Madi and Joshua’s wedding took place just as a hurricane was hitting Louisiana. But if anything, the dramatic weather made their day much more memorable. “Our wedding date happened to land right smack bang in the middle of a category five hurricane, that touched down in Mexico and brought heavy, constant rain and winds on our wedding day”, said Madi. “We were having an outdoor wedding, and had no plans to move to another venue! So we just.. got wet.”
“Still, even without the storm, I think our wedding was far from typical. It wasn’t a religious ceremony, although it had a very spiritual feel and look. My bridesmaids and I were barefoot with beaded jewellery strung around our feet. We played almost entirely 60s and 70s music, including Led Zeppelin. I walked down the aisle to May This Be Love by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Aside from our odd choice of a carrot wedding cake, we even had a whole table of southern style pies and cobblers, which was awesome, different.. and delicious.”
Their budget was $1500, and they saved money wherever they could. The bride’s dress was from Etsy and cost $250, the cake was made by the bride’s sister and mother and the flowers were DIY too. Even their DJ was the bride’s brother in law! “We got lucky with our venue, which was a local historical piece of land that was beautiful, and a great price to rent at just $100! For the main course at the reception, I paid my uncle $50 to make a pot of his famous jambalaya. I asked family to bring other pots of food, so we saved a lot there too. But in southern Louisiana, it’s not unusual for family to bring home-cooked food to all kinds of gatherings anyway.”
“Our theme was all over the place”, she continued. “We had lots of bohemian influences, with a nature/ hippie /gypsy/ faerie feel. It was also a little bluesy. We hung string lights and upcycled glass bottles with flowers inside, had a photo wall, real sliced wood, candles, moss and rocks. Our flowers were babies breath, ferns and succulents in hand-painted vases which were made from glass apple juice bottles.”
“The best thing about our wedding was being able to put so much of our personalities into a party. It was perfectly themed for us. You can go above and beyond, even on an extremely tight budget, you just have to be creative!”
