Give me your best budget wedding ideas!

[Kriddlet]

So, my DFi and I have been together 9 years and have 2 girls, 12 and 7. We have been engaged for almost five years and were waiting until we "had the money" to get married. So, if we keep doing it this way, it's never going to happen

We have set a date to get married June 4th, 2011. My parents have over an acre of lawn, so we are going to use their back yard for the ceremony and reception. My DFi just went back to work after being laid off for a year, so finances aren't great.

I need some great budget wedding ideas. So far, I have my uncle who will photograph for free, and then make us a wedding album as our wedding gift (he's a professional photographer) and we have a friend who will DJ for 6 hours for $400.

My biggest concerns I am running into is catering (I REALLY want it to be catered, late afternoon wedding) and renting a tent and table/chairs. Had no idea renting a big party tent with tables/chairs would cost more then $1,000!

So, what are your great ideas?!!

 

[FoundMyPrince]

elope Just remember whatever you decide, it's not about the wedding, it's the marriage. We've known people to spend nearly $100,000 on a wedding (15 years ago) and people that have eloped. No matter how much is spent, they are still married. And, the friends that we know that eloped still love one another and have photos to remember the wedding by; the $100,000 wedding couple lasted 3 years before the bride moved on to a co-worker.

 

[Chelley00]

Congrats!

We got married outside beside a lake, and found the catering was going to cost more than the rest of the wedding, so we actually did it ourselves. We had a picnic style reception, and asked many of the women in our family and my girlfriends to help us cook, mostly the day before. We prepped everything we could and did lots of things in crockpots. They could be fridged the day before then put in the crockpot base and warmed up the day of the wedding. It fit in with our casual, inexpensive wedding and we got lots of compliments on how "unstuffy" it was

It's one of the nicest things I remember, having all these women that I love laughing and chatting while they cooked. I learned LOTS of things about them, their wedding days, they gave me lots of marital advice etc. Later that evening we all went out for dinner together.

You can do your own flowers to save money. Craft stores like Michaels and Joanns and especially Hobby Lobby are great about having flyers out on how to make bouquets and guys flowers (not about to try and spell the bout word .....) I started buyinng each week using their 40% off coupons from the newspaper and their websites and saved tons of money that way!

 

[hockeyprincess]

My advice would be to do as much of it as possible yourself. Including decorating, flowers, etc! I actually ordered my flowers from a lady on Ebay. She did a BEAUTIFUL job, took my requests and emailed me photos of each & every item as it was created for my approval. I loved what she did, and I think it cost me $300 for quite a huge box of boquets, boutineers, etc. The local floral shop would have been thousands.

We also did all the table decorating and hall decorating ourselves. Found items at garage sales, rented what we needed, had the most beautiful hall I have ever seen.

Could you get a local mom & pop restaurant to cater for you? I've found they have better food and less of a price tag when doing events like this, versus a catering company.

Have your dress made by a seamstress, I found after I spent a fair amount of money on my dress (not outrageous but fair amount) that our local seamstress makes bridal gowns and could have made mine.

Enlist your friends & family for all the help you can get! Best wishes to you & your family!

 

[hockeyprincess]

Also search your local Craigslist for decorations, CL wasn't around when I got married but I've seen alot of ads on there for used wedding decorations for cheap. Remember they were only used for 1 day! So used doesn't mean used up. Also Ebay, Etsy.com for crafty items, local garage sales, etc.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Since the plan is for an afternoon reception instead of having a full meal just make it more of a cocktail type event. You can very easily prepare that type of food yourself.

Could your parents help out with the cost instead of giving a gift?

Ask a friend to throw a Jack and Jill night to raise a few dollars.


We got married in Vegas and the wedding was $150...you can't get much cheaper than that.

 

[LisaInNc]

I would look for alternate ways to get the tables and chairs. Maybe contact a local church or VFW type hall.

For catering I would really hunt around. Maybe work on finding someone just starting out that needs to make a name for their company.

You could also get things made and then put them out yourself. That is cheaper than having someone serve you. If you need people contact your local church and ask them about hiring teenagers they recommend as responsible.

Think out of the box.

Lisa

 

[apirateslifeforme]

I don't know if any of these will help, but here goes...

