A Wedding!!, made by hand...

My twenty something-ish cousin just got engaged over the weekend. YAY!! 

I'm so excited for her! She's been living in Oklahoma the last few years, about 5 hours from me, and while her fiance and his family are from Oklahoma, her whole family is back in Indiana. Once I read her engagement status on Facebook (of course!) and being relatively close to her geographically, I offered her as much help with her wedding as I could give her....because face it, most of us aren't going to have the green to put on a wedding like Prince What's His Name did over the pond a few months ago. 

Offering her my help got me to thinking about DR and my wedding. Boy, did we get help that really kept the cost of our wedding low! Of course it didn't hurt that I'm a cheapskate, miser, tight wise with my money either.  

First our reception was in the town park which I received as a wedding gift from a couple of guys on the park board whom I just happened to coach track with. 

If you look behind my sister on the tent poles you'll see bundles of wheat and flowers, which my sisters and I picked out of fields and ditches. And that big beautiful sunflower arrangement on the table? It's in a Ball Canning Jar. Yep, I had two fabulous sisters who did ALL the flowers; bouquets, boutonnieres, table arrangements...and they did a great job! 

Friends of ours served the food and another friend roasted half a hog for the reception as a wedding gift too. Looking back, I'm really thankful for all those gifts that helped me have a wedding party! 

My mom made my wedding dress and the bridesmaids' dresses. (Ugg...sorry my lovely sisters... This photo suddenly brings to mind that movie 27 Dresses! And no, you can't wear it again!!) 

Come to think of it, in the past 9 years my mom has sewn 3 of our wedding dresses and probably a total of 10 bridesmaid dresses for 4 different weddings! Mom, you are a saint! 

For our wedding, to keep costs down and to add a more personal touch, I designed our wedding invitations. 

And being that our wedding was in August when guests arrived they received our program printed on a fan. The front was a drawing I had made and a poem and the back had all the pertinent stuff you usually find on a wedding program. 

If my cousin is anything like me *cheapskate*, which I'm pretty sure she is, she'll probably want to save some money on her wedding. From the dress, food, cake, photos, flowers, gifts, etc, etc.....what kind of advice can I give my cousin on her big wedding day? What is the best help you received on your wedding day? What are some great wedding resources that most people don't know about?