is this a dream?

Ok, so as a lot of you know......Unexpectedly, this past Sunday, Matthew and I won the Times News Dream Wedding.

Before I go into details, let me take you back to a couple months ago. So, after Matthew and I got engaged, I saw an ad in the Kingsport Times News for the Times News Dream Wedding. The prize was a $25,000 wedding. Complete with vendors for every wedding need you might have. You had to fill out the application, submit your love story, and a picture. I knew we didn't have a chance to win this because, don't get me wrong I love Matthew with my whole heart, but our love story isn't the most spectacular one you have ever heard. We weren't high school sweethearts and I haven't known him since kindergarten or anything like that. But I wrote our love story anyway and we took a couple of quick pictures one day after church. I submitted all of our info 5 minutes before the deadline of the contest. I had a long day and almost completely forgot about it!

Anyway, you had to be present to win the Times News Dream Wedding on Sunday, October 21st at the Women's Expo at Meadowview Convention Center. You can imagine how hard it was to get Matthew to go to this thing. All kinds of women everywhere. I counted the number of men I saw on one hand lol. But he went with me anyway. We sat in front of the stage and waited for the bridal fashion show to end, so they would announce the winners. Still knowing we had no chance of winning, we were cutting up and not really paying attention. Then the announcer starts reading a couple of lines from the story I submitted. Matthew and I just looked at each other. My palms were sweaty and my heart was seriously racing! When she announced our names, I immediately started bawling! I could not believe (and still can't) that we won! We went up on stage and they put the picture we submitted on the big screen. It was so overwhelming. When the announcer started asking me questions, all I could get out was, "We are broke." haha how embarrassing! But oh so true! We were then introduced to our "Dream Team", which is the team of vendors who are going to make our wedding possible. Everything is included with this $25,0000 package. The dress, cake, venue, music, bridesmaids dresses, groom and groomsmen attire, hair and makeup, photography, EVERYTHING is included in this.

Even if I wanted to, I couldn't have had a $25k wedding. Heck, I was trying to have a budget of $5,000. We just don't have the money, and I was not about to put that huge burden on my mom and dad. I had actually just started a part-time job last week to help pay for some of the expenses. I was accepting to the fact that our wedding was going to be planned on a budget. Yes, I was a little sad, but I knew I could pull it off. Hello? that's the whole reason I started this blog! But now, I want to blog about my Dream Wedding experience and encourage brides from this area to apply! I think it is an amazing thing.

I am so so so so blessed! I do NOT in any way deserve this dream wedding. I am so unworthy of the love and mercy God shows me every day. But this is proof that he knows our needs and he will provide for us even when we least expect it. I can't blog about this without giving him all of the glory. He is so good to me! I hope He shines through on our big day, so everyone can see that He is the center of our relationship, our marriage, and our life. Please keep reading my blog! I will continue to post about my wedding projects and experiences with vendors along the way :) happy wedding planning!

Here is the link to our love story, if you want to read it! I have to admit my friend Stacey helped me edit this, to make it sound much more awesome! :)

 https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=13a2717eeb2b3c58&mt=application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document&url=https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui%3D2%26ik%3Db2d5182ed3%26view%3Datt%26th%3D13a2717eeb2b3c58%26attid%3D0.1%26disp%3Dsafe%26zw&sig=AHIEtbSUC_B21otN6DKP4irLvrJNyhpK9g

can't i just order that online?

One of the easiest, and most convenient things for me is to order EVERYTHING online. Between running a business, and trying to spend time with my family, fiance, and dog, I feel like I have NO TIME, whatsoever. So my first thought when I started the wedding planning process was, "I will just order everything online and that way I can do half the work." Buttttttt, as I have started to "shop around" for wedding items, I have turned a 180 and realized, I am buying NOTHING online haha. I have had way too much fun already with rummaging through thrift stores and comparing prices just to find a bargain. Doing it this way is much more time consuming, but definitely cheaper! I haven't had a chance to do a whole lot of wedding shopping just yet. But last weekend I made a small dent. here's some of the awesome deals I've scored so far:

2 "redneck" mason jar wine glasses-found at a yard sale for $5 each. we'll be using these for our toast with cake :)

a beautiful vintage chandelier from a thrift store for $10. i plan on hanging this in the middle of the barn. Matthew said he just needs 1 thing to fix it and it will work just fine.

22 strands of Christmas lights for $22 at a different thrift store. i plan on stringing these EVERYWHERE around the barn. still need a lot more, but thought this was an awesome start!

i also started my sheet collection. i'm using hay bales for guest seating during the ceremony, so i've got quite a few sheets to buy to cover those! i'm looking mostly for vintage floral prints. i bought 5 sheets for $5 at the same thrift store.

So.....my total spent so far on wedding things: roughly $47. i think i got a lot accomplished for under 50 bucks!

location location location.

So...the newly engaged feeling has finally sunk in and i have realized: i. am. getting. married. whaaaaa? crazy, right?! ok, not THAT crazy, but seems crazy to me! of course i am overly stoked, but a little worried at the same time because I AM BROKE. that's right. i have very little money and i am planning a wedding. go ahead and laugh if you want to, but i am confident that i will be able to have the wedding of my dreams. After lots of research and pinning things to Pinterest, i think i have this whole budget thing down to a science. at least i hope : / My first decision as a bride-to-be, before I even chose our date, was the location. A couple of years ago, my dad and my little brother built a "horse barn" on my older brother's farm. it's a big, beautiful barn, complete with a riding ring right next to it, and a gorgeous field up above it. So before I was even engaged (or dating Matthew..shhhhh!) I decided that THIS was where I was getting married. I love the country, I love barns, I love outside. End of discussion. So my #1 first tip on saving wedding money? Skimp on the location if possible! My location is totally and 100% FREE, which I love. Some of the perks to this are just fab. Besides that it is FREE :) I can decorate any way I want, any time I want. Most locations, you can only decorate the day before or the day of...so just a few hours before the start of the wedding. Plus we can stay however long we want! My brother and super sweet fiance built a fire pit next to the barn this summer, we are building a fire and dancing all night long! Not to mention, I did check out some other locations before I completely decided to go with our barn and YIKES! talk about pricey! One barn I checked on was $2,800 for 4 hours. Yes, that's right. I just did NOT want to go through with that. May not seem like a whole lot when I know some weddings that cost $50,000 or more, but to a BROKE 23 year old, it is A LOT of money. Anyway, you may have to sacrifice some things when choosing a budget savvy location, but I promise it will be worth it!