My Son Got Married – Great Tips to Save on a Wedding
So, my middle son Matt got married about a month ago. I haven’t posted the pictures from it because it’s taken a while to get the pictures back from the photographer. But it was a lovely day and we were all excited to see them married. Great weather – perfect since it was a rooftop wedding.
The Wedding Party
We had pretty much the whole family involved. My oldest son Ryan was the best man, our youngest – Blake was a groomsman. And my cute little granddaughter Ella was the flower girl while my sister Karla performed the ceremony. She is an ordained minister and has married quite a few couples. So it was really special to have my sister do it.
Isn’t this a sweet picture? Pam and Matt have been dating for about 3 years – they originally were neighbors. She lived downstairs from him in his first apartment. I think they’ll be very happy together.
Here’s the cake – pretty, isn’t it? I love the topper with their initials on it. I also love that they didn’t smush cake on each other – I hate that. It’s funny because the cake table was set too high so the bakery lady couldn’t reach up to put the topper on it. So, she enlisted my husband to do it. That was a little scary because he’s got big man hands and that could have gone very wrong, but happily, it worked out just fine.
Here’s a picture of our whole family. I was taking pictures for most of the day, so I think this is one of the few ones I was actually in. I got my outfit at Dress Barn – it was simple and comfortable and reasonably flattering. Although black is a little hot for a rooftop wedding in 90 degree heat, but if the guys could stand to be in jackets and vests, I guess I could manage too.
Picture of my Boys – Two Married and One to Go!
This was the one thing I asked for out of the whole day – a nice picture of all three of my boys all dressed up and SMILING! We have something known as a the family scowl that usually ends up in almost every picture. But this time I got what I wanted. Now we have two boys who are married and just one more to go.
The Reception and Some Budget Saving Wedding Ideas
The kids paid for a lot of the wedding themselves, so we went with a few budget-saving ideas. We did our own photo booth for one thing. It was a BIG hit – especially with my granddaughter. I got the frames at the Thrift store (the bride painted them herself) and had a whole basket of silly glasses, hats, and other fun props from the dollar store. Ella really enjoyed posing for pictures in different outfits. They also had little disposable camera for the guests to take pictures, but sadly, those didn’t turn out well at all. I can see why Instamatics are going extinct!
My new daughter-in-law is quite the smart shopper and so is my son, so they worked hard to find pretty good deals on most things – from the hall to the cake and the photographer. Weddings can be ridiculously expensive these days, so they made some good choices to stay on budget. A slightly lighter menu, and just music from their iPods instead of a DJ and I found that darling little dress for Ella on sale at Kohl’s over Easter.
I was able to use my frequent flyer miles to pay for almost half the airfare for she and our son to come out from California. Sadly, my other three grandkids had their final week of school, so they couldn’t come (sniff). Looks like Blake found a friend to dance with – our friend’s daughter J9 (Janine). They’re just friends, but they did make a darling couple!
We had a few little glitches along the way, but that is another post. In the meantime, they look pretty happy, don’t you think? Here’s to their happily ever after! PS: Read my post on the power of a properly worded complaint. We ended up saving about 20% of the wedding venue due to some issues we had.
Congrats to the newly married Matt and Pam!
I absolutely love the colors and the cake is gorgeous!
What a happy day for the whole family! It must be pretty awesome to see your child get married!
What a beautiful event, Adrian! I love the blue and yellow – looks like a lot of fun:)