Second Hand Wedding

Six months ago I was neck deep in planning my wedding.  This was a second marriage for both Jayson and I, and we didn't want to ask our parents to shell out for the festivities, so we decided to try and pay for it ourselves (our parent's contributions were generous, but behind the scenes).  Jayson is in PA school, and I was also a student earning my teaching certificate.  So with hardly any money to work with, we challenged ourselves to do a "Second Hand Wedding."  I suppose it went with our theme as we were "second hand" bride and groom!
For the months leading up to the wedding I went to the thrift store every single day searching for decor for the wedding.  I ended up having a blast with it. We chose Navy Blue, Mustard Yellow, and Wood/brown accents as our colors.  To save, we decided not to pay for a venue so we did it at my parents church building.  Almost everything ended up being second hand... I even got my veil on Craigslist for $5, and my vintage shoes for $6.   And THIS is the best part.  We found Jayson a vintage, navy blue pin striped suit for 13$.    We ended up doing EVERYTHING (food, dress, suit, decor, band, photographer, etc etc etc.)  for less than $2,000.

The Veil

The Shoes

The hot guy suit!

 Old use canvas ($.50) I painted navy blue, and poked used Christmas lights ($.50) in to spell LOVE. 

 I found yards and yards of used Tulle, in a light mustard yellow for 1$  It was already pre-cut perfectly for my sisters-in-law to put on the chairs.

 My florist was a friend from work who is AMAZING!!  I just gave her all of my thrifted vases and containers, a color scheme, and she did exactly what I wanted.

 Framed some burlap and glued painted letters to it (4$) when it was all done.

 I found a bunch of used chalkboards and painted them our colors.

 These Japanese bride and groom were a gift from Jayson's parents... The height difference was a little off, but it was an easy fix!

 Turned a $.25 navy blue bowl upside down for a candle holder.

 Used a used yellow sheet $.75, ripped it up into strips and tied it to some Christmas lights,                  for the gift area

 I found yarn ($.25) at the thrift store in my colors and I covered block letters in it. This was our caramel apple station.  Dip the apple, in the caramel, and then in your favorite topping.

 Candy Station! 

 My nieces were SO cute... They called me a few days before the wedding and told me that they had been to an event that had similar colors to mine, and had asked if they could have the hanging tissue paper balls for their new aunts wedding...  They made several more for me to fill the room.   If that isn't the definition of second hand I don't know what is. 

 So... Jayson is obsessed with fish (water in general), and he wanted them to make an appearance.  The Swedish fish are actually sitting on top of an actual goldfish.

Each center piece was unique.

 All the frames were $.25-$.75, I liked that they were all different.

So, I just proved that it can be done!  It may not be as classy as other weddings, but I wanted a vintage, rustic look to my wedding anyway and I think we pulled it off just fine.