Wedding budget break down

When we first got engaged, Mike and I determined our budget to be $2,000. My dad and stepmom provided all of the beverages and most of the food, and a few others contributed food as well. We borrowed as much as we could, and bought cheap on everything else. We also decided to include our [...]

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Wedding recap: photo session

Asking my friend Erica to photograph our wedding was one of the best decisions we made. She did a spectacular job and we love all the photos she captured. As I’ve said before, we bought her a ticket to Michigan from California (where she moved several months before the wedding), and that was it! $375 [...]

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Wedding recap: the reception v.3

By about 8ish, about a third of our guests had left already. The only survivor from Mike’s family was his mom, all of my grandparents and all but one of my aunts/uncles had left, as well as a few friends. But it was about that point that Mike and I got to sit down and [...]

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Wedding recap: the reception, v.2

One thing I will always remember about our wedding was how EFFING HOT it was! I couldn’t be more grateful though because there was a threat of rain, and hot thick sticky air is better than rain any wedding day. I tried to encourage people to dress comfortably, but several men had long pants or [...]

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Wedding recap: the reception, v.1

Immediately after the ceremony, we went into reception mode. The wedding was at 4, and the “reception-only” guests were invited to arrive at 5, so we had to hustle. Luckily we had a team of amazing people on our side. While Mike and I mingled, our families moved chairs and tables, set out a few [...]

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Wedding recap: getting dressed

I’ve told the story of how I found and purchased my dress already. And I even mentioned that I was worried I wouldn’t actually fit into it the day of the wedding—I hadn’t tried it on in months, and I didn’t want to bother getting it altered. If I managed to maintain my weight, it [...]

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Wedding recap: getting beautiful

Getting myself ready for this wedding was so much fun. As I’ve mentioned, my sister Andrea did my hair. She and I set up in the big bathroom – me on a stool, her poised behind me. And Photographer Erica in and on top of the tub getting the perfect shot. While Ann worked on [...]

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Professional photos

Our photos are done! Erica (Photography by Arika Reed), posted a great blog post full of photos a few days ago. Then soon after she got them all up on her online viewing gallery. If you want to check them out, and I hope you do, let me know and I’ll get you the password. [...]

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Photo booth success!

One of my favorite things we did at our reception was the Photo Booth (aka the guest book). We set up my camera in front of a log pile with some props, and people had a blast. My sisters were superstars and made sure every single guest took a turn, so we’ve got photos of [...]

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Photos photos photos!

My photographer – Erica from Photography by Arika Reed - published a blog post yesterday full of LOTS of photos from our wedding. If you’ve been dying to see pictures as much as I have (come on, isn’t everyone?), go check it out. And leave her positive feedback! We all know the power of comments on [...]

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