My Top 5 tips for a frugal wedding, Missy and Oliver 2015!

I'm still getting used to the fact that I have a daughter that is married. Hey at least I have made it down to her old bedroom multiple times now and boxed up her stuff and made extra room for her Little Sister's stuff who she shared a room with. Charly felt it was time to make a place to keep her books in her room so Missy's had to go. ;)

It's been a while since I have posted.....longer than usual.....I think I'm just trying to find a new groove that works for me and to just breathe a bit after all the excitement this Summer/Fall.  That being said we are so thrilled for the new life and adventure that Missy and Oliver have chosen to spend eternity together on. Missy has found a superb guy in Oliver and we just adore him. They are such a great couple!

The day was simply beautiful and all things considered I was surprised how amazingly calm that not only I was but Missy too. Everything about the day was beautiful and even better we hadn't spend thousands of dollars yet it was all very special and beautiful.


Missy has always said she wanted a simple dress and wedding but when we looked through what she felt she wanted and set a budget of less than $1,000.00 I wasn't sure we would be able to pull it off but it seemed doable.  Looking back I realized if we had known better what to expect (this was our first one after all) we could have even cut the budget even more.

Here are our Top 5 Tips for a Frugal Wedding:

• #1 The Dress

The wedding dress can be a big budget breaker and depending on the style you want the prices can be all over the place. Making your own can save a bunch and even though we had access to amazing seamstresses and I'm not afraid of using a sewing machine we didn't have much time and most of us were just too busy so we feel we had that for an option. But one of Missy's friends, who was married just weeks before spent less then $90 on a dress because her Mom made it for her.

Borrowing or renting a dress can also save a bunch of money but with dry cleaning etc. it can be kind of pricey...but still cheaper then buying it.

The other way is to just keep it really simple....Missy has never been super into fluffy or frilly dresses (very different from her Mother) and she wanted one that she could wear back to the temple, she's really practical like that. So we went looking and right here in our home town dress shop we found one that fit the bill and just happened to be on clearance for 50% off! We paid less than $65.00 for her dress and she looked beautiful!

• #2 Design your own Announcements

In this time of digital photography and blogging it seems everyone has a little experience with photo editing and design. I had done enough of it that I felt confident that I could design a pretty decent looking announcement. I am not a graphics designer but I had used PicMonkey enough to know that simple free online program could do what I needed it to do. Missy told me what she wanted and we found some cute ideas online and went from there.

• #3 Have your Best Friend Take the Pictures

Photography and photos can often end up being the largest expense of a wedding and no doubt it's probably worth it....but if you are on a tight budget and happen to know someone who has been studying and practicing photography for a while and is just getting into learning weddings and wants to "practice" for a great deal or even free it may be the perfect fit. Kenzi Kim Photography fit the bill for us....not only did she happen to be Missy's best friend but we had seen her work and even had her do our family pictures the year before. We knew she would be perfect. All of the photos on this post were done by her I think you will agree.

• #4 Ask for Help From Family and Friends

It was amazing the amount of people who were asking how they could help....I'm not one that is really very good at asking for help but since I have never been much for throwing a big party I knew there were many others who could help me pull this off. So I asked for ideas created a pinterest board called The Big Day that others could pin on.....and we made our plan.

After brain storming and figuring out where we could get the stuff we need without having to purchase much we borrowed bushel baskets, bins and other old fashions items from Ryan's parents. We also planned to use their back yard to have the wedding but the weather did not cooperate. Our Parents and other family members helped out in the kitchen with the serving.

A dear friend and one of my Sisters-In-Law took care of the majority of the decorating (it was amazing) using mainly simple things we borrowed and their amazing artistic skills.

Tons of family and friends showed up to help with so many little things and with the clean up. We had never felt so much love and support. I hardly had to worry about a thing!

• #5 Use In-Season Wild Flowers and Forget the Cake

Sunflowers happened to be blooming everywhere and we knew they would be, barring some super early unforeseen frost (stranger things have happened)......and since they went perfect with the theme and didn't cost a cent it was a simple solution. Although I didn't realize how absolutely amazing they would look! Missy didn't want to be bothered with holding a bouquet but I'm sure we could have figured out something nice and cheap with the sunflowers too. 

Maybe it isn't sunflowers that are blooming for you but if you look around you may find other equally cute or even more beautiful growing wild where you live. Or maybe you have your own rose garden that you know will be in peek bloom. Flowers can be pricey but Mother Nature has beauty in abundance.

And as for the Cake goes we have never been one to do things traditionally. ;) Not one person asked where the cake was. It saved lots of stress, money, time and who wants all that sugar anyway. 

It still seems crazy that My Little Miss is now a wife.....I'm certain it was only yesterday that she was a little flower girl dancing on her Daddy's toes at her Aunt Shauna's wedding. Oh where or where does the time go!

