Our Dream Wedding
See that photo above? Yes, that's us!
Introducing Mr. + Mrs. Frye.
We were married on 12/28/2018 in Brandon, VT. The most magical day of our lives.
It was a rainy December day filled with so much love. Our closest friends and families were with us as we promised our lives to one another.
We’ll never stop reminiscing this day. It was truly unforgettable.
I want to say a great big thank you to everyone who made our wedding possible. My parents have been superheroes from Day 1 and deserve the world’s largest thank you card. We couldn’t have done this without them.
We also had a rockstar vendor team to make our day possible. During the wedding planning process, we had a lot of people ask how we did what we did: a doctoral student and a conservation officer walked down the aisle and had their dream wedding. And no, this is not a joke, it's actually true! In this post, I'm going to share what made our wedding the most memorable, personal day, but also how we paid 1/3 of the average wedding cost for 2018. So grab a bucket of popcorn, get comfy, and enjoy!
First, I wanna list out our vendor team, and show your their amazing work/wares.
Photography: David + Drew Photography
Whitney and Trevor put their heart and soul into every single session and couple that they work with. They are the most genuine and wonderful people; by the end of the day, it felt as though we were working with long-lost friends! Whitney and Trevor value the wedding vision of each couple, and allowed us to share what emotions we wanted to shine through in our wedding album. They are kind, calm, and masters of their craft. I highly recommend working with David + Drew Photography for your wedding day. Our photos are timeless and a perfect representation of our wedding day. Right now they're working out of Georgia, but will travel the world to capture your wedding.
Cinematography: John Churcher Films
Jake is a down to earth guy with great talent for capturing wedding video. We're so excited to share his final product with you all when we receive it!
Floral Design: The Bouqs
Wedding Dress: Casablanca Bridal
Wedding Veil: Mary's Bridal
Shoes: Betsey Johnson
Catering + Venue: Lilac Inn
Makeup & Hair: Whitney Beal
Whitney is a diamond in the rough in the world of hair and makeup. She was an absolute joy to work with, and made us feel so calm and collected before the festivities began. Whitney is incredibly talented; we received so many compliments on our hair + makeup that I've lost count! Whitney made me feel like a queen on my wedding day. I highly recommend booking her for your wedding, but do it now, because she's in very high demand!
Groom Attire: Menguin
Officiant: Carmen George
Carmen performed our wedding ceremony, and it was the most personalized and unforgettable experience! Our guests were so impressed. Carmen is an expert in performing wedding ceremonies in Vermont, and she made the process enjoyable and easy. We planned our entire ceremony in an hour over the phone with Carmen, and felt completely at ease working with her. She even provided us with advice that helped us stay fully present though our entire day! I highly recommend Carmen George if you are looking for a wedding ceremony experience that you will cherish for a lifetime.
Musician: Patrick Ross
If you want the very best, Patrick is the music professional that you need to hire for your wedding. From the very beginning, he was open to all of our suggestions, and even learned a new song for our ceremony processional. Our guests loved when he fiddled along to our music selections during the reception, and would have loved even more! We highly recommend booking him for your event.
Stationery: Plush Paper Design
Wedding Cake: Gourmet Provence
Betsy did such an amazing job creating our raspberry-filled wedding cake. She seamlessly worked with our venue to have the cake delivered and cut. And it was absolutely scrumptious; we received so many compliments! Highly recommend Betsy at Gourmet Provence for wedding cakes!
Where We Saved
1. Venue/Catering
I'd like to mention, when I say, "where we saved", I don't mean that we skimped out. I'm referring to where we were able to save on most of our budget. We had 20 guests at our wedding, and if we had to do it all over again, we would have done it the exact same way. When people asked us how many guests we were inviting, we NEVER heard anyone say a single negative remark about our decision. The most common response I heard was "wow you're smart". The smaller guest count allowed us to be fully present, spend quality time with our family and friends, and have excellent amenities for our guests. It was perfect.
We were also able to save by considering an off-season wedding date. By not choosing a peak date, we also had more selection in venues when our original venue sold.
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2. Flowers
Something that I learned during planning was that wedding flowers are unbelievably expensive! We just couldn't look at spending a ton on flowers that would last for such a short time. We wanted them as part of our decor, but just to be sent straight to the venue, and be able to set them up ourselves. I found The Bouqs and knew this would work perfectly for us. You can select from their Pre-Assembled or DIY packages in the catalogues on their website, and they deliver them through Fed-Ex to your venue 2 days prior to your wedding. You take them out of the box, trim the stems, put them in vases, add them to your aisle, put 'em on your cake, and you're done.
The Bouqs was a very cost-effective option for our small wedding. The bouquets we received had some damage from freezing during shipping, and two of our corsages were broken in half. Customer service was helpful during the entire process, and is currently refunding us for the broken stems. Advice: be prepared that shipped flowers may not arrive completely intact if you are booking this service, but overall the flowers are very beautiful.
3. Invitations
I loved our invitations and how they worked with our floral scape. I also loved how we only needed 10 invitations total. Many times you have to order a certain amount and by the time you're done, you've sold your soul for invitations. No thanks. Instead, we used Zazzle! They are all created by independent artists, like Plush Paper Designs, and are sold by the invite. And they're very affordable. Some artists also have the theme from your invites on other items of stationery such as response cards, menus, programs, wedding signs, and much more. Before you buy your invites, check Zazzle out.
