On Nov 6, Chris & I got married.

We had an all vegan budget wedding on a rooftop lounge called Malverde (downtown Austin on W. 2nd street). The interior design and architect duo who worked on this space are pretty incredible and this saved us from decorating and paying for decorations! We had a private ceremony at 5pm and the reception was from 6-9 (at the same place). The lounge is overlooking downtown, behind us is the W hotel. On the day of the wedding, we discovered that the street was shut down for a dog festival! Chris and I LOVE dogs. After the ceremony, we stepped out on a private back patio for a quiet moment and celebratory drinks. We could hear so many dogs barking up and down the street! It was like hearing a million "best wishes" from our canine friends. The lounge was a great way to save $$. It isn't a "wedding venue" - instead of imposing a huge hourly fee and deposit, we simply set up a drink minimum! We bought everyone drinks, brought in our own vegan cake rom Mr. Natural and vegan (homemade) Mexican Pan de Polvo, too. The chef made us 3 different salsas to go with their house made chips. We thought we couldn't afford our dream vegan wedding, and almost gave up on the idea of a celebration so many times. We eventually realized that we didn't want a typical frilly wedding. We wanted a party. This realization helped us cut so many unnecessary corners like chair covers, sashes, table cloths, centerpieces, etc. We kept the food light, the drinks flowing and music playing. Our entire wedding was around 1,300.00. We achieved our dream wedding and still had enough to put towards our business (which was our #1 priority during planning). I have several tips on how to have an awesome budget wedding and can't wait to share those with you in a future post.

The night before the wedding, my mom, chris's mom and chris and I stayed up all night making boutonnieres, bridesmaid bouquets, my bouquet and other arrangements.

The wedding: (It might be easier to just check these out on FB)

ALBUM PT 1:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28412&id=100001030148385

ALBUM PT 2:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28415&id=100001030148385

The flowers:

boutonnieres (eryngium thistle, sage that smelled amazing and twine)

bridesmaids bouquets

This place makes the best drinks in town! Everything was vegan, top shelf best of the best. They made us our own sangria even! Since most of my older family members had a few drinks and called it a night early; we and our guests were left to reach the bar minimum! we drank A LOT! Oh, we danced our butts off, too.

Our favors? Heart glasses! They make every point of light (candles & street lights) turn into hearts! At the end of the night, everyone was wearing their glasses and checking out the city from up above.