Bronze Budget Bride

Bronze Budget Bride is something Carlise created one day for brides-to-be, she thought of this while giving some links and tips in bridal forums. Instead of having to repeat things over and over again, she decided to put these links all in one place, hence Bronze Budget Bride was born. Carlise was never really thinking of making it into a business when she created it. The idea of helping and chatting with women planning their wedding was just so exciting to her.

"I have been obsessed with all things bridal for far longer than I realized and even started planning for our vow renewal ceremony and reception even before we could afford a tiny one. While I was pregnant with my first son Richard, who is now three, instead of watching Baby Story I was tuning in to watch all the bridal shows I could find on T.V. When my son was born, I was up late every night as you can imagine but I didn't mind it all because on Sunday and Monday nights that's when Platinum Weddings, Rich Bride Poor Bride and other bridal shows was on Wetv. When my son would wake around 6 in the morning, although sleep deprived, I was glad for the opportunity to catch GetMarried on the Style network. On Tuesday nights it was Whose Wedding Is It Anyway and how I loved when there were marathons on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Yes, all things bridal fascinated me and yes they still do. My best friend Ayana even referred to me a bridal junkie and maybe I am but it's love that makes the wedding world possible to begin with so how can I not be obsessed, I am a romantic after all.

Would I want to be a professional wedding planner, I don't know, I don't think so but I do love having Bronze Budget Bride be a part of my life because I get to help people and I love that. Brides sign up with so many fears about how they are going to get all they want with their small budget and sometimes, surprisingly, they just want reassurance that they can get what they want and have that wedding they've been dreaming of all their lives.

As for the name, that is what I call myself, a Bronze Budget Bride because I want a platinum wedding without the price tag. Every time I watched Platinum Wedding on WeTv I paid very close attention to where the couples were spending the most money. I came to realize that I may not be able to afford a $50,000 venue but I can still get my wedding to look as good as a platinum wedding by making sure that it's elegant, personalized in some way and that no part of it is obviously DIY. That is why I try to help brides find cheap, elegant wedding essentials but I don't encourage them to do it all themselves because that's where elegant can turn to inelegant quickly.

It's just 10 months until March 15th, 2011 and I am excited about that every single day. I am so enjoying every bit of the planning, even budget crunching because each time it comes down to, "oh we can't afford that" our creative juices start flowing and we've come up with some really unique ideas that way. For example, we wanted new wedding bands since the ones we have are what we could afford at the time, but we love them all the same. So we decided to try and see if we could get them melted together and add some other personal pieces of jewelry to make new ones. We thought this might cost too much but we're actually getting them done for under $700 in our area, how cool is that.

I am really happy about all we've put together so far and I'm glad I get to share this journey with so many wonderful people in the wedding world. I don't know what the future holds for this Bronze Budget Bride but I do know that as long as I have my fingers I will keep posting tips and links on the blog/magazine because everyone deserves to have the wedding of their dreams and I'm glad I get to say to all mini budget brides that,"Yes, you can too."

Bronze Budget Bride Website
Bronze Budget Bride Fan Page
Bronze Budget Bride Twitter Page