This beautiful chuppah picture was sent to me by the thoughtful Kathryn over at Snippet and Ink. It's so simple, and exactly what we want!
Today's wedding is such a beautiful invigorating wedding, that the pictures make me want to get up and dance. This wedding is a bit more traditional then many of the weddings I feature, but having a traditional wedding doesn't mean that you can't have a wedding just as vibrant and practical and inspiring as someone having a quirky and offbeat bash. You'd never guess from the pictures, but Betty and Juan had a limited budget, and got married in New York City (where TRUST me, everything is much more expensive). But they were not going to let that stop them from having one fantastic party. These photographs were taken by the talented Jen Huang.
You often hear people singing the praises of destination weddings, and people don't often talk about the joy of getting married where you live. Betty and Juan married in their hometown - New York City. In this picture, Betty is getting ready in the lobby of her parents apartment building, something I'm sure she'll remember every time she walks through the lobby. I love the idea of our weddings imbuing the ordinary with the extraordinary and the sacred.
The couple got married at Our Lady of Guadalupe church on 14th Street. The groom is a graphic designer, and made all the paper goods for the wedding, the bride made the decorations and the centerpieces, and the mother of the bride made all of the flowers. (a do-it-together wedding! yay!)
The bridesmaids picked their own dresses in brown and blue, and looked sassy and fabulous.
The couple took pictures walking around the Meatpacking district, which is far as I'm concerned is about the best decoration you can get.
If you are going to have a New York wedding, you might as well take a cab to your reception.
Betty is a dancer, and Juan is a soccer player, so they had this adorable cake toppers. In lieu of a expensive formal wedding cake they had a flourless chocolate cake (the first dessert they shared together) and cheese cakes (the quintessential New York desert).
Their reception was at a simple east village restaurant, and was packed with plenty of dancing, Mexican and Venezuelan food, and... wait for it... a surprise mariachi band.
I love a bride who really dances at her reception.
And you know you've got a real party when the groom gets thrown in the air....
...and the flower girl starts break dancing...
... and the bridesmaids start getting down. Yes, please. This is my kind of party.
At the end of the night, Betty changed into a shorter going away dress, and had one last dance.
Hot! And the dress, the dress.... could there be a more perfect dress for this wedding? This makes me feel calmer way deep down that I will be just fine without the big traditional gown.
The ladies of the blog world blow me away every single day with the depth of their talent, creativity, and individuality. If we have a wedding half this amazing, I'll feel blessed. Congratulations to you both!
Happy six month blog-o-versary to me! Well, -ish. It’s really tomorrow, but you all know I don’t blog on the weekends.
Next up, the talented Emily of Emily Style got married this weekend, with great style and class. It's a toss up for which element of her wedding I'm more in love with: her great grandmothers lace wedding dress made by French nuns, or her USO style variety show, complete with a Aunt who was a USO tap dancer in real life.
Aaaannnndddddd.... I'm going to say the feather fans tilt the balance towards.... amazing variety show. Check out more of her wedding at Oh Happy Day, and at Emily Style.
Christi wrote me this week about her amazing super budget wedding. Their wedding philosophy was "If we didn't know someone who could do it, it didn't get done." Since Christi and Trevor are lucky enough to have a circle of super talented friends and family, not only did it get done, it got done with some serious style.
In keeping with our conversation on budget wedding dresses, Christi got her stunning dress and her husbands suit on ebay for $75 each! Christi is a floral designer, so she did all of their flowers herself. She said if she could do it all over again, she would probably have asked for more help with the flowers, so she could have had tons of them. (I love this philosophy by the way: ask for help, and then ask for more help. That's the old school for-real-traditional way. Vendors are not traditional, after all.)
They had a small morning park wedding, surrounded by close family.
I love this picture, because for me, it sums up what really matters in a wedding. Are your loved ones by your side? That's all you need.
The evening reception was hosted in a local ballroom that they got for next to nothing with work connections.
A former co-worked made an organic cake for the couple.
Christi said that they friends and family helped with everything: dipping chocolate covered strawberries for the reception, setting up and tearing down, doing the brides hair and makeup, and even donating photography services. I love this! Not only did it save the couple piles of money, but more importantly, it let their community support them as they made a important public commitment... which is really the whole point.
And off they go into the sunset. Congratulations Christi and Trevor! My your wedding be the first of many many happy days in a long life together.
Since she wanted to send her kids to college one day, she decided to skip the crazy expensive dress. Instead she bought a simple J Crew wedding dress, which she found on ebay for just $71.
But she wasn't done yet! Bridget took her new simple dress to a seamstress, and told her to "hack this dress," and the seamstress added the details she loved.
The total cost of her dress was $471. She got exactly what she wanted, found a creative and affordable way to do it, and saved a small fortune. As far as I'm concerned, this story lands Bridget on the Practical Wedding wall of fame for doing something so clever and determined. I like my brides with chutzpa, thank you very much.
And don't tell Amsale, but I like this dress is better! It's simple, it's chic, and its got soul.
This dress almost made my head explode! It is a Melissa Sweet bridesmaid dress, it comes in white (if you want traditional. It would be stunning in black too, if you ask me). According to a commenter runs about $299! Whhhaaaa?
Or how about this sassy Melissa Sweet bridesmaid dress? What do you think they would charge if it was in the wedding dress section? Probably 10 times as much. Literally.
Blogger Guilty Secret's wedding dress rocks my socks off. Not froofy, not fluffy, just simple and stunning. And what is it? Ah, yes, a bridesmaid's dress in white.
Here is blogger Marie-Eve rocking a Target dress she got on sale for $65! She said, "Obviously I would have been ready to pay more, but after this why would I?"
Reader Elizabeth rocked a full scale traditional dress she fell in love with at $1700 and couldn't afford... until she found it on ebay for $150.
And how about this Jenny Yoo bridesmaid dress? So simple and chic, and in the $300-$400 price range.
And I'm just throwing this BCBG dress in because I like it... and it's $398 (why? Because the word wedding isn't in the description of the dress)
When I posted Kate & Colemine's relaxed wedding weekend last week, Mrs. In May made a comment that caught my attention. She said:
This got me thinking about how we all obsess about the little things in a wedding (programs, the bustle of the dress) and lose track of the stuff that really matters. I started reminiscing about one particularly happy wedding I attended, and what I remembered about it. Here's what stuck with me:
This wedding is one in many ways my dream wedding: they rented out The Wellspring Renewal Center for a whole weekend and had all their friends and family come and stay and hang out and help them throw the whole shindig. They had simple taco fixings for dinner (mmmmm....), friends did flowers, every one pitched in for a dessert buffet, and lots of live music. And, did I mention, other then Jessamyn (a personal friend of the couple) they had no vendors (which is a little bit of a day-dream for me... even though we have great wedding elves).
It will tell you a little something about me that the picture of this wedding I'm most excited about is probably this one. They served local wine! Wheee! We are doing the same, and serving awesome Russian River wines from vineyards we know and love like Rochambeau, above.)
They made a little lounge for people to chill at during the reception.
Before dinner people went down to the river to hang out.
And the party, the party... hanging out, listening to live music, kids running around, glowsticks? I'll take that over perfectly prepared favors any night of the week (and twice on Sundays).
