Planning a wedding is a roller-coaster of a process, and thanks to my recent engagement to my fiancée, we find ourselves on the ride. We’ve chosen to have it in early 2026, so we have just under two years to pull it all together. Seems like plenty of time, but I just know it will fly by, so I want to get some thoughts down now before we get too deep into the weeds.

My decades-long obsession with the freecycle movement, which these days is synonymous with the Buy Nothing Project, seems like a great tool to use on this project- to keep things low-budget and low-waste, I’ll try to get as much for free or second-hand! Any excuse to go thrifting, truly.

I’ve jokingly referred to myself as a Johnny Appleseed of Buy Nothing groups because twice now I’ve moved to a place where there was no group, and then I established one. I’ve been the admin of my current group for nearly 4 years at this point.

We’re hoping to be resourceful in a variety of ways- sometimes DIY, sometimes sourcing locally, sometimes rethinking and going outside the box. Tapping into our communities will play a large part in how we go about this process. We feel that this emphasis on community roots and resources will help personalize the event, to give it our authentic vibe and aesthetic.

I do expect to need to buy consumables like food and beverages, but if we can grow some of the produce and/ or brew some of the beer ourselves, that would be pretty cool. Considering we live in southern California, we ought to be able to harvest lemons and limes without too much trouble, but I wonder what else we can score? I do know someone with an avocado tree…

There are lots of ways this could work, and I am brimming with ideas at this early stage in the process, so let’s list a few just to get some ideas rolling.

• Getting my wedding dress from a thrift store or second-hand website
• Growing our flowers/ propagate succulents for the ceremony & centerpieces
• Using mason jars as flower vases- we have a few dozen already and can source more
• 3D printing table numbers
• DIY invitations (this one means I’ll need to get serious about learning calligraphy)
• Dyeing thrifted tablecloths
• Borrowing tables and folding chairs

I plan to save money by having my cats perform the ceremony.

Just kidding.

Or am I?

Our engagement party is 4 months way, which we’re hosting in order to introduce our immediate families to each other and start that bonding process. It also seems like a good opportunity to test run a few ideas to see how effective and sustainable/ scalable they are. I’m thinking of growing some flowers and sourcing décor items. We’ve already collected a few funky lanterns and wooden candlesticks from the estate of my partner’s late grandmother, which is nice because we’ll feel her presence at our events.

On that note, if you are reading this blog, first off, thank you to making it to the end. Secondly, if you are in a local giveaway group or two, please keep an eye out for fancy teacups (they don’t need to be a set, mismatched is fine). If you see some, please consider requesting them on my behalf. I’ll ultimately need a few dozen, so let’s see what we can get.

I’m hoping to grow some California sunflowers, and other native flowers in time for the engagement party, so seeds as well as pots welcome!

Also, I need to borrow some chairs and chafing dishes for the engagement party in July, so message me if you are local and have some to loan! Thanks!!!