Kelly and Brian got married in Indianapolis on March 20, 2010 (Mine and J's original wedding date). They had some problems with their original wedding plans and ended up having to change EVERYTHING about 3-4 months out. Even with these huge changes and losing money on their original reception site, they still came in under $10,000 for their budget. The wedding was gorgeous and it fit Kelly and Brian's personality perfectly!
Kelly and Brian are absolutely in love with their 3 pugs, so they tried to incorporate them into the wedding as much as possible. With all the DIY projects that Kelly took on, she was able to include her babies in their special day.
What was your budget?: We roughly budgeted $10,000 to start. We pretty much stayed under that, but it got tricky because we lost money on our reception venue. Including the $900 we lost from letting our reception venue go, I have our budget as $9,887.85 for what WE paid. However I'm sure there are a ton of smaller things that would get us up to the $10,000 mark if I remembered them. A few things were contributed by family, but we paid for most of it ourselves.
What did you do to make your wedding unique?: Adding our pugs! We had pugs in a lot of things. I think the riskiest “pug” item was our pug RSVP card. Since we had to change our wedding plans drastically without warning, I kind of gave up caring what people though and just tried to have fun with it. I am so glad I did because of wedding was very “us.”
What was your biggest splurge for your wedding?: Photography. But we made it work by paying about $1,200 up front (hello tax return) about a year before our wedding, and then paid $150 a month after that. It was nice too because after the wedding, we felt like we had an extra $150 a month.
What aspect of your wedding did you save the most money on?: Cake. My friend Laura made cupcakes for us as a wedding gift (and two big cakes as well! We ate like kings!) and it was F-R-E-E FREE! The biggest bargain aka something I paid for but got a deal would be our cake toppers. They cost me barely anything to make since I had the paint, all I needed was to buy the little ceramic pugs. I bought them in bulk and have used them for fun gifts/ornaments.
What was your favorite DIY project?: Making them, the most fun was the cake toppers. I love painting and artistic things. (I bought the ceramic pug figures, then painted them with acrylic, and then sprayed them with clear gloss. I hot-glued some tulle (leftover from a little jewelry gift bag) to one as a veil.) But the best visual impact was our programs. I HATED making them. It was a pain in the you-know-what and way more complicated than little ole me thought. I almost strangled my printer. But in the end I was so happy with how they looked, it was worth it. I was really proud of my DIY outcome.
Any advice to give to other brides?: Do what you like. Don’t care about if it’s “trendy” or “weird” (aka my birdcage veil, or having pugs on everything.) On the same token, don’t do something because it’s trendy (if you hate candy buffets, why do one?) or because someone else wants you to. Your wedding is yours. Also I was surprised how much my invitations cost even though I "DIY-ed" most of them... I should have just had some done professionally and saved myself some time!
Vendors
Ceremony location: First Meridian Heights Presbyterian
Reception location: Buca di Beppo
Photography: Erin Hession
Florist: Meridian Floral Design
Dress: Ella Park Bridal
Bridesmaid Dresses: J. Crew
Tuxes: Mens Wearhouse
To learn more about Kelly and her life and wedding, you can check out her 2 blogs.
Miss Pug's Pawfect Wedding & Ordinary and Indiana
