Six Months & a Goodbye

I can't believe we're six months in to this crazy ride. Love this guy so much.

It has been undoubtedly the best six months of my life. Last night I texted Mr. Lemur "Six months tomorrow!" and he responded with "6000 more!!!"

I can't wait.

We've experienced some hard things—moving to a new city (for me), starting new jobs, starting a masters program (for him), paying off student loans, living together for the first time, and navigating in-laws (both his and mine).

I'm so thankful for the support system we have, including family, friends, coworkers, and of course all of you on the Bee.

I've been meaning to blog about a few things to wrap up my time here as Mrs. Lemur, but since we've hit the six month mark, I think it's time to officially say goodbye. I may pop back in to blog about life after the wedding and our registry, but we'll just have to wait and see!

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my wedding as much as I've loved writing about it. I'll still be around and can't wait to hear all about the weddings coming up!

Love,
Mrs. Lemur

Wrapping it Up: Our Budget

My recaps are all done, but I have a few final posts to wrap it all up. The first one is a sequel to our original budget post—what we actually spent. I promise I'll do this as quickly and painlessly as possible!

I know that the big budget weddings are usually more interesting to read, but if you're a bride planning a wedding with less cash on hand, I hope this is helpful to you. We did what we could to keep the costs down and still have a beautiful, special wedding. I have zero regrets when it comes to what we spent on the wedding.

Catering & Venue

Food & Drink: $1347.50
This included all the food from our brunch buffet and sweet tea, juice, and water at our drink stations. It also includes the hot tea and coffee that was served before and after the ceremony. It ended up being $12.25 a person and was more than enough simple, yet filling food.

Cakes: $275
This was fourteen cakes—one on each table—at about $20 a cake. The greatest investment of the wedding, in my opinion! It made a great impression on the guests and was a fun conversation piece.

Venue: $1250
We rented out the entire room for six hours, including tables, chairs, linens, place settings, sound system, and some decor. The staff also set up all of the tables, chairs, and place settings, and tore down everything but our personal decor. The venue was not in any way a traditional wedding venue, but the staff was extremely accommodating and kind.

Photography

Engagement Pictures: $100
We did an engagement session with Niki Marie Photography late fall of last year that included two hours of photography in downtown Detroit and a portfolio of 70 images.

Wedding Travel: $150
We paid for Niki to travel from Florida to Greenville and then arranged travel for her back to Michigan with a friend. I put this in the wedding budget since it was directly related to wedding expenses.

Wedding Photography: $700
Niki's normal rate is $1000, which is well below most photographer's, but still out of budget for us. We were able to negotiate it down in return for paid travel and a shorter than normal shoot time—a morning wedding with a 3:00 finish time allowed her to shoot an afternoon/evening session as well.

Bridal Outfit

Dress: $150
Veil: $13.99
Shoes: $14.99
Cardigan: $7.50
The dress and veil were off eBay and the shoes were from Payless. I wore my grandmother's necklace and Mr. Lemur's grandmother's earrings, so no expenses there—but plenty of history. The cardigan I bought on sale at Old Navy. It was half off because it had a small rip in the shoulder. I've worn both the shoes and the cardigan to work on multiple occasions, so they pulled double duty.

Hair & Makeup: $20 Starbucks Gift Card
I used all my own makeup and gave a friend a Starbucks gift card to do my hair. And if I could, I swear I'd pay her to live in my house and do my hair everyday because I had the best hair day of my life. My hair has never stayed curled that well in the past and probably never will again.

Paper Items

Invitations & Envelopes: $60
Table Cards & Seating Chart: $30
Moo Cards: $20
Supplies: $20
Stamps: $60
Ugh, this is where it gets blurry. I had to print invitations and buy envelopes twice. I also went to the store multiple times for stamps. I know we didn't spend over $200—our original budget—but I do think we got close, especially when I started adding up numbers for the above best guess.

Decorations

Tissue Paper: $30
Books: $40
Supplies: $50
Scrabble Letters: $30
We ended up buying less books than we thought because a man from my home church gifted us a large number as a wedding present and we borrowed the leftover few that we needed from family members. Everything else is fairly self explanatory! All the vases at the wedding were borrowed, the bunting was made by a family friend for my wedding shower, and all the wood was from my dad.

