When: October 12, 2013

Where: Belvedere Castle in Central Park, NYC

Reception: We had dinner after the ceremony at Candle 79, an organic, locally sourced, vegan restaurant.

Elopement or formal wedding: I’m not sure when it goes from an elopement to a wedding, but the only people who knew were our parents, his brother (who officiated), and a few select people. For the most part I’d call it an elopement.

Color Scheme: Black and white, with red/yellow/orange fall colored flowers.

Dress: White strapless dress with black flowers from White House Black Market on clearance for $50, and a black cardigan from there for $35.

Photographer: I put a request on craigslist exactly 2 weeks before the date, and got about 50 responses. My immediate first choice (and who we went with) was Yanqi Chang Photography. He was super friendly and professional, and had our (amazing) pictures back to us the very next day.

Officiant: My (now) brother-in-law was awesome enough to get ordained and marry us. For some reason, I always wanted him to do it for us, and luckily he was cool with it and agreed!

Ceremony: It was a semi spiritual ceremony with bits and pieces from different religions. It took about 25 minutes and was laid back and sweet.

Flowers: Grocery store flowers from Price Chopper. The night before, the florist working helped me pick out two fall flowers bunches, and a bouquet of white freesia  I put them together in 3 small bouquets at home that night. Grand total of $24.84…$27.93 if you include the two rolls of floral tape and one pack of floral wire.

Hair: The week before I got my hair trimmed, and then the night before (technically it was the same day since it was after midnight) I washed and dried it, and then the morning of I styled it with a curling iron.

Something old: A cross necklace that my mom had given me for Christmas years ago.

Something new: The faux feather piece for the veil was new, and the dress and sweater.

Something borrowed: I asked a friend at work if she had worn a veil when she got married, and she replied with “yeah, do you want to borrow it?” So I borrowed her birdcage veil, and switched her feathered piece for a black one that I made (for $2 from clearance Halloween stuff from Michael’s). Although I wore it all morning, I didn’t end up wearing it during the ceremony because the bobby pins had come loose in the subway and I didn’t want to play with it once we got to the park.

Something blue: Undies.

Rings: We both ordered rings online. He got a black ceramic ring with carbon fiber inlay. I got a white gold antique style band with 10 tiny diamonds. My ring actually had a tiny chip in it, so I asked for a replacement. When I got the replacement, they told me just to keep the first one too, so I got two rings for the price of one. Grand total (for all three) was $326.

Last name change: I was really undecided about this for a while, leaning towards no, but I did opt to have it changed when we got our license. I wanted to change it, but I’m in no rush to do all the paperwork that comes along with the change, so I’ll be going with my maiden name for anything formal.

Beauty Prep: The weekend before, I got my hair cut, a pedicure, and my eyebrows waxed. The day before, I got my nails done with a french manicure. I was debating it, just to save some cash, but they came out beautiful. About 2 weeks before, I bought new face wash to help clear up my breakouts.

Grand total: A little under $1,500. Which was way more than I thought we would spend, but it was completely worth it. This included my dress, wedding rings, dinner, train tickets into the city, subway tickets, photographer, marriage license, park permit, flowers, hair/nails/face wash, miscellaneous odds and ends. My parents ended up paying for the train tickets and for dinner (against our protests), so our actual expenses were a bit lower.

Anything I would’ve changed: Nothing. The day was absolutely perfect.