
From Simone...After the ceremony, guests were greeted into the cocktail reception with champagne coupe’s filled with Prosecco and ate hors d'oeuvres from Culinary Capers. Music from the 30’s and 40’s played in the background, (via ipod). I wanted it to feel very Gatsyesque. There was croquet and bocce on the lawn. In lieu of a guest book we had a old typewriter. Our photographer set up a photo station for guests to take there own photo’s. Instead of a cake or a favor guests were given a trio of truffles in Celo bags and placed on square tiering in the shape of a wedding cake.

all photographs by Sakura Photography
I got an email from one of our loyal readers today, reminding me that many, many brides are working on budgets for much less than $17,000 as Simone and Wesley spent. So, for those of you that are wanting to keep your budget happy and stress-free, here are some really great cost cutting tips that Simone put together for us...
- We found a venue that allowed us to bring in our own liquor
- We had an open bar for the whole Cocktail Reception which was 4 hours long, then it was a cash bar at the After Party (more on the after party coming up next).
- We ditched the cake and favors and had take home truffles, two birds one stone!
- We found a beautiful space. The mansion that we got married was beautiful so we needed minimal decor.We also picked a location that was fitting with our theme.
- I choose a dress that was not considered a wedding dress but was just as good of quality but did not have the heavy price tag.
- We used an ipod and speakers for the ceremony and reception music, easy and I was able to have to music that I wanted.
- We shopped around. We ended up getting such a great photography who at the time had only been in business for a year so she was substantially cheaper then others.
- We didn't get married on a Saturday. Our wedding was on a Sunday and we had the ability to negotiate with vendors because they were not booked and mostly would not be booked.
- ssshhhhh! We bought fake rings! We will get the really thing eventually but before the wedding we thought it was wiser to spend the money elsewhere. We bought my Husband’s band on ebay, it was $0.89, I love that!!