{My sister and I doing the Arrested Development chicken dance.}

❤ {Skip the bridal shop: skip the marked up bridal shops. Buy your dress online from Ebay or from a thrift shop… or… try somewhere that doesn’t specifically sell bridal dresses. I believe the word “bride” or “wedding” attached to anything really kicks up the price! For my wedding: I bought mine on Ebay for $160 (shipping included): April Bridal.}

❤ {Buy handmade: What can you buy for the wedding that’s handmade? From Etsy? I purchased my vintage earrings for $10 on Etsy. I still wear them ALL the time.}

❤ {Borrow: What can you borrow? For my wedding: I couldn’t get myself to buy an expensive veil… so, my friend that had been married two months earlier said I could borrow hers! I just LOVED it!}

❤ {Forget the favors: Lets be very honest…. who really needs a candle shaped like a bride or wedding cake? I certainly don’t… and, I’m sure many other people don’t need them either. These items end up in the garbage or shipped off to Goodwill.}

{Favors can be VERY spendy. I found the average price, when I was planning my wedding, was about $3/favor. If I ordered 150 favors for 150 people… wow: $450 for something most people wont take or will throw away. For my wedding: I ended up taking $200 dollars and adopting 4 different animals under “Chelsey and Mike’s wedding guests” from the World Wildlife Fund. I printed up little certificates to hand out thanking my guests for adopting these animals.}

❤ {Get crafty: There are so many tutorials and inspirations online that you can find to help you create something awesome! Instead of buying! For my wedding: We made the hair clips the bridemaids wore… and little flags to wave instead of throwing rice.}

❤ {Save your bridemaids some money: Of course… I completely understand wanting all of your bridemaids to match… but, if you really don’t care… just let your friends choose their own dresses! For my wedding: I let all my friends choose their own dresses. I gave them each a brown fabric sample to sort of go by to find a brown cocktail dress and said find gold shoes. All of them bought a dress they loved and at a price they wanted! One person borrowed her dress… and another only spent $10 on her’s! They all looked beautiful.}

❤ {Buy wholesale: I had paper umbrella’s and a TON of string lights. I bought them wholesale online… saving a ton of money! For my wedding: I got my wedding craft supplies from here.}

❤ {Skip the site that requires you to choose from a list of caterers: You are pretty much guaranteed to spend more that way. So many times I was given a list of caterers to choose from… and it would have been (the lowest) at least $35 a person. No way am I spending that. For my wedding: Mike and I actually had the pizza company that was in the same building cater our wedding! We spent about $900 for food. We also skipped cake and went with cupcakes.}

❤ {Reconsider some of the things you “think” you need to rent: So, I personally didn’t want a sit down dinner… so, I saved a ton and just skipped all the tables! Well… I still had a few tiny cocktail tables. I still got about 50 chairs. And really… They weren’t all used.}

❤ {Get your flowers locally: Why not see if there’s a u-pick flower spot somewhere near you? For my wedding: My sister and I went to a tiny little you-pick Dahlia farm (the day before the wedding) we’ve passed for years! It was $4 for a dozen flowers. I spent $40 on ALL of my flowers… My sister put together a sweet little red bouquet. It was perfect. All of my bridesdmaids we’re already carrying $3 paper umbrellas… so, they didn’t need flowers. 🙂 }

❤ {Ask your friends and family for help: My cousin was so kind to sort of take over the wedding extras and sort of run things for me. I gave her a $50 gift certificate for her help. And, most of my family set up and took down the wedding decor. Only problem: Now I know I’ll have to do it for their kids… ha! Just kidding! ;D}

❤ {What is most important for your wedding: So… yeah.. the most important thing about your wedding is celebrating your love and sharing it with your friends and family… blah blah blah… but really… think about what’s REALLY important for you to have at your wedding. For me: it was the photography. I went and got my favorite local photographer and didn’t care what the price was. And, I’m so happy I did. My photographer: Craig Mitchelldyer.}

❤ {Check out the non-typical wedding locations: I got married on top of a building in the city of Portland. I NEVER pictured that would be where I would get married. I had been looking at millions of vineyards… but, I just didn’t fall in love… What’s really surprising is there are a TON of spaces that would love to throw a large “party” for you. We have this really cool space in an industrial area in Portland that I found out rents out for small weddings: Produce Row. How cool?}

{via}

❤ Chelsey