Ariel's Wedding, Part XVII, Sum Up

(Some photos in this post courtesy of TJ Mahlon and various wedding guests.)
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Great. Beautiful. Lovely. Unique. Fun. Perfect.

These are all words we heard in the days following the wedding. And it was all true.

Yes, it was a low budget wedding, but it was still fabulous. How'd we save money? In every way we could. Wedding venues are ridiculously expensive on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, so Ariel and Eric chose to have their wedding on a Thursday. We had the ceremony at home. Ariel also shopped around for a venue which would allow us to bring in our own caterer and alcohol; this was a HUGE savings. We rented table linens, but went with very nice quality disposable plates, cups, and cutlery, and customized them with a rubber stamp. For flowers, I cultivated my own for the ceremony, shopping for tender young plants at Walmart and utilizing available nursery pots, spray painted in harmonious colors; we lucked up on the flowers for the reception when Ariel met a lady at the Murfreesboro Farmer's Market who sold beautiful flowers for a song. A friend acted as DJ, and music was supplied by Ariel's IPOD. Ariel found a photographer who was willing to do two hours for $500, so we hired her for the 'getting ready, formal, and ceremony' photos only; for the reception photos, we relied on disposable cameras set about on tables and the talents of family and friends. Cinderella and Prince Charming loaned us items left over from their own wedding last December. And, with a little help from family and friends, we did so much ourselves: the setup, the cleanup, picking up the cake, the video-taping, the favors, the invitations, and various other things. We shopped and shopped and shopped and bought very few, if any, items at full price.

Regrets? Ah, just a few. I wish I'd hired a crew to serve and clean. I wish I'd lost forty pounds, instead of gaining twenty. I wish my mama had been well enough to come. I wish more people understood the importance of RSVP. I would have liked to have seen more people from my family and Fred's; it was actually embarrassing that Eric's relatives, who had travelled from Pennsylvania, Florida, and Connecticut, far outnumbered our relatives, most of whom live in the Nashville area.

How many people did we actually have? I have no idea. I was prepared for 71, but we did have a few plates and favors left over. We probably had about 60.

I've also no idea how many we had for brunch the following day, but I can tell you that it was also very nice. No tables collapsed, and I had way too much food again. I always go overboard in the food department. Eric's family is so much fun; I wish they'd been able to stay a few more days. After the other guests had left, Fred surprised Ariel with the new song he'd written. I'm not sure what he named it, but it's a sweet sentimental song about how much he's changed since she came into his life. Ariel and I both cried.

Some stats:
The ceremony was held in our back yard, in Pleasant View.
I made hot yeast rolls, whipped butter, and strawberry butter for nibbling before the ceremony.
Ariel had only one attendant, her best friend and Matron of Honor, Belle.
Eric also had one attendant, his Best Man.
The reception was held at The Cumberland Room, in nearby Clarksville.
Out of town guests stayed at a hotel in Clarksville, and Ariel and Eric provided a cab for the evening.
Appetizers at the reception were a cheese tray with crackers, fruit tray, and shrimp rings.
The meal was catered by Calypso Cafe, with a little help from Walmart's deli and yours truly. We had rotisserie chicken with three delicious sauces: jerk, curry, and barbeque, tossed tropical salad, cole slaw, black beans with sour cream and onions, sweet potatoes with coconut, Martinique Callilou (collard greens with tomatoes,) St. Lucian's rice, coconut cornbread muffins, and more of my hot yeast rolls with whipped butter and strawberry butter.
Publix made the cake. The bottom tier was white with raspberry filling, the middle tier was chocolate, and the top tier, which is frozen solid down in my basement, is marble.
A huge assortment of teas, coffee, soft drinks, and alcohol were available.

Music was provided by Prince Charming's friend, The Pianist, for the ceremony, and Fred, Eric, and Ariel collaborated on the IPOD music for the reception.

Once Like a Spark did the photography at the ceremony. Prince Charming videotaped the ceremony and portions of the reception.

Fred and I made a video slideshow for entertainment before the ceremony. It was quite nice, if I do say so myself.

The bridal gown and all the accroutements were purchased at David's Bridal.

And now, I must add this up and see how we did on the budget. Now, I KNOW we went way over Fred's $1500 budget, but how could we not? And Fred, bless him, stopped complaining about the budget months ago. For MY budget, I had hoped to stay in the $3500 range, and I THINK we stayed close to that. Maybe. Let's add it all up:

The bride's attire: $1,032
The groom's attire: $80
Invitations: $50
Engagement photos: $50
Ceremony site: $0!!!!!
Reception site: $492
Officiant: $125
Photography: $500
Music: $250
Video: $0!!!!!
Video slide show, plus copies for family members: $2
The cake: $318
Catering: $743
Other food (including foods for brunch for wedding party and out-of-town guests the following morning: $229
Drinks: $35
Alcohol: $400
Bartender: $100
Linens: $224
Disposable plates, napkins, cups, cutlery, etc: $107
Cake topper: $20
Favors (fans, personalized M&Ms, bird seed packets): $62
Arch rental: $50
Cab: $275
Flowers (I ended up spending more than I had intended on the ones I grew at home: due to the dadgum deer, I had to replace several): $110
Ribbons, candles, aisle runner, disposable cameras, and miscellaneous decor: $214
Vases, champagne flutes, and miscellaneous borrowed from Cinderella: $0
Gift bowl and pens for signing: $50
Gift card box: $0 (I threw it together with leftover ribbon and a fancy box from Charming's and Cinderella's wedding; it was quite pretty and functional.)
Newspaper announcement and copies of newspapers for family members: $14
Hired help (Miss Jane) for two days: $250
Tips: $410
My dress: $96

Total: $6288

Gulp.

Okay, let me adjust that somewhat, because Fred and I did have some help.

Wendy, Eric's mom, paid for all the alcohol and half the photography fee. Subtract $650.
Ariel and Eric paid for several items themselves: the cake topper and candles, the invitations and engagement photos, the bartender, the cab, the gift bowl, the officiant, and Eric's tux. Subtract $770.

New total: $4868

And if we take off the cost of my dress, (because I'm sure I'll wear it again,) that's only $4772.

Welllll, that's not tooooo far off the mark, is it?

Besides, it was my only daughter's wedding, and it's the one and only time I'll ever get to do anything like that, and that did include the brunch the next day.

And we had leftovers for a good two days afterwards. And I had enough honeybaked ham left over from the brunch to take sandwiches for myself and Mamacilla two nights in a row, and there's still some of it in the freezer.

And we provided eight deer with yummy impatiens treats for three months.

And it's WELL below the national average wedding cost of $23,657 (according to Smartmoney.com.)

No, you know what? I'm not going to apologize or try to justify that amount. I don't regret a penny of it. It's all done and paid for. It was a lovely wedding, absolutely lovely, and everybody had a great time. Our memories will last a lifetime, and the image of my daughter, smiling, blissfully happy, the sunlight reflecting off her white gown, will forever be etched in my mind.

Perfect.