We are lucky, to say the least!

Alex and I are very fortunate to have a very well "connected" family........ well, at least he does. His father happens to be a photographer, and an old family friend decorates cakes for a hobby; can you say "Hellllllll Yeahhhhhh!!" ??The above is the wedding cake/groom's cake from Alex's sister's wedding reception Dec 26, 2009. She actually did all of this for free for his sister and her fiance, while their dad did all of their wedding photos COMPLETELY for free!! So, with the same gifts bestowed on us, that would save us a bare minimum of $1000 and the good Lord in Heaven knows we could use all the help we can get to make our day possible =) Also, since his sister DID just get married, we are going to borrow several pieces of her centerpieces to make ours possible.... yet again, another couple hundred dollars shaved off of our budget, just like that!

As far as the rest of our shindig goes, we are pretty much a DIY couple... Don't get me wrong! If we had the spare cash, I would LOVE to pay for the convenience of somebody else dealing with everything...... but sadly, that option doesn't exist in my world. If I'm not able to do it myself, then it's out of the question.

Call me crazy, but we are going to be PLANNING on catering our own reception. How would this work, might you ask? Simple.

Well, I lied. It's not simple. But it sure makes sense and SEEMS harmless when I say it all inside of my head.

We are planning on having a Thursday wedding ceremony at the local conservatory (Saint Charles Conservatory). As there is only room for 100 guests in this location and our list of people is closer to about 175-200 something people, we figured putting the ceremony on a Thursday in the mid-morning time would make it easier to chop away at our massive guest list fairly. Along with this late-week bash, Alex and I plan on taking that same Friday-Sunday off of work, so we may then get started cooking our own food for our own reception which will be held on either Saturday night or Sunday afternoon at his family's parish.

See? Easy peezy, lemon-squeezy!

To the side here is a picture I borrowed from some random site I found while browsing the interwebs the other day.... Granted, we won't have the money to put stemware at every place setting OR actual SILVERware, we hope to have the same basic napkin-chopstick setup as well as a few candles and the bamboo placemat in the middle of the table. We are leaning more towards a brown tablecloth, though I would not be opposed to white if that's what was cheapest.








Here I have a picture of what inspired the centerpiece idea I came up with. While our theme IS cherry blossoms, we have agreed that Orchids would also be welcomed with open arms at our reception.

This is one of the potential combinations (of many I tried) for a centerpiece. The bamboo placemat would go underneath the mirror. Another thought I had experimented with was the idea have having a shorter vase full of rocks/orchid on the same setting. Although I have not tried to yet, I would like to see how it looks with water in the vase. This particular centerpiece would only cost me about $1.50/per table to make, and we only have 22 tables.

Is this something my bridesmaids and I can put together without wanting to tear each other's hair out?
Absolutely.

Is it within our budget so as to not overspend on frilly things and still be able to buy my son milk, food, and diapers for a few weeks?
Without a doubt!

I can already see my vision of white come together!!!..... well, pink and brown anyway. HAH! I can hardly wait until April of 2011 =) Cheap wedding or not, I am still determined to make it gorgeous and celebrate the true unity of my little family in a breathtaking way.

What could be more exciting than planning the first day of the rest of our three lives??