4. We Won Many, Many Wonderful Things
This category is my absolute favorite. I am not lying to you when I say we won a ton of beautiful things for our wedding. Here's a list of the stuff we won:
-Wedding Photography from David + Drew Photography
-Ring Box from Esselle
-Guest Book Print from Flutterbye Prints
-Wedding Hair Comb from Florologie
-Personalized Flutes from Fushia Blooms Bridal
-Earrings from Sweet Pea Blooms
-Save the Dates
-Veil from Mary's Bridal
-Cake Pops from Gourmet Cakes by Socorro
-Pearl Bracelets from Honora Pearls
-Wooden Heart Decoration from Life's Little Blessing Handmade
-Engagement Ring Portrait from Art by Jilleun
-Hair Pins from Iona Bridal Studio
-1 Night Stay at Hotel Commonwealth (The Loft Suite)
Brides + Grooms, you want to win, too? Here's what I did.
If you don't already have an Instagram account, make one. Every single day, I checked on the hashtag #weddinggiveaway and this is how I won the majority of the prizes. They'll usually have you follow the account and tag some friends. Sometimes companies will give away entire weddings on Instagram, and they're real! Also the following sites provided great giveaway options:
Where We Splurged
Patrick Ross fiddled our ceremony music, and DJ'd our reception. I read that a recent survey found that guests listed music and food as the most memorable services provided at weddings. We love good music, so it was a no-brainer for us to book Patrick.
2. Our beautician
Whitney Beal traveled from Beals, Maine to do my mom and I's hair and makeup. I highly recommend having someone do your hair and makeup on your wedding day.
3. Our videographer
Jake Churcher is doing our wedding video, and we were so glad we chose to book him. At first, we didn't book a videographer, and then thought about reliving our wedding day, and for our future family to see our wedding.
Traditional
Though our wedding was unorthodox compared to today's standards, I still wanted to follow one bridal tradition. Here's what I chose:
Something Old
The lace ribbon wrapping my bouquet is very, very old, and I love the touch it added to it's all-white look.
Something Borrowed
The beautiful broach on my bouquet was borrowed from my grandmother. My something borrowed was the last item I acquired, as I had difficulty thinking of what I could borrow from my family that didn't have to fit me (yeah, I'm tall). My grandmother happens to have a lovely broach collection, and I feel it represented so much borrowed love on my bouquet.
Something New
My dress is my something new. And really, it is something new. I had it custom-made from Casablanca Bridals, where they added the gorgeous lace sleeves and extra length to the bottom (again, I'm tall).
I have to provide a disclaimer, because I care about other brides and their experiences, and perhaps this will help someone else out. I got my dream dress, but to get to what you see in the photographs involved some major stress-outs. I ordered my dress 13 months before my wedding day, expressing to the shop that I was a student and would need the dress by summer for any minor alterations, and she replied that it would take 5 months to be delivered to the shop, which would have been April. It actually took 9 months to come in (end of August), and when it did finally come in, the sleeves (that I had apparently been measured for) were wayyyy too long. And there was no bustle, which all 5 of us at that appointment had heard the owner say it came with one. I tried calling Casablanca, and they were of NO HELP whatsoever. They will only speak to the bridal shop, who screwed up the order in the first place. The shop owner didn't submit the dress order the day we ordered and paid full price for the dress, which is unacceptable. I'm not going to go bashing her name here because she made a mistake, but if you want to avoid even the thought of this, reach out to me and I'd be happy to provide info.
So what did I do next? After a few breakdowns due to the thought that I had a 3 days to find someone to do alterations before heading back to my doctoral program, and dealing with two very unqualified seamstresses, we found Nancy's Alterations! If you live anywhere in Northern NH, I highly recommend Nancy. Not only is she excellent with alterations, but she's made her own wedding gowns. Nancy added a bustle to my dress to pull up the train for our reception, and solved the excessive sleeve problem. Nancy's work is unbelievable, and her prices are extremely affordable. She was a lifesaver.
Something Blue
I actually didn't know about my something blue until my shoes were purchased for me by my aunt! I wore these stunning Blue by Betsey Johnson blush flats, which it's more obvious now looking at the name, have blue soles! They were so comfortable and pretty. Really a win-win!
Levi and I also had a something blue during the ceremony, which was our handfasting cord! We kept this a surprise from our whole family until the wedding, and I'm glad that we did. For those of you who have never seen a handfasting before, it's an Irish tradition (and seen in many fantasy shows and movies) where a knot is tied around the couples hands to bind them in marriage. One of the strands of our cord is blue, to represent Levi and I's friendship that turned into dating at UMaine. It was a wonderful tribute to our heritage, and our alma mater!
Additional Resources
I can't say enough good about the resources from WeddingWire. On a fun, personal note, I planned my entire wedding while I was a doctoral student. I needed something that was going to keep EVERYTHING in line, and this is the resource for that. Your budget, seating charts, wedding website, vendor searches, checklist specific to your wedding date, and tons of wedding ideas can be found here. And $$$ saver tip, Wedding Wire had a program during our engagement where if you contacted and booked a vendor through the site, you received a Visa gift card for $25. I was able to buy all of my family gifts and attendant gifts through the gift cards I received in this program! 10/10 would recommend.
Me
After all of this planning and trialing in the wedding world, please consider me a resource. I learned so much along the way from vendors, and I am here to answer even the most basic of questions. A final piece of advice I want to stress is to always involve your significant other with wedding decisions. An exercise that we completed during our planning was to individually rank wedding services by importance, and we found out exactly what we wanted in our wedding, and what we didn't. Planning far in advance and having short conversations about wedding planning is easier and less stressful.
I'd like to thank our vendors for their services and expertise! If you book with any of them, mention that The Fryes sent you :) We would also like to thank our families for their hard work and willingness to make our day the very best. There were so many laughs and tears along this journey, and we wouldn't have wanted it any other way. And to you, reader. You deserve all of the happiness in the world. If you are planning a wedding for the future, I hope it gives you butterflies, makes you cry and laugh within the same minute, and I hope that it's the very best day. Ours sure was.
To see more of our wedding photos, please take a look at our wedding website.
Much love,
Shannon