The idea of a backyard shindig is born

I guess I should start with the basics. We pretty much knew from the beginning that planning a wedding would be tough considering our financial situation, with me going back to school full-time this fall. With some influence from Sara & Matt from 2000 Dollar Wedding, we decided that we wanted to spend about $2000 to $2500. It's possible right? Right. Well, it got even better. I enlisted the help of Justin's grandmother, who i LOVE by the way, and we took a trip to a waterfront museum who had low rates. While the pricing was fair, I was getting mixed feelings about the quality. Cue stress. Justin and I looked at each other and said 'scratch the wedding, let's just get married and have a nice dinner with our closest family.' Well no, scratch that too. Realizing that our 'immediate' family would obviously stretch out to be around 25 people, that was still a significant dinner tab. This is where Cathie (grandmother... but I really don't like to use that word because she just seems so much younger than a gma to me) offers her house as the ceremony & reception site! Perfect. In November 2007, J's mom was married inside of the house so we knew that's not what we wanted (same pictures, no 'isle' to walk down, etc.) so we decided on the backyard. The layout of the backyard is great -- stepping off of the patio is some space but then you climb over a hill and there is more space, overlooking a golf course. Final decision: have the ceremony over the hill (there's plenty of space for guests to sit) and the tables will be set in the area closer to the house for the outdoor reception. Did I mention this was all for free!? I'm thinking banquet style tables and string lights for a casual feel. (ok, ok, in all actuality, I have way more details in my head, but we'll get to that later)

source: this young house

So our $2500 budget wedding looks like we could get away with spending a little over $1000 instead. I'm a poor college kid, and while I wish we could handle this event financially on our own, it's just not possible. We've already had offers for various pieces and parts of the wedding, which we are beyond grateful for.