Not ones to be deterred by unreasonable prices, we decided to DIY the take-out favor boxes ourselves. I absolutely love shopping at Paper Source and while there, I was inspired by one of their sample diy take-out boxes. So I bought a bulk stack of lake blue 8″ x 11.5″ card stock, gold brads, Japanese Yuzen paper, and lake blue ribbon. We made the following template so feel free to download it:

Free Take-out Box Template (Be sure to only cut out the outline of the box, the slit, and punch out the circles. Go over the rest of the lines with a bone-folder to make clean creases for easier folding.)

My brother came over to help Rob and I assemble the boxes. We put them together by inserting one of the gold brads through the holes on one side of a box and then threading it through one end of the ribbon “handle”. Next, holding it like a sandwich, we carefully bent the brad’s legs outward to hold it together. Repeated on the other side. Then we filled them up with the almonds, cut out Japanese paper “sashes”, rolled the sashes through our Cuttlebug with a swirly embossing folder for texture, and finally glued both ends of one of the sashes to the bottom of the box to keep them taught. Cute huh?

My brother was proud. No, that slight frown had nothing to do with us treating him like he’s our wedding slave elf. Don’t worry, he survived .

Rob was passed out somewhere. It took a lot more work than we had initially thought but I think it was worth it! Here I am with my babies…

One of the venders that we skipped on was a florist due to our budget constraints. I was pretty confident that I can make my own flowers and centerpieces for a fraction of the cost to hire someone else to do it. Keep in mind that this is not for every bride. If you’re super-anal about things looking perfect or if you don’t have a ton of time then I’d recommend hiring a florist. I heard good things about Huckleberry Karen in SF.

For our centerpieces, I needed something nature-y and romantic to fit in with the setting. It had to be simple because I wanted it to blend well with the surroundings. I’m not a fan of huge showy pieces that block people’s view of one another, at least not for my wedding. Most importantly, it had to be quick and relatively easy to assemble for our DOC.

I liked the idea of using manzanita branches for our centerpieces for several reasons. Rob and I love the smooth reddish bark, it’s so unique and beautiful. Manzanita branches are very robust so they won’t break easily and would provide a stable structure for our centerpieces. Lastly, many manzanita species are native to California so they are easy to obtain. In fact, it it weren’t illegal, we would’ve cut down a few branches from the manzanitas growing on our nearby walking trail and used those. Instead, we bought them from a guy living a couple hours away for $10 each. I’ve seen some huge ones at the SF Flower Mart selling for $30-$50 that would be great for wish trees or hanging escort cards on.

Anyways, here is the evolution of my centerpiece experiments:

The one above didn’t work out because the round vase was doing a poor job of holding the branch up. One touch of the branch and it’d tip right over. I was experimenting with the orchids as well. Below, you can see that I wrapped some copper wire around the base of the branch and speared an orchid stem into it to hold it in place. That’s one way to do it that gives you more control of placement. I later decided that the ends of the branches are strong enough so that I can just spear the orchids onto them instead of the wire.

Since the round bowl vase was not working out, I had to find a suitably shaped vase that would hold a branch up without easily tipping it over. I finally found some vases at Cost Plus World Market that were actually supposed to be for growing bulbs. I got the vases on sale for $3.50 each! They are kind of cone shaped at the bottom and then forms a bowl at the top (see below pics). The funnel in the middle helps the branches stand up the best. We still had to attach a round plastic disc to the bottom of each branch to ensure that it stands up straight. Then we filled the vase carefully with black river rocks to weigh it down.

Above, my first visit to a linen company. Centerpiece starting to come together. Though that blue tablecloth wasn’t working for me. Below, a visit to a second linen company. Much better tablecloth. Centerpiece just needs a mirror, candles, and orchids. Very modern romantic with Eastern influences.

At the time, I was psyched to learn that the vases that I got were made out of recycled glass. You know, doing my part an’ all. Unfortunately, as I found out later, recycled glass is much more flimsy than regular glass. The cashier broke one while bagging them at Cost Plus, I broke one trying to wash them a few days before the wedding, the people that were in charge of them on the day of the wedding broke two. So yeah, they were cheap but I guess in this case you get what you paid for.

So here’s the cost breakdown for each centerpiece:

• Manzanita branches: $10
• Bulb vases: $3.50
• River rocks from Michaels w/ coupon & local Flea Market: $3
• Round mirror rentals: $3
• 5 candles & holders (from bulk order) from Candles 4 Less: $5
• 6 cymbidium orchids (from bulk order) from Fifty Flowers: approx. $6

Total= $30.50/each

The best part of it is (with the exception of the mirrors) we get to sell, gift, or keep and reuse this stuff after the wedding. My SIL loved the branches so much that we sent her four of them so she can use them to decorate her home. The rest we kept for our own home. We have three bulb vases left: one is used for holding our cleaning brushes, one used for our container garden, and one used as a regular vase. I sold most of the candleholders on Craigslist to another happy bride so that’s $25 back in my pocket.  So yeah, I had fun throughout the whole experimentation process and it was great seeing it come together on our wedding day.

 Goal #3: Stay within budget!

The U.S. average cost of a wedding last year was 30k. The average cost of a wedding in the Bay Area was 40-45k (depending on the source). We worked within that range (U.S. AND Bay Area averages) just so we’re realistic about the cost. I can happily say that we successfully worked within our budget and even came out on top. I know that’s a lot of money anyway and that’s not to be taken lightly in this economy but both Rob and I agree wholeheartedly that it was worth it.

Rob’s mom generously helped us out for most of it, so we did not go into much debt at all. I was able to cut out a lot of the cost by DIYing things and negotiating with our venders to get the most value out of the money we spent. That said, the two things I’m glad we splurged on so far are our photographer Junshien and our venue Nestldown. We hired a videographer at the last minute and he may be part of this list but I won’t know until we get our wedding video. The one indispensable book I found to help save me money on the wedding was the Bridal Bargains book by Denise and Alan Fields. Here is their website. I recommend this book to anyone who has a budget to stick to but don’t want to serve turkey sandwiches at their reception (unless that’s your thing *shrugs*). I wish I found it early on in our planning because we could’ve saved even more!