod playlist and MC'd the reception.

We were married in the early afternoon, had a 15 minute ceremony officiated by a dear friend, served beer & wine & desserts only and were on the road to our honeymoon by dinner time. Even with all the things we chose not to do I don't want to pretend there wasn't stress, there was. Most of the stress surrounded who was and who wasn't coming of my far flung friends. They are a very last minute group, and several of them didn't end up coming, but waited until late to let me know. I struggled with feeling like they were letting me down in some fundamental way, and tried my best to remember they have lives outside of the fact that I was getting married, and tried to enjoy them still celebrating from afar. But mostly I ignored or trashed the things I didn't want to deal with, and moved on. Maybe not the most mature, but it got me through wedding planning, and into this awesome marriage.

Thanks for your blog being a healthy dose of sass, and a reminder that I am not alone in despising oh-so-many part of the wedding industry. I still check in all the time, mostly for jewelry ideas.

Sara

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But what happened with the PROPOSAL? And what did you tell your parents??

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As with most things, I ended up just doing it and telling them afterwards. Worked out fine!

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♥