If you are planning a wedding and don’t know where to begin, you’re in the right place. Let me start off by saying that you’ve got this! Try not to worry – you’re going to sort everything out and things will fall into place. With that in mind, when planning a wedding, Canva, The Knot, and Amazon were my best friends. The Knot is a comprehensive wedding planning tool that’s free to use and incredibly helpful. I used The Knot to create and link my registries, to create my wedding website, and research vendors for our wedding.
My husband and I got engaged on January 1, 2023, and were married three months later March 26, 2023. You’re probably thinking, ‘whoa, how did you plan a wedding in three months?!’ Let me tell you, it was stressful, but Noah and I’s parents helped make our lives a lot easier with their help and support. The reason we planned our wedding so quickly is because my husband had orders to go overseas, and we knew that we had to be married to have his orders amended so I could be added.
First things first, I was very fortunate that my mom had her old wedding dress which was in excellent condition and allowed me to wear her dress for my wedding. My mom’s dress was a beautiful, classic dress with a full satin skirt and a beaded detail bodice that had lace ties on the back like a bustier. The sleeves were off the shoulder and the dress was simply stunning. This honestly saved us the most money because a dress like my mom’s today would cost around $2,000 or more.
So, once we returned home from visiting family in South Carolina, I got to work searching for a venue. Noah and I knew that we wanted something affordable and big enough to welcome our large families, and thankfully we found a venue at the Colonial Heritage Club in Williamsburg, VA. The club is beautiful, settled on a golf course in Williamsburg, with beautiful spots for bride and groom photos. The interior of the club was also stunning and as soon as we went on the tour, we knew this was the place for us!
Once we signed our contracts and secured our date and venue, we got to work on finding a wedding photographer. This was tricky because there are so many photographers out there with varying styles of work. Personally, I wanted our wedding photos to look bright and timeless. I found our perfect photographers at Virginia Wedding Company, run by Luke and Ashley. They did an outstanding job and were very communicative prior to our wedding to ensure they knew what we wanted photographed on the wedding day. Our photography package also included an 8x8 wedding album and our engagement session, so it was a 10/10 overall in terms of price and experience. Another positive thing that I really enjoyed about Virginia Wedding Company was that they sent out surveys to my fiancé and I to fill out about what type of photos we wanted, what our styles were, etc.
After the venue and photographers had been secured, Noah and I had our engagement photo session and used one of the sneak peeks sent to us to use on our invitations. Let me preface this by saying that Canva is your BEST FRIEND when you’re planning a wedding on a budget. Canva is a free graphic design tool that allows you to make everything from social media posts, flyers, cards, media kits, etc. Canva was a tremendous help for me as I used it to create our wedding invitations, to make lists for myself to stay organized, to make inspiration/mood boards, and more. I printed our invitations through our local FedEx for $90 which was very affordable compared to other websites like Zazzle or Minted.
When the invitations had been sent out, it was time for us to create decorations, order our cakes and desserts, and figure out who our wedding party would include. I was able to order our cakes and dessert items for the dessert table from Publix. If you live in an area near a Publix, don’t sleep on them! They’re seriously so affordable and the quality and taste of their cakes and food is delicious. Publix also does a FREE cake tasting – they will literally give you three small cakes to choose from and sample if you are planning a wedding. My husband and I bought our two cakes (the main cake and his groom’s cake) along with our dessert trays for less than $700 from Publix.
Many of our decorations were purchased from Amazon, Michaels, Ikea, and Trader Joes. We bought a card box, ribbons, and table décor from Michaels. And we bought all our wedding florals from Trader Joes for $500! Trader Joes is another hidden gem, and if you have one near you, I would reach out to them for florals if you are not hiring a florist. They are very affordable and easy to work with.
The items we purchased from Amazon included materials for a green wall, display stand, an easel for our mirror seating chart, candles and votives, and miscellaneous bridal items. Ikea was a great place to buy vases and candles for the reception area.
All in all, our wedding process went by in a blur, but once the day arrived, it was the most magical day of my life. I wish I could relive it over and over again, as cheesy as it sounds. The day went perfectly, and I think planning it went a lot better than I imagined it would go. Noah and I were very lucky that our wedding took place right before peak wedding season, so many of the venues we reached out to still had availability since the end of March is still considered “off-peak” season. We were given a discount for off-peak season and a military discount, which helped a lot with the venue costs. Let’s be real… planning a wedding is expensive! But Amazon, Canva, and The Knot were my best planning friends during our three-month planning era.
This is a lot of information, but please feel free to leave me a comment if you have questions or want to know more. I’m happy to help!
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