Cabo + Photos

I've finally received my professional photos! I was so lucky to have so many talented friends there to shoot the wedding weekend that I was not stalking the Cabo photographer with my normal nagging.

We had much debate (Jeff and I, the photog and I) on prices and I am so happy that we did splurge on photos. It is the only thing you use after the event.

The event:
We were married on the beach in Cabo in a "toes-in-the-sand elegant" ceremony. I wanted to keep the wedding small, intimate and affordable, we had ~35 close friends and family at the all-inclusive Zoetry Casa del Mar. We chose this hotel for our celebration because it was small (~40 suites total) and luxurious (massages and top shelf included!).

To keep our cost down, we had a friend design and print (now opening her own etsy shop!!) our save the dates, invites and weekend itinerary "passports". We wanted to have a vintage/beach feel. I also designed my dress and had it handmade for under $700, the rest of the details were handmade by vendors on etsy (wedding shrug, hairpiece and birdie cake toppers).

I wore jewelry my grandfather had given me for college graduation, it was a pearl/diamond set, representing each of our birthstones (which of course made my dad cry).

Here are a few of our favorites....

Budget bride

So I'm officially a married gal! Jeff and I tied the knot on the beach in Cabo at the beautiful hotel Zoetry end of March. We had about 35 of our closest friends and family for an all-inclusive vacation/celebration. I wanted to share some of our planning/wedding highlights.

Paper/Invites: for our save the dates, wedding invites and Cabo itinerary my close friend and designer Ashley helped me craft a vintage/natural theme. Using colors like light blue, sage green and tan we sent out "boarding pass" save the date, travel poster/post card invites and "passport" in-room booklets keeping our guest informed of the hotel amenities and events. (Ashely's starting a shop on etsy, which I'll link to once its up!)
Cost:
Design- Free
Paper/envelopes- $100
*Random: $120
Printing- Ashley took care of this as well! What a steal!

*I bought a Gocco printer, that I used to print parts of her design onto my envelopes. Also we used raffia to tie our invites together.


The event: for the wedding, I wanted to have things that were uniquely mine... and not going to bust your budget. After dress shopping, I found a few ($3k-$5k) dresses I liked and used those as inspiration for a lady to create a dress for me, from scratch for $500! (not including fabric cost)
Cost:
Fabric: $160
Dress: $500

I wore a pearl/diamond necklace my grandfather had given me and used etsy for the rest. I had a flower/veil hairpiece, cake topper and shrug created to match my vintage style.
Cost: It was under $200 for all 3 pieces to be originally created just for us, worth the investment! Love me some etsy.

Venue: Luckily, a beach provides most of your ambience! The hotel's outdoor area was changed to an imperial/single table to make the space feel different on the day of. For the placecards, I purchased some buri fans online and some tags/stamps/ribbon at Michaels and handwrote each persons name to keep our intimate feel.
Cost:
Table/seating: included with wedding package
Cards: ~$75
Flowers: $700

The shoes I did splurge on, but I tried so hard not too! I ended up with these lovely Badley Mischka shoes, but they were ~$100 on sale!

I thought overall we had a unique and initimate wedding. I am so grateful that we were able to spend time with our friends and loved the beach wedding. I say same time, same place next year?

cabo wabo!

I am in Cabo with my maid of honor, Crystal, scooping out the sites and it is beautiful.

This is our first time here and the Zoetry del Mar is simply stunning. The resort is very cozy, the food is excellent and the beach is shared with the famous Las Ventas next store.

We were greeting in our room with welcome fruit, a bottle of tequila and our daily bottle of champagne. I love the natural/wellness approach the resort has and I am so excited to come back and celebrate with my friends and fam in March!

Here are a few pics from day one.

Fredrickburg wedding wknd

I can not believe it is almost December!

I've started writing under the "Budget Living in Dallas" title for the examiner... check it out (and spread the word, I get paid that way!)

We spent our weekend in Fredrickburg, celebrating the wedding of Monica and Chris. What an amazing town and simply stunning wedding. We took the scenic route to avoid ATX traffic and the drive felt every bit 4.5+ hrs. Friday evening we headed to Luckenbach Dance Hall for the reception/dancing and Saturday we visited a few wineries and then had lunch off Main Street at the Fredricksburg Brewery, took a nap at our cute cottage and then off to the del Rio wedding!

Here are a few pic's from our quick trip....






I would love to make another long weekend trip here, it's affordable and has unique shopping, some Texas country bars and nearby wineries.

And a reminder: Hairballs and Hairbands is coming up soon, so buy your tickets for Paws in the City's 80's Christmas party! It was a blast last year and this year we will have Live 80's cover band, free apps from local restaurants, best 80s costume and prizes to win.

Have a lovely week and enjoy a laugh with Harvey (this is apparently huge in the UK-- love it!)