Our Wedding - The Best Day Ever!

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Wedding on a budget was in the back of my mind throughout the entire planning process and if you know anything about my style or taste, you’ll know it is anything but “on a budget”. HOWEVER, I’ve been on a budget my entire life, my family wasn’t super rich or even a little bit rich growing up so I feel like I’ve kind of been training for this moment.

I wanted to put this together so I could share the following items:

Where we chose to save & splurge
Non-Traditional Things or Items we had
Design templates for said “saves”
Where I purchased EVERYTHING
Vendors we worked with
Post-wedding things

I did my bridesmaid proposal gifts through my company, Rachel Rose Collective as well as Kevin’s groomsman gifts. We kept them simple but cute.

I also just want to say that if you’re about to start planning your wedding I HIGHLY recommend getting a wedding planner like Gabby from ‘ella events. Save yourself the 5 mental breakdowns I had. We got her for 60 days out and it was not enough.

SAVE VS. SPLURGE

We chose our venue to be a hotel because it’s more of an all-inclusive situation rather than paying separately for venue space, finding a caterer, etc etc. We got married at The Confidante Hotel, Miami Beach and I won’t lie to you – I NEVER saw myself getting married at a hotel. I’m not a ballroom kind of gal (if you are, it’s ok) but the Confidante provided something very different, which I liked. We were able to make use of the Vista Terrace for the ceremony, The 1930s House for Cocktail Hour, The Century Ballroom for dinner, and The Crown Room for dancing. All of their spaces are extremely unique and perfect for someone (like me) who’s looking for the convenience of a hotel but not the same old same old, ya know?

CEREMONY

We did a first look and it was such a precious moment!

I also did one with my dad!

And all of my bridesmaids!

For the ceremony we chose to keep the chairs that were included in our package with the hotel, which were white padded folding. The ceremony is the shortest time that your guests are in once spot and to be honest, they just want a chair – they don’t care what it looks like. SAVE.

Kevin’s little brother was our flower boy and he absolutely KILLED IT.

Kev’s mama walked him down the aisle!

I also chose to just have two tall flower arrangements flanking us instead of having an arch or big expensive hanging florals. SAVE. I also made our welcome sign & stand, which was super easy and cheap but looks expensive!

Ceremony Sign Template – then I got it printed on 18×24 foam board from VistaPrint

My mother-in-law (Kev’s Stepmom)
officiated our wedding and it was so special

Velvet Ring Box

My wedding band was from Ferkos

This is where I got the sign structure idea – We actually purchased 2 5fts instead of the 2 4fts. Then you just buy matte black spray paint! We got the 5fts at Lowe’s and the rest at HomeDepot. Super easy.

Other things I saved on were my Veil & my shoes. These things weren’t extremely important to me because I knew I would take the veil off after the ceremony and that my shoes wouldn’t really be seen and would FOR SURE be coming off soon after. I got my shoes at Macy’s for $68. My wedding dress was from Boca Bridal South. The brand is Essence of Australia and I believe we spent around $2,200 with alterations.

COCKTAIL HOUR

Since our cocktail hour was in the 1930’s house, we didn’t need much for decor. I bought tons of votives and these vases from ikea. The vases were $1.50 each and the votives were literally like $.25 each. This is also where we chose to read our letters we wrote one another. We both hate being the center of attention so instead of reading our vows to each other in front of everyone we did this instead.I also printed out this bar sign and put it in a frame (like this one) that I already had.

We took a ton of pictures out here it was so pretty!

DINNER

Our dinner was in one of the ballrooms so we had a table outside of it with escort cards that I made and printed myself. I used canva to create them like this, then used the Avery website to upload onto the template of the paper & printed from there. SAVE. I also made the table numbers and purchased these small black holders that I got on amazon. I created our menus and got them printed on Vistaprint.

I wasn’t a fan of the traditional guest books that never get seen again after the wedding so I took an idea I saw on TikTok and got this cool coffee table book and this acrylic stand. We also had a little box like this one for cards and gifts. (This is the sign template)

So our wedding package came with white linen tablecloths, *kind of concerning* turquoise board room chairs and the standard glassware and flatware. Coming from an event background and loving tablescape design – I was really worried about not upgrading at least the chairs.

But when it came down to it – we decided to let it go and put our money into the florals & decor which were absolutely everything I could have ever wanted! We used Danielle, who owns Oli Flor and is an absolute legend and the sweetest person ever. She focuses on eco-friendly out of the box designs, which I love. She took all of my random inspo pics and ideas and made it into something that truly took my breath away. We were so so happy. So this was kind of a save & a splurge.

PARTY

Our party room was separate from where we had dinner because we wanted the element of surprise. It was in the Crown Room which is like a library with a bar in it – super cool! Outside of this room I made another sign that said “we’ve waited ten years for this, party accordingly” because it’s been a running joke in our family and I liked it. Find the template HERE. We used the same structure and had our wedding planner just switch out the sign and move it. SAVE.

Kevin’s mom surprised us with ‘hora loca’ which is a Venezuelan tradition to keep the party going! It was SO much fun! Find them here.

PARENT GIFTS

We decided to do something affordable but still a little sentimental (which I also saw on TikTok). We bought some nice wine bottles, removed their labels and made our own. Like this! Here is the actual label paper.

I also got the mom’s these robes to get ready in that I put into a box with some cookies and a face ice roller that I made through Rachel Rose Collective.

BRIDESMAID GIFTS

The bridesmaid’s got the same box as the moms except their PJ’s were different. I got them from Shein. THEY WERE $8!!!

Gift Boxes: Rachel Rose Collective

GROOMSMAN GIFTS

The Tie’s Kev wanted the boys to wear along with the same cookies.

Each box had an itinerary that I made. Find it here!

CHANGING MY NAME

I will soon be Jordan Gossele-Senior all thanks to Newly Named. I was extremely overwhelmed thinking about all of the paperwork, accounts, etc that I would need to change and then I found this actual godsend. They basically do all the hard work for you. They even send you envelopes and stamps!! Use ‘JORDAN20’ for 20% off yours!