My Wedding Recap!

I thought I'd share the details of my wedding in case there are like-minded budget brides out there who are interested!

The ceremony
We had the ceremony at Brooklyn Borough Hall (YAY! $25) first thing Friday morning. They open at 8am, we were through the metal detector and upstairs with our families by 8:15am and there was no line!

The reception
We had a very small — immediate family and close friends, a total of 32 people — reception later that night at Frankie's 457 on Court Street. We fit in "the Stable" in their backyard. The space is gorgeous and the staff was awesome (super friendly and attentive!) and of course the food was delicious! I was definitely a bride who ate at her wedding!

The flowers
I made them myself!

The favors
We bought Mast Brothers Chocolate in bulk which brought the price down. We also gave everyone a pen (I know, we're dorks).

My dress, hair and makeup
My dress was just a white-ish cocktail dress that I ordered online. Much cheaper than going for a traditional wedding dress. I brushed my hair myself. And for makeup, I booked a full face makeup session for just $20 on lifebooker.com. It was absolutely a great deal — the salon had raving reviews, my makeup artist was funny and professional, and the makeup turned out great and lasted all night!

The photographer
This was a tough one, being a wedding photographer myself. Again, we went a non-traditional route. We had Louis Mendes and his 1940s press camera come and take pictures of our guests at the reception. We basically had a nice dinner with family and friends — no dancing, cake cutting or bouquet tossing — so Louis's portraits and the candid shots taken by our guests who brought cameras was enough for us.

We provided him with the black and white film and he took pictures of all of our guests. This was perfect because we then scanned the photos and made prints as thank you cards for everyone!

The cake
In my case, cakes! I ordered three cakes from Nine Cakes and it was just over $100 including delivery! I chose the red velvet, mayan chocolate, and carrot cream cheese and they were all divine. No fondant!

Sin and Joseph REDUX!

It's not often that I get repeat wedding clients (that's probably a good thing!), but I was so honored and excited when Sin and Joseph contacted me again about shooting their wedding! I first photographed Sin and Joseph last year when they got married at Borough Hall in Brooklyn.

Remember this?

Earlier this month, they hosted a wedding/reception/tea ceremony/dinner/awesome dance party in Manhattan and I am glad to have been there again.

planning a diy budget brooklyn wedding

If you know Ben and I, you know we don’t have any money. He’s a writer and I’m a photographer. Low salaries are the price we pay for having jobs we really love. So I knew from the start that I’d be a budget bride and need to cut corners to save for the details I really want.

What we cut:

The ceremony
All brides cut the cake. I cut the ceremony. Neither of us are religious, so we weren't going to have a church or temple ceremony. We thought about using a city or state park, but Ben and I ultimately decided that it's more up our alley to go to Borough Hall and get the papers ($35 for the marriage license and $25 for the marriage ceremony).

The DJ
I like music as much as the next person, but nixing the DJ wasn't a difficult decision to make. With an iTunes playlist and an iPod, I'll be able to put together a soundtrack of my favorite songs for free.

Save the Dates
Save the dates can be cute, but in a world where written correspondence is increasingly rare, they seemed unnecessary. By sending out our invites so early -- and not telling anyone about our engagement beforehand -- our wedding invitations pretty much served double billing as save the dates.

The Engagement Ring
Yep. We didn’t get an engagement ring. Ben and I are clearly working on a tight budget, but he was willing to spring for a ring if I chose one. I looked around at all the standard places. It goes without saying that they were all really expensive! There’s a saying floating around that an engagement ring should cost two months salary. If that’s the case, I’d much rather have a Canon 5D Mark II, which would pay for itself after a few shoots. Not to mention, after the ring, we still have a wedding to pay for! But ultimately, expensive or not, I couldn’t find one that I liked. The traditional solitaire diamond just doesn’t speak to me and I wasn’t excited about the more contemporary designs either. So we decided to go spartan. Wedding bands only.

And this is just the beginning. Considering our bare-bones budget, the cuts are just getting started!

Sin and Joseph's City Hall Wedding

Sin and Joseph were married at Brooklyn's City Hall.