DIY Wedding Wednesday: On the Cheap

Yesterday in a thread I was following on Yelp regarding where to find affordable wedding dresses in NYC, some bonehead dude had the nerve to chime in as follows:

John Q. said, "Any woman who wears a dress that cost less than a thousand bucks deserves to be left at the altar."

Everyone please join me in a collective HOW DARE YOU?!?! to John Q. I don't expect he's headed to the altar any time soon with an attitude like that. Also his profile pic is a pint of beer, so I'm sure he's really hot too.

Therefore, for today's DIY Wedding Wednesday update I thought I'd highlight some of the ways I'm getting creative to stretch our modest wedding budget. Because despite what John Q thinks, you can have a very tasteful, beautiful, and fun celebration without paying the going rate for everything that the Wedding Industrial Complex demands. The toughest part is managing the funds to feed and get-drunk a crowd of friends and family. Unless you plan to invite only your immediate family and your one best friend, once you open up the guest list the costs go up quickly. Since we don't want to limit our party to just our parents and my dozen Mormon relatives (hey at least they won't drain the bar), my philosophy is don't skimp on the food and drinks but search for savings on the things you only need to buy one of. ie: the dress.

THE DRESS

Some girls buy two dresses -- one for the ceremony, and another for the reception. Me, I bought three! Ok, so I'm only keeping one, but I needed to try them all on. I found two contenders online at Unique-Vintage.com, a vintage-inspired store based out of Burbank, CA. They specialize in pin-up girl style, prom dresses and super frilly Barbie doll quincenera-looking gowns. But they also have a great selection of perfectly tasteful wedding dresses with vintage flare. Since the groom and I intend to ride bikes from the church to the reception, I also am saving money by getting a tea-length dress (less fabric!). My third dress I picked up at a sample sale at the Jenny Yoo showroom in Manhattan. Jenny Yoo has a great selection of simple and elegant wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses, so even without sample sale prices, her designs are affordable. The dresses I'm not keeping I can unload at OnceWed.com's used wedding dress forum. Easy!

THE CEREMONY

We've recruited a good friend to be our "minister" since any speech about the meaning of our love will mean more coming from someone who actually knows just why we're meant to be together forever. Instead of someone who is paid to act like they care. I'm also planning to make all my own bouquets (see my last Wedding Wednesday post) to get around the high price of professional florists. I just need to be ready to work with whatever is fresh and available in the flower district the day before the wedding.

THE RECEPTION

My groom and I both grew up being told we were "different" (or when someone was being nice, "creative"), so of course we won't stand to have a pre-packaged wedding. We checked out the standard banquet halls and popular venues but settled on a raw loft space that we can build out however we want. Sure that means 100x more work for us, but undaunted I've made a list of what we need to rent (which is everything), and we've started thinking up ways to decorate that will be more "us" than copious fleur de lis and ice sculptures. I've found a jackpot of decorating supplies at Save-On-Crafts -- willow branches, peacock feathers, glass crystal garlands -- and I refuse to let DIY wedding equal barn themed decor, no matter how trendy twine, mason jars and burlap seem to be on the wedding scene right now. Yuck.

As for the food, we're forgoing the usual special event caterers and going instead for catering-style delivery from our favorite grocery store, Fairway. Just as delicious without the pretense or the hidden fees. Working with a non-traditional party space means we aren't strapped to a limited list of vendors, so we're getting my favorite cupcakes from Baked (much cheaper than their custom wedding cakes) for which my dad is building a decorative tower, and we're staffing the whole affair with a mix of licensed freelancers and talented friends.

One more cost-saving tip for the reception -- offer wine, beer and a signature cocktail or two instead of a full open bar. You'll buy less mixers and less varied booze, and you can make it fun by naming the signature drinks after something inspired by the bride and groom. I'm still coming up with mine, but the groom's is going to be the "Rock n Rye" which is a beer and a shot of whiskey. We can also save on champagne by serving its bubbly, Italian cousin Prosecco instead.

INVITATIONS

I'll blog more about these once I get involved in the actual creation, but we've already picked out colors, fonts and an illustration. Now it's off to the local stationery store to pick out the paper and envelopes. We're skipping the RSVP cards because they are wasteful of paper and they are an added expense. Instead guests will be directed to our Tumblr page (free) where they can RSVP via Google form (also free). The old folks who fear the web can always phone us from their land lines with their reply. Our save the dates, or STDs as I like to call them, cost us a whopping $36 including shipping for 100 custom postcards from VistaPrint.com. They aren't fancy, but they are adorable and informative, and we'd rather spend the big bucks on the "real" invite and not blow our load on the STDs (hahaha).

More money saving wedding tips as I come up with them!

Laziest Chocolate Cake EVER

I may need to try this.

DIY Wedding Wednesday: Flowers and Floorplans

There's just SO much to do before the wedding this October, I thought it would be best if I broke down the to-do list by month, and if nothing else, at least got one wedding thing done every Wednesday.

Truth is I got a few things done this week including procuring a floor plan of the loft space where we're having our reception and tracking down the bride having her wedding there the day after ours. I figured if we both need to rent a hundred chairs and tables and votive holders etc etc etc, maybe we can save a few bucks by sharing some items. She was thrilled I contacted her. My thriftiness is so catchy.

Since today is my newly dubbed "Wedding Wednesday" (not to be confused with "Tecate Tuesdays" at the office), I went to the fancy deli on my lunch break and picked up some pale blue hydrangeas and baby's breath so I could start toying with floral arrangements.



