Bohemian Chic Wedding on a Budget: DIY Decor & Smart Savings
With Instagram sparked wedding ideas and taking full advantage of her sisters connection at FreePeople, our next bride was not only a savvy spender but also a chic stylist! Come see what all she did for her bohemian chic wedding! Check out the entire wedding here. Photographed beautifully by Elizabeth Fogarty. We know you will gather so much needed wedding inspiration here.
Whimsical But Stressful
From the Bride: The one thing that was stressful for me was not hiring someone to oversee the flowers. I ordered a few select flowers from a wholesale shop but picked most of them from an orchard the day before the wedding. My cousin then arranged the flowers the day of. Although I ended up LOVING my wild flower look, it took a lot longer than I anticipated, and may have been beneficial to hire someone for this task.
Insta-Inspiration
The inspiration for our wedding came from a lot of different places, some of which may seem unexpected. I've never gotten into Pinterest, like a lot of friends I know. However, I follow a lot of creative people on Instagram and actually got the dream catcher idea from there.
Save Some Cash With Coupons
Most of the wedding decorations were DIY and I spent a lot of time collecting coupons and scouring for the best deals on supplies for some of the projects. A lot of craft stores have apps with coupons and you can end up saving yourself so much money if you wait for the right time to buy certain items.
Recycled Backdrops
My sister and I made the head table backdrop where we got creative with hanging painted sticks, flowers, and dream catchers. We used lace curtains from Ikea that were extremely affordable. The wood pieces used for the ceremony backdrop were actually bought from FreePeople. They sell their displays at the end of each season for a super reasonable price and the one I used was from their Spring 2014 display. They looked extremely professional and saved me and my sister a lot of time.
Read on to see how much this bohemian chic wedding cost. Please note that costs change as the years go by, and prices are subject to change. This is just one couple’s breakdown to give you a rough estimate on how much a wedding like this may cost you.
Budget Breakdown:
We had 130 people attend our wedding DJ: friend Food Coordinator: friend Wedding day coordinator: $200
Venue: $3,200
Dinner/Appetizers: $3,000
Dessert: $315
Alcohol: $300
Bartender: Friend Room/Table Decorations and Misc: $5,000
Wedding dress and dancing dress: $1,100
Makeup: Friend Hair: $56
Save the date and invitations: $100
Programs: $105
Photographer: $2,000
Flowers: $250
Ice: $218
Photo booth with polaroids: $180
The budget was at $1500 but we ended up going a little over.
- Caterer: Chipotle
- Photographers: Elizabeth Fogarty
- Prop/furniture rentals: FreePeople
- Venue: Black Rock Center
- Wedding Dresses: Casablanca