My Little Miss is Getting Married!

So I have been wanting to post about this for some time now and to share the exciting news .....hopefully most of you have already heard but I realized that I haven't really posted about it on my social media sites. Although some of you may have noticed "The Big Day" board that showed up on my Pinterest! ;) Other then that and my personal facebook page I haven't really shared much about it online.

It's all been kind of a blur.....I saw it coming but are you ever prepared for such a thing? Especially with your oldest child! For sure a new season for our family.....things have stayed relatively "the same" for quite a few years around here but about a year ago I told Ryan that although the last 5 to even 10 years have not had too many big changes the next 5 to 10 would probably be overflowing with many big changes!

Then back in the Spring when Missy and Oliver's friendship started turning more serious.....I text Ryan one day and said "Hold onto your hat" to which he responded with, "Live changes & sharp curves ahead....." I let him know that I thought it was a good way to put it and that I had been trying to prepare for this.

But really how do you prepare? I kind of took what Ryan said picturing a winding road and just sat down and buckled in! ;) It came in really handy about the time they announced their engagement and set a date that was only six weeks away!

The easily overwhelmed, can't have too much going on, never knows what PMS will do, likes to keep life simple, thinks busy is a bad word person came out it me and I started to panic.....not because this amazing couple wanted to get married but because I didn't know how I was going to pull it all together for them.

But luckily early on in the process I had a vivid memory of when Missy was just a baby.....a very fussy baby at that....and I was a very overwhelmed new Mom. Others would tell me to just enjoy the baby stage and how fast it goes by and I would think, "Are you kidding me, it can't go fast enough!" Well obviously it didn't take me long to realize all those words of wisdom where exactly that....very wise. I slowly learned to just take life and all it's messiness and just focus on the moment and enjoy the ride.

A later text to Ryan said, "This should be a very exciting happy time in our life. I'm not going to ruin it by being overwhelmed, depressed and anxious. I will try to take it one day at a time." And that is what I have done. Lucky for me I have an amazing practical daughter who likes things even more SIMPLE then I do.

Now the wedding is just a week away and I wouldn't be totally honest if I said we got here stress free. But it's been a fun ride and a super happy time in our life that I will look back on very fondly. We are all so excited to have Oliver join our family! We hope you will share in our excitement and consider this your official invite.....if your in the neighborhood next week stop by and say hello!

An Update....Finally!

I know, I know.....It's been over a month since I have posted. (So much for tomorrow, huh!)  I took a much needed, spontaneous blogging break. I have spent some time thinking about what I really want to be sharing here on my blog. I like sharing my meal plan but it was starting to seem a bit redundant to me and I have a few other meal plan ideas swimming in my head that may be something worth sharing on the blog as I get them working.

If they prove helpful I will share.....in the meantime there is over a years worth of weekly meal plans in the Menus category.  Some of my thoughts have leaned toward batch cooking, freezer meals, master shopping lists that include shopping then meal planning, 30 minute meals and other things along those lines.....I guess we will see what materializes.

I still want my blog to be a history of sorts where I share some of our everyday life mostly for posterity..... and of course lots of recipes because those are just meant to be shared.

I do have some fun ones almost ready to share and even more in the works but one thing I learned on my break is that I enjoyed not spending large amounts of time putting together posts. So know that updates and blog posts may come less frequently. But don't worry I will always share our favorite recipes. 

I love sunny/rainy summer days! #ourwallisalmostdone #hopemybabyplantsdontdrown

A photo posted by Tammie simplehealthytasty.com (@simplehealthytasty) on Jun 10, 2015 at 6:24pm PDT

I have been getting more regular about posting on Instagram so if you are wanting more frequent updates follow me there! I will try to keep my other social media sites posted on and updated too but I make no promises. (Find the other links on the fruit icons at the top right (your right) of this page.

So how about a few highlights of the past month!

I had the most awesome Mother's Day weekend! Ryan and I spent it up the mountain where we watched Bald Eagles, snow fall and things. Just taking in the peace and calm and feeling so very rejuvenated......Coming home on Mother's Day to spend some time with those sweet children who call me Mom!

I heard all about their weekend (specifically Missy's first "real" date with this particular boy she has know for quite some time now....they have since had many, many more dates ;) Charly had a whole bunch of gifts that she had made and I just drank in the moment trying to savor as slowly as possible because I see so much change and growth coming on so quickly.

We also celebrated Curt's birthday this past month. He wanted his usual Burrito Casserole dinner but this time he wanted to go bowling and have ice cream cake. This was my first try at any sort of ice cream cake and I had too keep it quick and simple since we where also in the middle of trying to get the garden all planted too. It turned out well though and everyone said they liked it. I will share the recipe soon!