In my opinion, floral arrangements are one of the biggest rip offs when it comes to weddings. If you have even a slight knack for design, or if you are able to mimic photos of bouquets you like, you can make your own bouquets and arrangements. It's not like sewing your own dress or baking your own cake. Flowers are already pretty; all you have to do is group them. Granted the DIY approach is best if you are going for something simple or for an earthy wildflower look. I don't want to totally discount the talents of a skilled florist.

That said, you also don't want to be fussing with flowers the day before your wedding and find out you're going about it all wrong. Practice. Also that's not my finished arrangement above on the left, that's just flowers in a vase. I'll practice making them look like the Real Simple photo on the right later, but first, I wanted to start playing with this...



Last weekend I attended the Brooklyn Based Wedding Crashers fair where I got buzzed on free Prosecco (Italy's more affordable answer to Champagne), stuffed my face with canapes and met with a couple dozen of Brooklyn's hippest wedding vendors. I'm not a girly girl in the traditional sense, but this event had just the right amount of quirk and class that it didn't take me long to start cooing over cupcakes and custom letterpress coasters. But I digress...

I got some really good ideas from the vendors at the fair, whether I'll be able to afford to pay them for their talents or if I'll attempt my own knock off in the end. One florist had a beautiful willow branch arrangement decorated with "crystal" beads and blue feathers (stealing that idea), vintage glass bottles with baby's breath (see my attempt above) and beautiful, simple hydrangea bouquets (I can do that). So that was the inspiration for today's Wedding Wednesday as well as this Style Me Pretty post I came across a few months ago.



I started collecting vintage glass bottles at the Brooklyn Flea and from awesome second-hand shop Junk when I saw that post. I figure I'll create groupings of three or four bottles with either baby's breath or single stem dahlias. No paper pom poms or anything with yarn though. This ain't gonna be a barn wedding, this is BROOKLYN.

Bigger Balls

What can I say... I got lazy near the end.

You may also be wondering why I've been writing so much this past year about desserts and baked goods. No, I've not given up on balanced meals. I just happen to have scored a husband-to-be who is an amazing cook and totally kicks my ass in the kitchen. And I'm no slouch, so that's really saying something. Meanwhile, he leaves the baking to me so I'm happy to be in charge of cookies and pies from now on.

Baking aside, expect wedding D.I.Y. ideas coming down the Home Sweet Homewrecker pipeline soon as we're planning one heck of a hands-on celebration!

Christmas Balls!

Happy Holidays everyone! I wanted to share with you my favorite Christmas cookie recipe -- Christmas Balls. Of course I can't talk about delicious Christmas balls without channeling the SNL sketch with Alec Baldwin showing off his Schweddy Balls on NPR. Trust me, bake these balls and you won't be able to wait to get them in your mouth too!

Christmas Balls

• 1 c. butter 2 t. vanilla
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 2 t. water or milk
• 2 c. sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 c. chopped pecans (chop 'em pretty small)
• thin confectioners frosting (about 3/4 c. powdered sugar + 1-2 T. milk)
• coconut or colored sugar

Cream butter and vanilla; add sugar, creaming the mixture until light and fluffy. Blend in water. Stir in flour, mixing well. Add pecans. Shape in 1" balls. Bake 1" apart on ungreased cookie sheet in 325 degree oven. Bake 20 min. or until firm to the touch. Cool before removing from pan. Frost with conf. frosting and coat with coconut or with red and green colored sugar.

I decided to bake Christmas Balls yesterday when the first blizzard of the season had me holed up indoors, relishing wearing my jammies all day. Turned out I had all the necessary ingredients for balls except for 1 cup of pecans. Rats! I tore apart the cabinet looking for some kind of nutty stand-in, and luckily I came across the remains of a stash of "Culinary Touch" nut mixes sent my way by the fine folks at Fisher Nuts. These blends, intended to "add delicious flavor to any dessert or meal" were about to do just that. Fisher's pecan, cranberry, orange blend seemed like it would work, and perhaps even improve my balls.

Whatta you know, the touch of cranberry and orange made my favorite Christmas cookies even more delicious. Didn't even think it was possible! It took me awhile to find a use for the Fishers Culinary Touch blend, and this was the perfect occasion.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

In my last post I was prepping for Thanksgiving, hosting for the first time! Everything went great, the parents were pleased and delighted to meet one another, though we barely made it through cheesecake and boardgames before passing out from exhaustion.

I can't take too much credit though. While my main man did most of the cooking, I merely handled the clementine cranberry sauce and the pumpkin cheesecake. Thank you to my friend Nancy who suggested an alternate recipe from Smitten Kitchen which I actually ended up making for the big feast. I tried Martha's the weekend before as practice, but it never quite solidified in the middle. It did however make a delicious dip for ginger cookies!

That said, next time I think I will combine both recipes and make Martha Stewart's cake (baked somewhat longer) with the pecan crust from Smitten Kitchen and the sour cream frosting. It will be the ultimate pumpkin cheesecake!!!



So I know Thanksgiving was about a month ago, but do you think it's ok for me to eat the last 3 slices of cheesecake still hanging out in the fridge?

Thanksgiving Dress Rehearsal

With two sets of parents coming to our tiny Brooklyn apartment for Thanksgiving, we set up the table tonight to make sure we could wedge it between the coffee table and the entertainment center. We're also stock piling the traditional provisions, as you can see above.

I'm going to try my hand at my first ever cheesecake with this Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe from Martha. Got the springform pan and everything. Wish me luck! If it fails I'm gonna feel like our rotting Halloween pumpkin here.