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Romantic country wedding: Heidi + Alex

July 7, 2011

If we could give Heidi a high-five for throwing one of the most budget-friendly weddings we’ve seen, we would! Lucky for us Heidi was extremely helpful in sharing how she was able to stay within her budget and plan a wedding for less than $8,000 (yes, it’s possible!). Oh, and the icing on the cake? Clayton Austin, whose artistic, take-your-breath-away photography never ceases to amaze us captured this day in a way that only he could.

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You’re never going to believe the story behind Heidi’s perfect dress:

The budget for my dress was $500 so I started looking at David’s Bridal. I liked some of the stuff there, but nothing was really wow! All of my favorite dresses were either Jim Hjelm or Melissa Sweet. And, we all know those aren’t anywhere near $500. I had this one dress in particular that I had always LOVED by Jim Hjelm. It was $3,000. So I asked around to see if I could get it made. Most people told me it would cost more than that to get it made since the lace that came with it was so expensive. So I kept looking. I found what began as my dress at a little wedding dress consignment shop around my house. It was a huge ugly old lady dress with this hideous jacket attached to it. For some reason I tried it on and thought the lace was pretty. I don’t know what happened, but I just envisioned all that I could do to it. I told the seamstress that so happened to work at the consignment shop about the Jim Hjelm dress and asked her if she could do a deep V back, give it a train and scalloped edges on the neckline. Anyway! I paid $50 for the dress, we completely remade the dress and after all the work was done, the seamstress only charged me $150. So all together my dress was $200 and exactly what I wanted.

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The gorgeous arbor that they got married under? Oh yes. That was handmade as well. Alex (mind you it was the day of his wedding) built the arbor the morning of using cedar posts. After their ceremony the classic Motown hit, My Girl by The Temptations played as Heidi + Alex were announced husband and wife for the first time.

Listen to it here:

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We told you Clayton’s photos would take your breath away. Beautifully epic, right?

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My brother had a couple vintage windows just sitting in his basement which he gave to me so I could use for the seating chart. I used old piano sheet music from an antique store and glued it all over the glass. I nailed copper wiring across so I had something to hang the tags on then used the same tags that were on the favors, but covered them with a stamp of an old skeleton key. I then found some real skeleton keys at my grandparents house and a vintage shop and tied those to each tag.

For Favors I used little lace doilies that I found at the dollar store (3 for $1!) and placed our favorite candy inside (Swedish Fish, and Sour Patch Kids) tiny bags. I also had this blue chiffon-like fabric that I cut in a smaller circle than the lace doilies. I put the candy in the blue fabric and then covered it with the lace doilies so you could see a peek of the blue through the lace. I tied it with ivory rope and put a little vintage tag on it with a stamp of an old vintage clock. On the back side of the tag was our new address for our new home.

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The lace tablecloths varying in size and shape, and the mason jars came from vintage & thrift shops. Heidi also put the arrangements together herself! The girl can get it done!

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Heidi + Alex, you two are crazy adorable and we send you lots of virtual high-fives for throwing a fantastic wedding and inspiring our Cakelets! Congrats!

Photography: Clayton Austin / Venue: The Conrad Botzum Farmstead / Day of coordination: Heidi’s Aunt / Dress: Remade from a wedding dress consignment shop find / Maid of Honor dress: H&M / Suit: Banana Republic / Groom’s shoes: Aldo / Best Man’s suit: Express / Music: Heidi’s brother / Decor: All vintage & thrift store finds or handmade / Cake: Reeves Cake Shop