Miscellaneous

Wedding License: $35
I guess we got lucky, because I've heard some counties charge a lot more. All we had to do was fill out a form and pay the fee and then wait the 24 hour period before picking up our license.

Wedding Bands: $25
I bought Mr. Lemur's band on Amazon for $25, which I am perfectly happy with. In the future if he decides he wants a more expensive band, we'll hunt for one together. My band was a gift from our wedding officiant. Our wedding officiant also insisted on doing the ceremony for free—despite attempting to pay him for both the ceremony and the band multiple times.

Total: $4,458.98

I know I'm missing things. I also chose to exclude some items, such as gifts, my engagement ring, and our honeymoon. If you have any specific questions, feel free to shoot me a message.

I'll be back later this week to cover our vendors and a few final reflections from the wedding!

What did I forget in my budget breakdown? What did you spend the most on?

Lemur L'amour: Details of the Day

I'm almost to the end of my recaps, but I have to do the details post, right? The focus of the pictures of the day was definitely on people and moments, but I asked Niki to grab a few shots of some of the things around the room, especially since they were things we had spent a lot of time on.

All pictures by Niki Marie Photography.

The obligatory dress shot. And before everyone freaks out, yes it's a plain plastic hanger. Sorry if that offends you. I just can't say I cared that much!

You too can own these shoes for the low price of $14.99 at Payless. Maybe not particularly bridal, but I couldn't find shoes that I liked anywhere and ended up wearing this pair of simple neutral flats that were absolutely perfect.

I wore my grandmother's necklace and Mr. Lemur's grandmothers earrings, which you unfortunately can't see in this shot. But I do love that you can see the antique necklace along with my engagement ring. If I had been doing something old and something new this would be it.

Our perfect, simple place settings. And the cakes which everyone loved of course!

Our Jenga guestboook! I love seeing all the signatures. It's sitting on our front table right now where I glance at it every time I walk in the door.

Our "seating chart" was just simple printed sheets mini clipped to a piece of coral ribbon. We hung them on both sides of room and gave everyone plenty of time between the ceremony and reception to find their table so there was never any backup of people trying to crowd around.

We displayed framed pictures of our parents and grandparents along with a few mementos from their weddings, like my grandmother's wedding hat, my parent's wedding topper, and some small favors. Both of Mr. Lemur's dad's parents are deceased, as well as my mother's father, so it was a good way to remember them as well as honor our parents' and grandparent's marriages.

Last but not least, the finished fireplace, candles lit and all. And it was just as great as I thought it would be. All of it.

The wedding day began at 5:30 am and continued as we got ready at the venue. We had our perfect first look and then took couples pictures in the road. After bridal party pictures and family pictures, it was time to begin the ceremony! I walked down the aisle and began the ceremony, then we said I do and were husband and wife. Then it was time to be seated for the reception, kids and all! We started eating and admired the cakes before digging in. As the day wound to a close, we snuck out for a few pictures...

Lemur L'amour: Just a Few More Pictures

After cutting the cakes, we snuck out for a few more couples pictures. But first, we grabbed our parents' wedding pictures and posed for a shot or two.

All pictures by Niki Marie Photography.

My parents were both 22 when they got married and Mr. Lemur's parents were in their early 20s. This last weekend my parents celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary and Mr. Lemur's parents have been married for 31 years. We have a great legacy to live up to!

Then we slipped outside to the slightly drizzly grey skies to snap a few pictures. Niki had scoped out a wooded area directly below the lodge...in fact, if you walked out on the balcony you could watch the impromptu photo shoot, and several kids did just that.

I bought my sweater for $7.50 at Old Navy and it was one of my best decisions of wedding planning (along with the cakes, getting married indoors, and marrying Mr. Lemur, of course). I didn't anticipate using it, since last year on our wedding date it was 95 degrees. Of course, this year it was 60 degrees and I was so thankful to have a cardigan on my shoulders and arms.

Hands down some of my favorite pictures of the day. And I still wear that sweater to work occasionally.

