Live For A Sunny Day - Wedding Edition

*Disclosure* This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of SunTrust Bank. All opinions are 100% honest and my own.

Tis the season when weddings are abundant, and you may either be getting married yourself, or attending one. Today, I'm bringing you a post in collaboration with SunTrust Bank on how to live for a sunny day, rather than save for a rainy one!

Weddings these days are so darn expensive, and if you're like me, you're frugal and want to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to your special day. When I was in the planning stages of my wedding, it was pretty overwhelming as I was concerned about money and how much was going to be spent. Luckily for me, I had awesome family members help us in many different ways. 

Budget wise, we didn't really have one, but we did want to keep it as inexpensive as possible. My now husband and I paid for quite a few things, but family members did help us out when needed, which we were incredibly thankful for. We didn't have to take out any loans, but we did use credit cards to help pay for things. If I could give any bit of financial advice, it would be to spend the money on what YOU want, not what others want. It is your wedding after all. 

Now for a few pictures of our wedding:

As our guests arrived, they saw these signs that my father-in-law and his wife made. He's a contractor so these were made from leftover wood from jobs. His wife was always on Pinterest looking up ideas, and she saw signs like this, so they painted the sayings on them. 

All of the flowers came from either a flower farm that's close to my father-in-law, and the potted flowers came from a local farmer's market and they were pretty inexpensive. I loved the flower farm we went to! Basically, they give you a bucket and some scissors and you go around the farm cutting whatever flowers you want and can fit into the bucket. The price depended on the size of the bucket, but it was so much cheaper than going to a florist. Like hundreds of dollars cheaper. The arch we got came from an uncle of mine and we just bought a few things to make it look nice. 

The first picture above shows the gift and favor table. we had made homemade chocolate covered mini pretzels, bought some little mason jars at Walmart to put them in, and gave those out to our guests. The Love box is a box that was purchased at Michael's craft store on clearance, which we used to put all the greeting cards and small gifts in. 

I love the second picture, because a really nice person my dad worked with made this cake for us. I honestly am not sure if he did it for us for free, or if my dad paid him. It was a very nice gesture either way, and it was delicious. The catering containers you also see to the side was something my dad picked up from work. He's a chef in a restaurant, so he was able to cater our wedding for much cheaper than a regular caterer would charge. That gets so expensive, it's pretty crazy! 

There were a few things that were kind of expensive, like the tent, tables and chairs we rented, but we made sure to shop around for the best price. Those items, along with my wedding dress, were the most expensive things. I have to say though, I bought my dress on clearance, but I loved it and only had to shorten it a bit, so it wasn't expensive to alter. It fit perfectly otherwise. 

Now for just a couple cute pictures:

There was so much to do for our little DIY Pinterest picnic wedding, but I wouldn't change it for anything. We had a small wedding, with only about 30 of our closest friends and family, and it was perfect. 

We didn't have a flower girl or ring bearer, but we did have an honorary Flower Puppy! She wore a homemade flower collar that was just precious.
We didn't really need to scrimp on anything either because our situation was a bit different than most people's. I said above my dad is a chef, so he brought the food and cake, we have a friend who was a DJ on the side, so he provided the music, a lovely friend of my mother-in-law does photography as a hobby, and he took so many beautiful pictures and put together a photo album as well for us. 

It's hard to give wedding advice since we are so lucky to have had our friends and family help us out the way they did. I always say to Google everything you can think of, and start planning as early as you can. Once we decided that we wanted an outdoor, small, picnic type wedding, that's when we really did our planning by looking up ideas on Pinterest. Seriously, that website is truly amazing for any kind of DIY wedding. Since I'm not sure what family paid for certain things, I want to say that our wedding cost us no more than $1,500. That's including everything, the stuff we rented, my dress, my husband's clothes, little items here and there, etc. 

Like I said above, we got very lucky and had a lot of things done for us for free. I know not everyone can have that, so always, always, always do your research and look for the best prices.

With SunTrust Bank, they can help you save up for Your Sunny Day, instead of a rainy one, because those are the days that matter the most. Weddings can definitely be stressful at times, but in the end, it's so worth it when you have everyone you love in one place celebrating with you. 

Sunny Days start here. At SunTrust, we have the tools and resources to help you achieve your sunny day. Start here to find out how we can help you enjoy the things that matter most to you.
At SunTrust Bank their purpose is lighting the way to financial well-being. When you feel confident about your money, you can save for your goals and spend knowingly on what matters most to you. They know we all live for the sunny days and want to you help you live yours.
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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of SunTrust Bank. The opinions and text are all mine.