It's official: I have graduated from a Broke-Ass Bride to a Broke-Ass Wife! On Saturday, August 8th Kris and I got married and pulled off our DIY wedding without a hitch! Seriously, it went really well. Our homemade cupcake tower came out better than expected, Kris' homebrewed beer and wine were delish and our decor was on point. To tell you the truth I had my doubts about some of our DIY stuff working out but because of all our hard work, it totally did.

Last walk as a Miss!

So here is some advice for the DIY Bride that doesn't want to turn into a Martha Stewart-esque Bridezilla:

Make sure you really love craft projects before you DIY your wedding

If I could make a good living event planning, crafting and doing little art projects, I totally would. I really enjoyed the process of coming up with ideas, shopping for supplies and executing my ideas at my dining room table ... while watching "Housewives." If you don't like artsy stuff save yourself some frustration and source it out.

Amazon and Etsy are your wedding spirit guides.

I got more stuff for the wedding from Amazon than anywhere else and all at an unbeatable price. Need burlap in bulk on the cheap? Check. Need 50 LED tealights? Oh they got those. I.Love.Amazon. Etsy was a great source as well. I got such unique and affordable items. I was even able to buy all my wedding flowers there as well! Etsy is the spot for personalized and special wedding gifts and items.

Let people know you made that!

It was incredibly satisfying to hear people compliment things we put so much work into. So when someone says, "Oh I love your pretty escort cards." don't be shy and say, "Hey, thanks! I made that!"

In the words of the classic Doris Day "Que Sera, Sera. Whatever will be, Will Be."

In the wedding planning process there were plenty of times where I started to feel overwhelmed. Our dining room table became crafts central and our spare bedroom literally turned into a wedding supply storage closet. Clutter to me = chaos so that added to the stress. That's when I had to just say "eff it." No matter what happened, the point of the wedding was to marry my love. If my coveted centerpieces came out lacking it wouldn't have made a friggin' difference. You'll have a fabulous whirlwind of a day that will go by in a blink of an eye and leave you wed to your amazing spouse.

All pictures courtesy of the very talented Tonia Walsh of joy.life.art photography. If you're in the tri-state area and in need of an awesome photographer check her out!