Ashley and Jon | Date: June 2012
Photography: Studio 22 DJ: A&A Disc Jockey Wedding Planner and Designer: Social Conceptions
Reception and Ceremony: Carolina Theater in Greensboro, NC
Catering: Culinary Visions Catering
Click Here for More Pictures
As the owner of Social Conceptions I wanted to share how I planned my own wedding.
Jon and I got married June 30, 2012 at the Carolina Theater in Greensboro, NC. We met in college at UNC-Chapel Hill and became fast friends and then both ended up in Greensboro after college and started to be roommates to help us save money. We were roommates for three years before we started dating and it was important that our wedding not only reflected our personalities but our friendship as well. We really wanted a unique wedding location and with it being at the end of June in the south we knew we had to avoid the outdoors at all costs!
The Carolina Theater was the first place we looked at and we fell in love. There was no need for a lot of extra decoration because the theater itself was simply gorgeous. We decided since our reception was going to be held at the Carolina Theater we should do the ceremony there as well and get married on stage! Since we settled on the Carolina Theater for the location of the ceremony and reception Jon let me run with a theater theme.
We had invitation style tickets, Playbill style programs, and Broadway songs for the ceremony complete with an amazing singer. The Prelude to our wedding ceremony was Phantom of the Opera’s “All I Ask of You”. The parents were seated to West Side Story’s “One Hand One Heart” . The processional of the wedding party was done to Jekyll & Hyde’s “This is the Moment” and I walked down to Jekyll & Hyde’s “Someone Like You”. The songs were memorable and unique and had most of the audience in tears.
Our ceremony was at 7:30 pm at night so our reception was heavy h’ordeuvres. I thought a few people would be disappointed that we weren’t doing a sit down dinner but we decided to make it fun with carving stations and a mashed potato bar. They were a huge hit. There was more time for dancing and socializing! We also had a photobooth (which we also got with a Groupon) at the reception that included a prop table. The guests were able to take a copy home and leave us a copy with a personalized message. The pictures we received were hilarious, even his Grandma got in on the craziness.
I decided on a brooch bouquet so that I could keep it forever. After looking at the prices I decide to create my own using how to blogs and for some crazy reason I decided to try and make one for everyone in my bridal party as well. I had no idea it would be so much work! I bought brooches on ETSY, Ebay, and different consignment shops for several months then got to work. I had to create each “stem” by putting wire through ever single brooch. I used over 300 brooches in all five of the bouquets. But in the end it was worth all the work because now I have a lovely timeless bouquet and so do all my bridesmaids. The best part is overall they ended up costing less than real flower bouquets would have cost me!
I also created the Playbills, menus, reserved seating signs, and Wedding Day Mad Libs using only Microsoft Publisher. I wish I had Photoshop at my disposal but I used what I had. I was able to print the majority of these items on my printer at home. The cork holders for the menus, which were placed on each table, were made my fiancée by simply gluing three wine corks together and tying ribbon around them. The guest book I created with pictures of the two of us using www.mypublisher.com. I had a Groupon so the personalized guest book was very inexpensive.
The centerpieces my mom and I ended up putting together, even though that was not the original plan. Our florist backed out a month before the wedding. We found another florist but with it being June he was only able to help us with boutonnieres and corsages. I all ready had the bouquets completed so it was just a matter of figuring out centerpieces. After spending a few hours on Pinterest I found the perfect solution. We bought water beads and hydrated them and placed them in vases over blue LED lighting. We then placed a hydrangea in the beads. We ended up with centerpieces that looked amazing and cost around nine dollars each.
ETSY.com a site where you can buy unique homemade items was our go to wedding site! I found invitations, cuff links, a kissing ball, the garters, a scrap book for the photobooth photos, our cake topper, and my headband all on ETSY. My favorite, by far, was the cake topper that was created in South Korea. She used a picture of me, Jon and my dress to create it. She also included our love for UNC-Chapel Hill and my infamous pink Mac. It was a hit at the reception! ETSY is the perfect place for brides to go who are on a budget and are looking for some unique touches, especially if she doesn’t have all the extra time to make them herself.
Our wedding was a lot of fun and our guests seemed to have a fantastic time. We tried to keep our wedding budget conscience while also making it as unique as possible. We found out there are a lot of small things you can do yourself and that Groupon and Etsy are great sites for saving money.