Diary of a Simple Life: wedding

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Our Wedding Cake

I'm linking up with Britt at The Magnolia Pair to share our wedding cake! BTW, she's from Louisiana too!

I stressed out about our wedding cake because I know how expensive they are. I was terrified of where to get my cake. I had someone I went to high school with who had recently started an event planning business as my coordinator. So he was always helping me find good deals on stuff.

He recommended a lady who made cakes out of her house for a hobby. It was funny because it turned out it was my husband's cousin. So in my true bargainista fashion I have to brag a little here. She made and delivered both the wedding cake and groom's cake for... get this.... $250!!! And I loved it. It was simple and elegant and delish!

The cake was traditional wedding cake flavored with strawberry cream cheese filling, my fave!

Gotta love our adorable nephew in the front!

And in true Southern tradition- the groom's cake HAD to be red velvet. The groom's cake was very small and simple. My husband's a golfer. So it was a golf course.

I totally forgot to order cake pulls!

I actually hated the way I looked in almost all of the "posed" pictures by the cake, except these since they were so candid!

So there's a little sneak peek at out wedding cake! I've loved looking at everyone else's so far. Thanks Britt for hosting this link up!

XO-Heather

Friday, October 28, 2011

FRUGAL FRIDAY: CHEAP DATE NIGHT

Happy Friday everyone!
So since this week was our anniversary I thought it would be fun to share some quick tips for cheap date nights. I'm really easy to please when it comes to going out to dinner or a date night. I don't like expensive restaurants because it's not worth it to me, and I'm 100% ok with pizza and beer for a date night!
So here's my tips for cheap dates:

I put this #1 because it is the best tip I have. For our anniversary we got a coupon for a free dinner at Texas de Brazil (at $50 value), a free pizza at Rotolos, a free appetizer at Lone Star Steakhouse, free chocolate covered strawberries at The Melting Pot, and a few other offers. A lot of restaurants will send you an initial offer and something on your b-day and/or anniversary. Use these coupons! We are saving the Texas de Brazil because it's good until November. But last Saturday night we went to Rotolos, ordered a pizza, drank and hung out for a few hours for $15!!!

They always have great offers for things to do in every area. I always buy the Fandango tickets when they are like $12 for 2. If you go to the movies it is $18. So that is a $6 savings. I keep the codes in my email. Then when we have nothing to do I check out the movie times and use one of my codes for Fandango I already bought!
My top sites are: google offers, groupon, daily deals, screamin' daily deals, & living social

Use restaurants.com

You can do a search for restaurants in your area and buy $25 gift certificates for $2!!!!
Read the fine print and make sure there are no restrictions.

Hip2Save.com does a Weekend Restaurant Round-up every Friday to let everyone know of the deals at restaurants for the weekend.

She also does a weekend retail round-up for shopping

Go to a restaurant a little early for happy hour to get cheap drinks and appetizers
Check out local wineries and breweries.

Sometimes they give free tours and samples

Cook at home together

I put this last because I cook during the week everyday so it's not my ideal thing to do for a fun night. Plus, my kitchen is small so it's hard for us to do this. But other people may enjoy this!

If you start signing up for all these email lists I would create a separate email account for them to go to. This way it isn't clogging up your inbox. Check it a few times a week or every other day.

And just for fun here are a few of my favorite pics from my wedding- since it is my anniversary week!!! I had the easiest best experience planning my wedding. We had a small wedding, and it was SO SO fun!