This is the first in a series of how to ball on a budget: episode 1: engagement photos. Unless you?re Kate Middleton or Nicky Hilton, you probably have a budget for your wedding. If you?re like me, you probably didn?t consider your engagement photo ?look? as part of that budget. Since I had minimal dollars to spend but still wanted to look baller in our engagement photos, I used my arsenal of tricks to achieve my desired look.

Attire: Start with your existing wardrobe and work from there.
I knew I wanted us to have a Houston Texans inspired save the date, and luckily Mr. Eel and I both had jerseys. Actually, it wasn?t so much ?luck? as we are already obsessed fans and would not be able to call ourselves obsessed fans if we didn?t have jerseys. I paired my woman?s style jersey with an already owned pair of black stretch skinny jeans from Costco and wedges. This entire outfit cost me nothing since I already owned everything. Mr. Eel did the same with an already owned pair of jeans and Nike shoes.
For our second look, I wanted something a little fancier given that our first look was so casual. I had heard of but never used Rent the Runway and decided to peruse their site. I filtered by dresses that cost less than $50 to rent and found this amazing Slate & Willow Copper Fleur Shift for $40. The great thing about Rent the Runway is that they will send you a second size for free, so it gave me a little more assurance that the dress would fit. I paired this dress with a...