NICOLE, entertainment travel specialist & gary, art director

Sum-up of the wedding vibe: We chose a sunset ceremony at a secluded residence in the mountains of Malibu in front of an intimate group of friends and family.

Planned budget: $45,000
Actual budget: $50,000
Number of guests: 65
LOCATION: Malibu, California

Where we allocated the most funds:

Having good food was very important to us. From the beginning we knew we wanted to do different food stations for all the food we love from around the world. During the cocktail hour, we had Spanish-style tapas and a seafood bar influenced by our trip to Barcelona. In addition to a full bar we had Indian-inspired specialty cocktails for our upcoming honeymoon to India. The dinner stations represented food from where we grew up and now currently live, lobster and chips, New York sirloin, and California chicken roulade.

Where we allocated the least funds:

The flowers and decor. I’m a big fan of DIY and I knew I wanted to make my own decor. Since we were going with a vintage theme, I purchased decorative china plates, gold flatware, and glass goblets from a variety of places online and in local thrift stores. It took some time, but I enjoyed the hunt! After the wedding I was able to sell most of the items to a company that rents them out for events. Los Angeles has such an amazing flower market downtown I knew we would save a lot of money doing the flowers ourselves. We spent around $450 on the flowers and greenery and had friends and family help set everything up the morning of the wedding.

What was totally worth it:

Renting the house out for the entire weekend. That gave us plenty of time to decorate and set everything up. It was also so nice to not have to go anywhere when the wedding ended that night. Also we had both our dogs, Ditzy and Coco, with us at the wedding, which was a must for us from the beginning.

What was totally not worth it:

We hired wedding planners but in the end it felt like we did most of the legwork ourselves. It may have been we just hired the wrong team of people that did not exactly mesh with what we were expecting. We had our wedding at a private residence that was high up in the hills of Malibu, which presented a lot of logistical headaches. Having a day-of coordinator for our situation was very necessary because of all the moving pieces.