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Steph and David wanted their wedding guests to feel like they were attending a party in their home. To celebrate her Mexican lineage, Steph made a piñata for the card box, cascarones (Mexican confetti bombs!) to throw after the ceremony, and a ton of fun table decor. Their friend officiated and included a couple of swigs from his flask to relax the couple, and a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who said their vows first.
After the ceremony came an elaborate taco bar, pies and paletas for dessert, some serious dancing and video games, and, of course, piñatas. Steph and David had custom piñatas made to represent them: a cat for Steph and a dinosaur for David. Almost too cute to break!
Keep scrolling to hear from Steph about how it all came together…
I am half-Mexican and I grew up with a Mexican mother who made piñatas for all our celebrations. Needless to say, I can make a mean piñata! …However, we paid someone to make the cat and dinosaur piñatas that we hit during our dancing time.
Since we had a limited budget, I decided that I would make a lot of our decorations and although it was extremely time-consuming, it was a lot of fun and I was really proud of how it all came together. I found our Polaroid station (window shutter) for $10 at the rebuilding exchange that I re-purposed. My friend gave me the tall window shutter for free that I repurposed for our grandparents' altar.
We also bought Mexican candles that we placed throughout Trigger for $1 at the dollar store and tissue paper that we used to make the paper flowers and paper machete the glass bottles for our centerpieces. We also saved our tomato cans for the centerpieces that we put our succulents in. We saved a lot of money on flowers because we only ordered succulents for the tables aside from my bouquet, David's boutonniere, and some family boutonnieres and corsages.
We mainly used Trigger Chicago because the space was EXTREMELY budget friendly and we were able to bring in our own drinks and food. The bar and catering is where more traditional wedding venues really break the bank and we couldn't afford one of these venues. But honestly, Trigger was way more our style and gave us more freedom to create the wedding we wanted.
We used Binny's Liquor Depot to order drinks so anything we didn't use we could return and get our money back. We also had two signature drinks, two beers, and white and red wine so we wouldn't have to have a full bar. This really helped us save money. We also used El Milagro because it was high-quality food for cheap, they gave us a lot, and it included all the buffet holders and food warmers. Seriously, it was a steal!
We have a lot of creative friends so we had a lot of help. One friend made my flower crown and our backdrop, one friend taught me how to make all our paper flowers (I made 100+ of them and she helped), and two of my friends helped make the little pom-poms for the pies. We also had friends lend us a bunch of items so we didn't have to buy them — chalkboards, pie stands, all our linens, few tables, etc. We also didn't have the money to pay for any more set up time so friends and family helped set up and tear down the decorations. Never underestimate your friends and family!
We were also able to incorporate vendors and locations that play a role in our lives (Hoosier Mama is our fave pie shop, Trigger is located in our neighborhood about a mile from our home, El Milagro is one of our fave Mexican restaurants, and all the salsa we had at the wedding was from restaurants throughout the city that we love). I also own a lot of small Mexican decorations that I was able to place throughout Trigger to brighten the space and add more authentic touches.
I LOVE cascarones and, even though we usually use these during Easter, we thought it would be so fun to throw during the ceremony and IT WAS! We both wanted our wedding to be really fun and not sterile in any way so we made sure that it felt like a big house party. Our DJ did such a good job with the music that the party never died. We had asked him not to play any slow songs because we just wanted to keep the energy up. And we certainly did seeing as we went through 32 bottles of tequlia.
We also incorporated video games at our wedding and had a Nintendo 64 set up in the back. Since we met in line at a GameStop in 2010, we definitely wanted to add that piece to our special day. You never know what you're going to find at a GameStop.
Vendors
Ceremony + Reception Venue: Trigger Chicago • Photographer: Spark & Glow Photography • Coordinator: Anticipation Events • Caterer: Taqueria El Milagro • DJ: Toast and Jam • Staffing: Carol’s Event Staffing • Florist: A New Leaf Studio + Garden • Hair: Twisted Scissors • Nails: Notable Nails • Makeup: Vee Rubio • Hotel: Drake Hotel • Pies: Hoosier Mama Pie Company • Liquor: Binny’s Beverage Depot
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About the Author: Catherine Clark
Catherine Clark loiters at her local library, makes art, watches movies en masse, plays video and tabletop games, poorly cooks healthy things, cuddles with her feline fur babies, and blogs at BijouxandBits.com.
This wedding looks so fun and sweet and genuine! Congrats!
Love that dress! Where did you find it???