BRONZE BUDGET BRIDE

Amie and Justin Doucette planned an elegant wedding for 150 guests with a $5000 budget proving that you too CAN have the wedding of your dreams despite your small budget...here's how she did it!

"We were married on Thanksgiving weekend, October 10th, 2009. It was amazing, family and friends came from all over Canada and the United States. Our wedding was in Nova Scotia Canada, and things here are quite a bit more expensive than in the USA. Our Final wedding cost around $5000.00, the bulk of our budget went into our reception which was held at a Ball Room, at the Grand Hotel.

I pinched pennies EVERYWHERE I could. I spend hours looking at every single wedding site imaginable especially Bronze Budget Bride and I honestly believe THAT is what saved us money in the end.



My family lives in North Carolina, so thankfully, some things were able to be purchased there like my wedding dress. I know everyone has seen the show Say Yes To The Dress, where ladies go into this amazing bridal store and try and dress after dress until they find, "THE ONE!" well not this girl. For starters, the closest bridal store to where I live in Nova Scotia is 3.5 hours away and wedding dresses are roughly twice the price of dresses in the USA. I just could NOT bring myself to pay thousands of dollars on a dress, it was just not my main focus.

The Wedding Dress



One morning I spent hours browsing DavidsBridal.com. I looked at EVERY SINGLE DRESS they had on their site. We all know our bodies and we do know what will be right for us so TRUST YOUR JUDGEMENT! I saw THE ONE that I wanted and called my Mother, who was actually at work that day. My younger brother David was home at home however and I have to say that I have the best brother EVER. My 23 year old, hockey player brother drove to Fayetteville North Carolina, walked into David’s Bridal with a picture of “THE DRESS” I wanted and said, “I NEED this dress for my sister!” David called me an hour later and said "Amie…I have your dress, I have your necklace and your earrings!" I could NOT believe my brother would do that for me but he had NO reservations about it, he knew what he had to do and he did AMAZINGLY! He picked out a lady in the store who was roughly my size, and said “I need THIS dress in HER size.” The dress fit me PERFECTLY.I did not have to have ANY alterations done to my dress whatsoever! It was perfect and the total cost was $549.00!

My Wedding Shoes



A little note on our wedding! My husband’s family is a very traditional Catholic family. I personally, would have been totally fine with jetting off to Vegas and getting married by Elvis since it really did not matter to me, but it DID mean something to my In-Laws so it was a very easy decision, Catholic Wedding here we go! However one day I came across Endless.com, a wonderful shoe website and I found my AMAZING wedding shoes in BRIGHT RED! It was my little giggle through the hour long Catholic Wedding. I didn’t realize that my shoes would be seen while I was kneeling down to pray, lol, it was wonderful! Since I bought them late summer they were on sale and I paid less than $50.00 for them if my memory serves me right!



The Invitations

For our invitations, I did them on my own. I went to Michaels and bought kits that included everything. Although it did take me a few days of trying different styles of font, I think they came out beautifully! So for any bride doing their own invitations when you type out your invitations, a slight change in the color and style of the font makes your invites look very professional! Do a Google search for invitations and study MANY then do them yourself and you’ll save TONS of money! I had so many friends ask who on earth made our invitations, they had never seen anything so beautiful and they had NO idea I did them on my own! I spent $39.95 for two invitations kits which equaled 120 invites. That was MUCH cheaper than the printer who quoted me $3.40 - $7.80 PER INVITE. You CAN do them yourself!

Flowers



Another piece of advice, please use real flowers. It is 100% possible to have lovely REAL flowers, at a LOW cost to you. How? Use flowers that are IN SEASON. Do not choose flowers that are coming from far away or that are hard to get and remember that bigger is not always better! We had lovely orange roses, mixed with red berries and greenery and they were STUNNING! Go to a small florist, tell her you are on a limited budget and ask her to come up with what she can for YOUR chosen amount. Everyone knows when you throw the word WEDDING in front of ANYTHING, the cost go sky high, so use the word party instead and make sure to set a limit for everything and stick to it!

I got my bouquet, a toss bouquet, 2 brides maid bouquets, flower girl crown (she threw leaves which was beautifully fall), 3 corsages for our mothers and my grandmother and 7 boutonnières for the guys for $300.00. The little old lady was so sweet; she even sent the extra flowers to be put in our hotel room!

I'm so excited to share this with you because Amie, one of the original members of Bronze Budget Bride, she has proven that you can have a beautiful, breath-taking wedding for 150 guests with a $5000 budget!

If you want the details on how she and her husband Justin pulled it off, check back very soon because I will be posting all her money saving tips. For now, please enjoy these beautiful photos from the couple's Thanksgiving nuptials in Nova Scotia, Canada!





Her wedding dress was $549 from David's Bridal and since it didn't need altering, she saved even more.



The bride and groom went to a small florist and were able to get the bride's bouquet, a toss bouquet, two bridesmaid bouquets, a flower girl crown, three (3) corsages for the moms and grandmas, and seven (7) boutonnieres for the men all for $300.









Although the photographer shot only one wedding prior to theirs, his portfolio impressed the couple so they took a chance booking him which obviously paid off.











Amie's gorgeous bright, red wedding shoes were purchased at Endless.com for less than $50! As the bride explained, these were her "little giggle" throughout her October 10th, 2009, Catholic ceremony.

The reception that followed was held at the Ball Room of the Grand Hotel in Nova Scotia where the 150 guests partied the night away!



Amie and along with her bridesmaids carved the pumpkins for her centerpieces the night before the big day. They made decreative holes in the pumpkin "just shy of making a full hole" and placed tealight at the center of it so they glowed in the dimly light room.



The cake was another money saving move because Amie found a baker who makes amazing birthday cakes but hadn't yet tried her hands at making wedding cakes. They took another chance here and got a beautiful, three tiered wedding cake with three flavors for $250.



They had the wedding of their dreams and they obviously had fun yet they spent way less than the average cost of a wedding!  Congratulations to our bronze budget couple!

Hi, we are living together for 2 years and talking about it since then, but it never happens. This year we decide it was time and we start planing it ASAP, We decide to get married on March 28,2010.We had an extra low Budget, but I decide that We will have our dream wedding and not spen lots of money. So we began our journey.....

I actually strat on everything on January 26,2010 when buy my dress.

Davids Bridal V9454 for $99 plus taxes = $105.93

Yeahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!
My dress

 

The venue for my wedding & reception

This is the Beautiful Pergola where we will be getting married and party!!!!
it only cost me $60.00 dollars for all day until 10pm.
Parque Luis Muñoz Rivera, San Juan Puerto Rico