Holly and Josh were looking for a traditional wedding, but with a modern twist that reflected who they were and what they loved.

To make this vision come to life, they opted like many couples to get their hands dirty with some do-it-yourself wedding projects. One of our favorites is all the homemade cakes. Anything sweet and tasty always wins us over. Not only were all there projects made with love, but it did save them quite a bit of money. So keep scrolling to hear their tips and tricks on how to save money by doing things on your own, and the full budget breakdown. To see some of the diy wedding projects up close check out the gallery. All captured by JR Magat Photography.

Custom Made Bridesmaid Dresses

The Bridesmaid dresses below were designed by Holly and made by a seamstress. Such a great idea, if you want a custom fit for each of your bridesmaids.

From The Bride On Decor

We had a garden theme for the wedding, with a natural feel and neutral colors. The tables were raw wood with lace runners and a mossy centerpiece with about 30 candles on each table. I designed the bridesmaid dresses and had a seamstress make them. Some small details I worked into the wedding were: Old vintage doors from an antique shop, I decorated them with fabric flowers, fresh flowers, and some dried flowers. We had an old suitcase for cards. There were vintage watering cans all over for decor with flowers in them.

DIY Wedding Projects

Our cake table was one of the doors, my dad put legs on it to make it into a table, and then I borrowed 7 glass cake platters to stack our cakes, and we lifted some for different heights by stacking them on tree stumps. I had garland hanging in the ceiling of the hallway, and window panes honoring our bridal party. I love to paint so I painted our guest book on a canvas, it was a tree that had a paint pen available for guests to sign with so we could hang it up in our house afterward. The escort cards were displayed in empty frames suspended with wire, and each person's name was on a leaf that I had clipped to strings with tiny clothes pins. Then the place cards on the table were a leafy twig with a name at each seat.

Advice From The Bride

Some advice I would give to brides is to decide what is worth your time and what is worth your money. A lot of times, saving a couple of bucks isn't worth spending countless hours on trying to do something yourself. Looking back, I would have bought my invitations instead of making them myself. Believe it or not, by the time you buy envelopes, ink, paper, ribbons, etc you spend almost as much money as you would have if you hired someone else to do it. Also, we were wavering on whether or not to have hors d'oeuvres at the reception during the cocktail hour. I am so glad we did because we had a wild game themed dinner and the appetizers helped tie the whole thing together. We had so many complements on our caterer; the service and the food. It was worth spending money on.

Photography: JR Magat Photography
Venue: MSU Horticulture Gardens
Flowers: Brady Events
Caterer: Moveable Feast Catering
Shoe Designer: Vince Camuto
Dress Shop: Perfect Fit | DJ: Black Tie Entertainment | Flower Centerpieces: Brady Events | Hair: Kate at Douglas J. Aveda Salon.

Read on to see how much this modern twist traditional wedding cost. Please note that costs change as the years go by, and prices are subject to change. This is just one couple's breakdown to give you a rough estimate on how much a wedding like this may cost you.

We saved so much money by doing the following things ourselves: For the save the dates, it was free, and very un-traditional. I made a short video of a compilation of clips Josh and I filmed when we got engaged on a vacation in Europe. I edited it and we held up a sign with our date and then we posted it online and sent it via the internet to our guest list, no postage or paper! For the invitations, I made them and I can do calligraphy so I was able to address them for free. At the wedding, we actually made the cakes ourselves, and I made the cake topper and table numbers out of wire. I had been saving the empty glass candle jars all year, getting used ones from family and friends and buying them if I came across them anywhere for cheap. In total we had about 450 candles that we made. I did a "meet the maids and men" section in the programs, telling how we knew each member of our bridal party and a short bio. Then at the reception, I painted each of their names and put a picture of us with them in each sill of a vintage window I found. I was able to buy the alcohol from a party store and have our caterer just serve it at their bar, so we weren't overcharged for alcohol, it was retail price. We did the flowers ourselves (ordered them from Sam's Club), excluding the centerpieces (the florist for the centerpieces is below). So the flowers we did were the cake toppers, the bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages, ceremony aisle decor, all watering can arrangements, the bridesmaid's, flower girl, and bridal crown/headbands, and the lace on my flower crown and my bouquet was lace that I cut off of my mom's wedding dress. I made the signs outside the venue out of old palate wood, stained and painted. My grandpa is a retired carpenter, so he made me easels and a huge picture frame that we strung a bunch of pictures on by the bar. The most amazing project in my opinion were the lights in the ceiling. Since it was in a conservatory, the ceiling was glass. My dad fashioned a truss that had tiny lights coming off both sides in straight lines to hoist into the ceiling. It totally made the whole thing once it got dark out!

Budget breakdown
Venue:1,400
Flowers: $700
Photographer: $2,200
DJ: $800
Food/Alcohol (including bartenders, waiters, silverware, plates, etc): $11,000
Dress: $1,000
Hair: $70
Decorations (including lights in the ceiling): roughly $800
Transportation: $600
Hotel for wedding night: $150
Ceremony: $600
Invitations: $300
Bridesmaid/Groomsmen gifts: $400
Other (idk if you want to bulk these together but I have the prices so I figured I would put them in): Tables $290, Rings $470, Other $200

Total: roughly $21,000