You don't marry someone you can live with, you marry the person who you cannot live without.

I didn't want to be one of those brides that gets in a wedding daze and can talk about nothing else. I believe I've done a fairly decent job at it. However, we are now under the 3 month mark and I am overcome with wedding business. How much have we spent? How much more do we have to spend? How many rows of chairs should we have? What kind of Spanx should I get? Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

The following will probably not interest anyone but myself, but I gotta line this stuff out for my benefit so that I can either slap myself upside the head or congratulate myself for money spent/saved.

The original plan was to spend less than $5000 since Jeremy and I are paying 95% of this ourselves. Let's see where we stand:

Venue: Free.99 Ceremony and reception will be at my Pop's house

Dress: $138 Thank you eBay. The dress should arrive in the middle of April. We shall see if this was a good investment. I'm putting aside $200-300 for alterations for Jeremy's suits and all our dresses, if need be.

Girls' dresses: $113 total for three dresses from Pink Marie  I actually found them on ebay.

Photographer: $1100 Meg Perkins Photography Our package consists of an engagement session, copyright to 10-20 images on CD, 5x5 press book of shoot, 11x14 stretched canvas, ceremony, 1 hour after ceremony, 3 hours of reception, copyright to ALL pictures taken, 10x10 coffee table book

Hair: TBD, though I was quoted less than $300 for myself and the three girls by a friend of a friend

Suits: $200 total for Corbin's and Jeremy's. I found Corbin's on ebay and Jeremy found his on Men's USA. We tested out suit jackets at Burlington so we knew what size to get. We shall see on this as well.

Guys' accessories: $45 total for Corbin and Jeremy's shirts, still need to get belts and Jeremy's bound and determined to get some purple and orange argyle socks.

Shoes: $390; 2 pairs of custom Vans for Jeremy and Corbin, 4 pairs of custom Converse for the girls and I

Hairpieces/boutonnieres: Between $130-$200 from Skull Kandy; 4 custom fascinators for myself and the girls and 2-4 custom boutonnieres for Corbin and Jeremy (maybe for Josh and Daddy as well)

Flowers: $150; I'm ordering flowers in bulk from Sam's; I need to order my bouquet from a florist which will be made up of calla lillies

Decorations: So far we're under $100 for paper lanterns from Just Artifacts  I still have to buy tablecloths and runners. For the centerpieces I'll be using painted wine bottles as vases, kind of like this:

I'm going to do more muted colors, maybe metallic/pearlized. I'll put them on mirror tiles, maybe, and have some tea lights beside them, maybe.

Invitations: $130 from Inviting Moments which I can not recommend enough. She ROCKS. HARD.

Rings: $116. Jeremy got his from Kay's (I think that's the one) and I'll just be using my engagement ring as my wedding ring. I may eventually get a small band to wear should we ever plan on being somewhere that my finger will be at risk of being cut off for my diamond.

DJ: Free.99  We had a guy and then he had to cancel, so my uncle who used to DJ stepped in and is doing this fo' free. Y.A.Y.

Cake: $150 tops. I want a cupcake cake. I got a quote of over $300 JUST for the cupcakes. That's not putting it together or delivering it or anything. This right here is my inspiration:

We found hat boxes in that same print and Jeremy's mom and sister have so graciously offered to make the cupcakes. Huzzah.

Food: Not a clue. A good family friend does catering and we need to pin down the money on this one.

Alcohol: Not a clue. We're doing beer and wine. Jeremy is dead set on having "good" beer which I think is fine and dandy if you're sitting around your house drinking beer, but providing kegs of Red Stripe for people who are more than likely going to get drizzy drunk is just ridiculous, but whatever...

Officiant: $20 We were originally going to have my brother in law/Jeremy's best friend marry us, but he was having major anxiety over it, so one of Jeremy's good friends is doing it instead. We got him ordained with the Universal Life Church and went ahead and sprung for the wallet identification card so he can tell everyone he's official and shit.

Chairs/Table Rental: $232 from Russell Rentals for chairs and tables for 125-150.

I'm getting a membership to the Y as a last ditch effort to not have back fat and a 1 month tanning membership because if there is back fat, at least it will be tan. That'll be another $100 or so.

We're around $3500 right now so I'm actually feeling quite well about things. I have spent HOURS looking online for good deals and I will be SO proud if things turn out the way I have envisioned them. I know I have minimal readers, but if you stumble upon this, my biggest tip is that if you have the time and you're on a budget RESEARCH! Wedding's can get so expensive because of the little random stuff and that seems to be the easiest place to save. We took a huge gamble on the clothing since everything has been bought sight unseen and I pray it pays off. I think the less caught up you get in the fairy tale and realize that it is just one day, the easier it is to plan.