A Vintage Picnic in the Park Lesbian Wedding
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Since I was young I knew I wanted to have pastel colors for my wedding. As I grew older, I wanted to have an inexpensive wedding and save our money for a honeymoon in England. When Cally and I were engaged we set a goal of having our wedding and reception cost $5,000. I checked out Priceless Weddings for Under $5,000 at the library and that’s where I found the idea of having a picnic wedding.
Getting Married in a Park
My dad told me about a beautiful park and historic home where you can get married near us. It was owned by the county and even had a wedding arbor for ceremonies. It was only $400 to rent the park and house for an entire Saturday! We used the house to get ready in and had the ceremony and reception outside. We rented chairs and a tent (For rain or for shade if sunny).
Vintage Sheets and Picnic Baskets
We had a year and a half long engagement so it gave us plenty of time to look for cheap decor. We started looking for picnic baskets at thrift stores and flea markets with $5 being our price limit per basket. We collected vintage sheets to use as picnic blankets and as tablecloths for the guests that didn’t want to sit on the ground (You can buy vintage sheets here on Etsy). I also wanted to make a ton of bunting out of vintage sheets to decorate the arbor and tent. For more information on vintage sheets, you can check out my blog post 15 Ways to Upcycle, Repurpose and Use Vintage Sheets.
My biggest tip to save money on wedding decor is to use items you already have in your home. Most of the vintage items at our wedding were taken from our house, which was an empty shell the week of the wedding!
I love everything from the 1950s-1960s and I was lucky enough to find a huge box of vintage magazines at a thrift shop for $.25 each. I cut out bridal advertisements to make adorable collages for our picnic baskets.
I cut up travel advertisements for our honeymoon table. We had guests sign a vintage globe as our guestbook.
Retro Flowers and Wildflowers
I went to a local florist and showed them the type of flowers I was looking for. I wanted wildflowers (basically weeds) mixed with retro flowers like carnations. I told the florist the general color scheme I was looking for and to select whatever flowers were cheap in those colors. The florist picked out carnations, daisies and asters which ended up being one of my favorite flowers. The night before our wedding Cally and I drove around town finding daisies and other wildflowers on the side of the road to add to our floral arrangements. My mom and I made my bouqet and arranged all the flowers in their vases. Overall, we spent $400 for our flowers and we had SO many we didn’t know what to do with them all! But they looked adorable inside all the thrifted vases I found. When the wedding was over we brought the flowers in their vases to a nursing home. If you’re planning your wedding, definitely consider saving the flowers and donating them!
The Perfect 1950’s Dress
I knew I wanted a wedding dress that looked like it came from the 1950’s. I searched at stores and new sellers online but couldn’t find a good retro-inspired dress. I searched on Etsy and found a vintage wedding dress seller an hour from my house. She was selling the authentic vintage 1950’s dress of my dreams so I asked her if I could come and try it on at her house. She let me come over and it fit like a glove. It was only $400! The day of my wedding my aunt told me it reminded her of my Grandma’s dress from her wedding in the 1950’s. It was a happy accident and made my Grandma smile the day of.
Definitely check out Etsy for vintage wedding dresses!
I wore a $2 gold and pearl cross necklace that I found at an estate sale, a pearl headband from Ebay and a pair of white sandals that I already owned.
Wedding Suit for a Butch Woman
Cally’s outfit was a challenge because she wanted to wear a suit and it’s hard to find a suit jacket that fits her. We ended up going to Men’s Wearhouse and found a clearance light blue suit jacket. We had it altered in the store and it fit her really well. She wore dark blue women’s Old Navy pixie pants, men’s shoes from Payless, a white shirt she already owned and a pair of adorable Studio Ghibli socks. I sewed her pastel floral tie, pocket square and corsage myself.
Upfront about Being a Lesbian Couple
It was important to be upfront with our wedding vendors that we are a lesbian couple. We do not want to select a vendor and then find out they are homophobic and don’t want to work with us at the last minute. For instance, when searching for photographers I let them know in the initial email. The first photographer we chose suggested we look elsewhere. As much as this bummed us out, we were happy we didn’t end up with a photographer who wasn’t comfortable with us.
That disappointment led us to the perfect person to take our photos. The largest portion of our budget went to our photographer because having photos of our big day was what was most important to me. We bought a mini photography session for less hours and it cost $1,000 (1/5 of our budget). Kelsie from Intricate Exposures was phenomenal and I highly recommend spending money on high quality photos!
We had 40 close friends and family at our wedding. We were married by our pastor from our LGBTQ+ affirming church. You can learn more about my coming out story as a Christian here.
Our friends and family enjoyed lemonade in teacups, chilled pop in metal wheel barrows and light snacks in vintage bowls while we took our photos.
A Picnic Buffet
We had a caterer make classic picnic food for the reception. We had different types of delicious sandwiches, salads, veggies, fruits and more. Collages made from vintage food advertisements worked great for buffet table decor. Our guests sat on vintage sheets to eat their picnic lunch. After we ate Cally and I had our first and only dance in between the picnic blankets.
For dessert we had cupcakes made at a grocery story and we decorated them with little flags and gumballs. I made cupcake stands out of vintage plates and candlesticks. I used decor from my house to decorate the dessert table.
Lawn and Board Games
We had lawn games and board games as entertainment at our reception. Cally and I aren’t big dancers but we love games, so we wanted our wedding to reflect who we are. We set up croquet, bocce and badminton which was a hit. A ladder stacked with board and card games kept our guests happy.
The wedding and reception was about 4 hours total. It was short and sweet which is exactly what we wanted. Then our guests were able to go home and enjoy the rest of their Saturday. We were so lucky that it didn’t rain and we had a beautiful 70 degree June day.
We added up ALL our expenses from the makeup I wore to the thank you gift cards we gave our Master and Mistress of ceremony. We spent $4,975. We had our dream honeymoon in England two months later. Overall, I’m so happy with how the wedding turned out and that we didn’t spend a fortune achieving it. Our guests said that our wedding was very unique and fun. It was a perfect setting to celebrate our love which is all I could ask for.
