Remember Raina, the autumn bride who wore her mom’s dress? Here’s the full scoop on her library wedding!

The offbeat bride: Raina, Graphic Designer

Her offbeat groom: Mike / freelance photographer & TV production guy

Location & date of wedding: The Clayville town library in Clayville, NY

What made our wedding offbeat: We really wanted to save a lot of money and keep it simple, simple, SIMPLE! We only had 7 people at the ceremony besides the two of us.

We did it at the tiny library in the town I grew up in. It was perfect because it was so small on the inside, and it happed to be a church at one point which lent itself to the layout of the ceremony well. We didn’t have a religious ceremony but it was kind of cute to be in an old church turned library (and my job involves designing book jackets, so it was extra special!).

… We spent under 600 dollars!

We spent the tiniest fraction of money you can on a wedding — we did this because we live in Brooklyn (high rent!) and our parents didn’t have money to give us so we knew we just had to be creative. The first step was to cut out guests and the whole idea of a reception.

I wore my mother’s wedding dress from 1979 which just so happed to be exactly what I was looking for in a dress! The only expense there was to have it taken in slightly and cleaned up a bit. Mike wore his grandfather’s wedding band, my mom and I did the flowers ourselves, and we had one of our good friends take all of the photos. Add in the cost of dinner for 9 people and we spent literally under 600 dollars on EVERYTHING! It was small, intimate, and the day was so memorable because of it. Everyone involved had a part — my brother was my “man of honor”! I just couldn’t have hoped for anything better.

Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge was dealing with all of the family drama that came along with not inviting my grandmother, and our aunts and uncles and cousins. We had to hear a lot of snide remarks, and people being hurt that we didn’t invite them! Our friends all understood — it’s so hard to be young and live in such an expensive city, so they were just happy that we were doing it OUR way. Family, however, just didn’t understand why we weren’t doing this huge, 200 guest shindig. I just have NEVER wanted that, or the stress that comes with it.

We had to politely explain, again and again and AGAIN (people just didn’t get it) That this was OUR DAY! And we can do what WE want! It’s a hard concept for family to grasp. We had a hard time keeping our cool having to tell them over and over, but in the end, we really didn’t want to offend anyone.

My favorite moment: My favorite moment of the day was a really unexpected one for me. I wasn’t planning on having my dad walk me down the aisle (being the modern lady I am!), but he really, really wanted to. So while everyone was inside of the library waiting for us, we had a few minutes for a nervous chat and a few laughs, out in the lobby and just the look on my dad’s face as we got ready to walk down the aisle (which was actually a row of bookshelves!) was wonderful and priceless. I always knew how much my dad loved me, but this was a moment that only happens once in a lifetime, and I’ll never forget it. It sounds awfully cheesy, but I was loving it.

My offbeat advice: Do what YOU want!!! I feel like I always read this advice on offbeat bride, but it’s so, so important. If you want a small wedding, find a way! If you want a huge one, find a way! Make a budget, too. If it’s 500 dollars, trust me, you can do it. If you want a huge wedding, that’s fine, just plan out exactly what your vision is before you go forward. You can do it!

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn: Who says you can’t have a beautiful wedding for $600?!

Tell me all about your offbeat wedding!