Nicole knew immediately that she wanted a yellow and gray wedding—the rest, she said, didn’t come quite as easily. “At the beginning I lacked direction,” she told Pretty Little Weddings. “There were just too many pretty things I wanted to include. I think that finding the venue really helped us narrow our focus. Once we could visualize the site, we started building off of that. I am more rustic and the groom is more modern. So we decided to combine our two styles into a wedding that kept the outdoorsy and barnyard feel of the venue but didn’t end up looking country.”

“Since I had met James’ family,” the bride said, “I learned that James’ dad always had some homemade limoncello on hand. The yellow tone of the limoncello and the fact that it would be homemade, with love by us and our family, made it the perfect wedding favor.” The couple used chalkboards wherever possible, for everything for programs to a seating chart, to save on paper and serve as “a nod to James’ teaching profession,” Nicole said. And a group of family and friends helped put together the centerpieces, held in secondhand mason jars, the day before the wedding.

Preschool teacher and bride Amy is used to tackling crafts—so when it came to creating origami art to fill her wedding to Ryan, she was prepared. The couple wed at Clearwater Beach’s recreation center because “I was able to be married on the beach without the inconvenience of sand,” Amy said.

Amy handmade 100 origami cranes that she strung from the arch the couple wed beneath. She also filled thrift store vases with hundreds of handcrafted origami tulips for centerpieces. The couple also put together a candy buffet for guest, in addition to their daisy-decorated cake.

With help from a bridesmaid and wedding planner-to-be, Natalie and Paul planned a wedding that they described as classic and traditional—on a budget. “We agreed that we wanted to spend as little money as possible on the wedding because it’s only one day, and it’s not worth getting into debt,” Natalie said. The couple tackled simple do-it-yourself projects and shopped sale racks to accomplish their goals.

Bridesmaids donned dresses found on sale from Banana Republic. And though the couple “knew it would be a large wedding, we still really wanted to make it personal and represent us,” Natalie said. Because Paul loves to read, the couple spray painted books for centerpieces, and added other gold accents, including candelabras, vases and candle holders, from thrift stores to fill out the décor. The couple also spray painted 32 encyclopedias, then scrapbooked their favorite memories on the pages.

Miranda and Gabriel wanted “ a very simple wedding, near to home and without much fuss,” the bride told Pretty Little Weddings. So the couple wed on the docks of the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center surrounded by about 100 of their closest family and friends. “We didn’t have a cake-cutting , or toasts, or a first dance or any of that stuff,” Miranda said. “But we did have lots of delicious seafood and drinks, lots of family and friends from all over, lots of dancing and a lot of fun.”

Guests grooved to a playlist the couple put together themselves, Miranda said. “We knew that we wanted to be able to play all of our favorite songs and songs that we knew guests of all ages would enjoy, and that seemed like the best way to do it,” Miranda said. “It was crucial to do cross-fade in iTunes and to shorten interminably long songs, and to rent a professional sound system, though.” Miranda and Gabriel also designed their own flower arrangements, enlisting the help of friends to place the bulk-ordered blooms in cans. The bride also penned every escort card on cream-colored shipping tags.

Miranda implored brides-to-be to remember, “Maximum fun, minimum effort.  Don’t feel you have to walk down the aisle or have favors or a first dance, or pay a lot for a florist, or hold a rehearsal dinner, or have bridesmaids if the thought of doing so seems strange to you or your partner or makes either of you at all unhappy or stressed.  We had cocktails when people arrived, and then everyone gathered around and we just … got married. We started the music after dinner and people just started dancing. We asked people to help out when we thought they would enjoy doing so. Just make sure your guests feel welcomed and loved—that’s the most important thing!”