I took my sweater off for a few shots, although I can't say I like these as much. The extra pop of color was really perfect in the woods.

Getting out of the woods in a dress wasn't particularly easy. I definitely couldn't have done it in a princess style dress, that's for sure.

Random candids and bloopers aside, several of these pictures have made their way to frames in our apartment. I'm so glad we took just fifteen minutes away from our guests to snap a few more couples pictures. Inside, the party was wrapping up and it was almost time to go!

The wedding day began at 5:30 am and continued as we got ready at the venue. We had our perfect first look and then took couples pictures in the road. After bridal party pictures and family pictures, it was time to begin the ceremony! I walked down the aisle and began the ceremony, then we said I do and were husband and wife. Then it was time to be seated for the reception, kids and all! We started eating and admired the cakes before digging in.

Lemur L'amour: Cake, Anyone?

For awhile the cakes just sat on the tables and looked pretty, but let's be honest...the real reason for the cakes was to eat them. And to eat them we had to cut them. As a way for us to spend more time with our guests, we went around from table to table and cut them all ourselves. We didn't spend a long time at every table but we did get a chance to say hello to everyone.

All pictures by Niki Marie Photography.

We cut the cakes using a knife and server used at Mr. Lemur's grandparents' and parents' weddings, as well as Mr. Lemur's brother's wedding last summer. Kind of a cool tradition!

He did a great job of not shoving cake in my face. Unfortunately that doesn't mean I looked cute in the pictures. The cake was good though!

I paid him the favor back and didn't shove cake in his face either. And apparently he braced himself on my shoulder just in case I got any ideas. Then it was off to the rest of the tables.

My cousin decided he wanted to be fed cake too, which made for some funny (although slightly blurry) photos...

When I had asked my caterer to do a cake on each table, I told her the decorating was totally up to her. She ended up doing a simple rough frosting in a few different shades and added some flowers she purchased that morning to the top. I thought it added a great touch and the little girls especially loved the flowers. Here's Olivia helping me take off the flowers so we could actually eat the cake.

This poor table had to wait till the end to have their cake cut!

Did you get a chance to greet everyone at your reception?

The wedding day began at 5:30 am and continued as we got ready at the venue. We had our perfect first look and then took couples pictures in the road. After bridal party pictures and family pictures, it was time to begin the ceremony! I walked down the aisle and began the ceremony, then we said I do and were husband and wife. Then it was time to be seated for the reception, kids and all! We started eating and admired the cakes...

Lemur L'amour: Cake(s)

Back in March, I read Mrs. Treasure's post about cakes as centerpieces and I knew I just had to do it. Originally we were going to do five or six bigger cakes as a dessert table, but I had a meeting with our caterer three weeks before the wedding and I asked her (with a little trepidation) if there was any way this would be possible. And can I just say that she is the sweetest lady? The conversation went a little bit like this:

Me: "I have this idea...but I don't know if it will work or if we can afford it."
Caterer: "I'll try to make anything work!"
Me: "I would love to do a cake on each table, maybe six or so different flavors. Our budget is $600."
Caterer: *laughs*
Me: "Is that enough?"
Caterer: "Honey, I wouldn't charge you more than $250 for that. I don't understand why people see 'wedding' and think 'charge six times as much.'"

Amen, caterer, amen.

All pictures by Niki Marie Photography.

This was hands down my best last minute decision of wedding planning. We stacked several books on each table (some borrowed, some bought at a secondhand store), threw a cake on it, and called it a centerpiece. We added the scrabble letters in the holder to let people know what kind of cake was at their table. There was white...

...spice...

...red velvet...

...chocolate...

...yellow...

...and I don't have a picture of just the cake, but I know this table had carrot cake. There was definitely some trading going on, which actually made me really happy, because it was fun and casual.

Mmm, cake. (And next time we'll actually cut it.)

The wedding day began at 5:30 am and continued as we got ready at the venue. We had our perfect first look and then took couples pictures in the road. After bridal party pictures and family pictures, it was time to begin the ceremony! I walked down the aisle and began the ceremony, then we said I do and were husband and wife. Then it was time to be seated for the reception, kids and all!