Rustic farmhouse wedding: Trevor + Jillian

Planning your wedding on a small budget? Like less than 10k? No problemo. Just be prepared to fall in love with glue, paint, ribbon, and late nights. That’s a good thing. And, that’s exactly how our bride, Jillian was able to knock out a romantic country wedding for 160 guests with a budget of $7,000. Before we share some of her secrets, let’s get to know these two lovebirds. Trevor, well, he’s an avid surfer and smarty pants Boston Grad + UCLA Masters Grad, offering aid and relief in Africa, Chile, Panama, and Mexico (high-five!). Jillian on the other hand, gets sea sick just being on a surfboard, has no training in science, and has never been out of the country. She is though, one talented hair stylist, a Julia Child in the making, and a bona fide creative cookie. He’s got the brains, she’s got the creativity – it works!

Jillian walked down the aisle to Miranda Lambert’s, Makin’ Plans. Listen to the sweet lyrics here:

All the decor you see, from candles to fabric, lace, burlap, ribbons, old shutters, etc – came out to $300. Items were bought either on clearance at Michael’s craft store, at Discount Fabrics, or Craigslist. The favors were wooden heart magnets that Jillian hand-painted. Some even had little photos of her and Trevor on them. For 200 hearts, paint, magnets and other materials included, the cost rounded out at $150.

The open fields, sky-high sunflowers, and surrounding rolling hills of the Julian Farmhouse Inn are photo perfect. Jan & Jim, the owners, still do most of the work on their own, so they were the chefs of the night, helped decorate, and had their hands in just about everything.

I found some old wooden shutters on Craigslist at a truck yard for $10. I sanded them down, primed and painted them, then roughed them up again. The love note sign was made from left-over scraps of burlap, hand painted and then strung with pink ribbon and a taupe ruffle ribbon. A cute tin bucket with sunflowers on it held all the written notes. All for a small budget of $20!

Sweet words from Jillian that we just couldn’t keep to ourselves:

When we went out to take our photos it hit me. I thought, “Oh my gosh I’m married! This is crazy awesome and surreal!”. Just looking up at my best friend who had just become my hubby, with huge smiles on our faces, realizing that this is forever was the best feeling. No more having to go home at the end of the night, the image of waking up to him every morning, picturing him as a daddy someday, imagining our future together – it all flashed in front of me while he kissed my nose, held my hand, and twirled me around at sunset. I couldn’t help but think, “By the grace of God I have to be the luckiest girl alive”!