Wedding Lesson #2: Have Good Friends

Ok, ok . . . here's a sneak peak of our engagement photos. We will post the rest after our save the dates are mailed , but I couldn't resist sharing at least one.

These were taken by our wonderful friend, Karley Mase. Check out his stuff at karleymase.com. Having wonderful and talented friends has been incredibly helpful in the wedding planning process. We have friends helping with cooking, design, and pretty much everything!

Wedding Lesson #1: Use what you have

Using what I have access to has already been the biggest money saver in planning our wedding. The price of wedding venues is through the roof . . . often costing more than the entire budget I have. They (whoever they are) say that a venue may be up to 50% of your budget. I say no, that I'd rather have it be 0% of my budget. So that's what we did.

I may not have a lot of things for a wedding, but I have a lake. One of the perks of being on staff at the camp where my fiance and I work, is that we have the option to have a wedding on the grounds. At $0, that was an easy decision for us. It's free, it's beautiful, it's our home and we get discounts on lodging for our guests. It's perfect.

Wedding on a Budget

To my faithful blog readers . . . .

I have decided to add another category to my blog over these next few months. With my wedding being 4 months away, I figured it would be fun to share my process of planning a DIY wedding with a budget of $5,500. I love the challenge of putting on a great event and figuring out the most efficient and budget friendly way to do it. I will be totally open about finances and ways that I'm saving (or losing) money. Hopefully you'll find my journey entertaining, inspiring and helpful.

I will probably keep some of my projects a secret and then post them after the wedding. At least some things need to be a surprise for our guests!

Enjoy!

Meet My Dance Company

Check it out! After 2 1/2 sad years of no dancing for me, I'm now not only dancing, but teaching. This is my dance company along with my co-director Charles (pictured center). We've been working with these high schoolers since October and have been teaching them hip hop, and some other dance stuff. Their big showcase, called Play it Loud is this Thursday. We can't wait to show them off!