Having never been to a destination wedding, I was not sure what to expect. We did our wedding on a tight budget which made it even more difficult. Many things were being done by us, so we did the best we could. I was fine cutting certain things out & do doing them on my own. Some of my visions were executed due to other people wanting me to have what I wanted. I was fine with baking cupcakes myself & making a backdrop for my beach wedding, but my friends had other plans. Did I mention I have amazing people in my life???
Ceremony Site
I had my heart set on a pergola. Two of my best friends, a couple, live in Los Angeles where they both work in the "business". The husband makes props for movies & television shows so he was very excited to help with a few things I wanted. Unfortunately, shipping from Los Angeles to Virginia Beach was going to cost 3 times what it would cost to even make. So my friends rented us a pergola for our ceremony space. I had a back-up plan, but was very happy with our gift. I will note that when having chairs or an arch delivered to a beach, be sure to have a clear plan of when & more importantly WHERE your delivery will be made. There was a little miscommunication with the delivery guys & over an hour was wasted by my friends waiting at the ceremony site for the items to be delivered. Turns out they were 1 mile down the road waiting to follow someone else to the site. In the end, it was just what I wanted.
Cake
Cake was not that important to me. I ordered a small cake from the grocery store for us to cut. I decorated it with these cute little Adirondack chairs & some little fences. I was very happy with how it turned out. As for the cupcakes, they didn't work out so great. It blows my mind that people charge so much for cupcakes. I decided that I could just make my own. Once again, my loving friends decided that they would have their cousin who lived close, make cupcakes at her bake shop. She was a professional & I wasn't paying for it, so I was not worried. When my friend picked up the cupcakes, she was unpleasantly surprised. My cupcakes looked like a Pinterest FAIL! My new brother-in-law's girlfriend came to the rescue. She helped a woman back West with her cupcake business. She really transformed those cupcakes. They looked 100% better!
Food
Dinner was something that I wanted to do ourselves. It saves a lot of money & to be honesty, I would rather have dinner at home than go to a restaurant. My husband is an amazing cook. Although he is the maker of a very popular sandwich in Pittsburgh, he is great cooking regular food. My original vision had us doing most of the work the day before the wedding. I stayed up late & woke up very early to make sure there was little that needed to be done. We did appetizers for cocktail hour. Quite a few of them came from Pinterest (not all of them were fails, lol).
Appetizers
Veggies w/Dip Cups
Taco Dip Cups
Mozzarella, Tomato, Basil skewers
Cheese, Pepperoni, Crackers
Olives, Pepperocinis, Pickles
Dinner
Chicken Marsala
Chicken with Brown Sugar & Garlic sauce
Tortellini with Marinara
Low-Country Boil
Green Beans
Salad
We had an amazing day when it was all over.
I will be sharing some more of my DIY wedding decor in up coming posts.
On a side note, Happy New Year! Here is to 2014 being an amazing year for all!