DBF and I do NOT want to have a huge wedding. In fact, we'd like to just have a backyard BBQ, but my mother has vetoed that. We have found, however, that a nice catered buffet (either at a restaurant/banquet room, or they'll come to you) runs about $20 per person around here. For us, worst-case scenario is that EVERYONE invited comes and all of the single guests bring a guest, we'll still only have 50 people. So that's "only" $1000 (but I had no idea that the tent, tables and chairs would be $1000 as well...I need to look at that!)

I hate wedding gowns. HATE. I look horrible in white and ivory and it's my 2nd (and last!) wedding anyway. I have found some very pretty non-matronly formal dresses on sites like Nordstrom and Dillards, between $150 and $200. DBF has a black suit - that'll do!

My mother has a friend who does beautiful floral gifts. I would like to ask her if she can make a bouquet for me that will fit into a vase afterward (or even have her re-fashion it after the wedding). I plan to pay her, of course, if she'll take it. Knowing her, though...

Michael's also sells invitation kits. If you don't invite a lot of people, they have kits for about 30-40 invitations. I think you can do them on the computer. I usually see those on sale for $20 or so.

And we just don't want a huge wedding party. DBF's brother will be his best man, and his sister or my mother will be MOH. That's it. No DJ, as we don't dance (we'll figure something out for dinner music). We probably will splurge a bit on a photographer, as we definitely want photos.

That's all we have so far.

 

[3boymthr]

My wedding was only sorta-budget - but I have multiple family members how have done major budget weddings.

A lot depends upon how many people you have at your wedding. My DB and his wife had an outdoor ceremony with over 100 guests and total cost including food, clothing, etc. was under $2,000.

For chairs - ask your church if they have folding chairs you could borrow or rent. My SIL and her DH did this - she was able to borrow 100 chairs - the church just requested that they be cleaned after. She just had to make arrangements to transport the chairs - DH did this in the back of our station wagon - I think it took him 4 trips.

This same SIL and DH's SM did all the cooking starting a couple of days before the wedding with my DH and the bride'smaids and groomsmen pitching in to help; they live far away and just DH was able to attend as the kids had school or I would have helped too.

For tables look into borrowing folding tables from family and friends and cover with in-expensive tableclothes or even sheets - or maybe even borrowed cloths. Flat white sheets (or in your wedding colors) can be picked up on sale for cheap money then hemmed to fit.

Since you are going to have the wedding in your parent's back yard one way you could save is to use potted plants to decorate. You will have plenty of time to plant your own and grow them in decorative pots. Head to the local garden shop now, scope out the kinds of plants that are available, speak to them about what you could grow and let your imagination go wild. My DB and SIL did this and it looked amazing they had these wildly overflowing pots of flowers and the total cost was about $100 including the pots.

DB and SIL also saved a lot of money by going thru a local retaurant that catered BBQs and outdoor functions as opposed to a wedding caterer. They paid $10 per person for the food.

 

[mommycrawford]

I will make a suggestion borrowed from an old BF...Have a pot luck wedding!

You can decorate as you like....rent tables from office supply instead of caterers...and you don't really need the kind of "wedding gifts" people give new couples. Also, see if another friend will DJ as your wedding gift!

It will be a really special party to celebrate your love and commitment to life together!!! All you need is a great cake and great outfits for your children!

All the best!

 

[grumpeeduck]

I think it's great that you are finally getting married, your kids definitely need that.
But after being together for 12 years, and your DBF being out of work for sooooo long............I have to wonder if maybe you should scale back a bit...

Why a Dj for 6 hours??????? Why a dj at all???????????
Wouldn't just a simple cake/punch after a simple ceremony suffice??

Like a PP said, it's the marriage that counts, and your guests will be there for whatever you choose to do.

 

[brymolmom]

Best advice is to keep the invite list as small as possible. I know at the time it 'seems' like you need to invite a whole bunch - but think carefully - this is BY FAR the best way to shave cossts and honesly, 10 years later - I DEFINITLEY could have avoided inviting a bunch of the guests. Don't get me wrong - I loved having them there - but it wasn't 'necessary' to have them all there it was a 'nice to have'.

I did an informal picnic reception with tables/chairs and tents. It ended up, in my case, to not save very much $$ in the end. By the time I bought/rented the tent, tables/chairs, garbage bags, coffee cups, stirrers, creamer, alcohol, paid bartenders, got the serving platters to put our appetizers/desserts on, extra TP and paper towels for the bathrooms, bottle openers, ice for the coolers, and then paid the caterer - EVERY SINGLE THING that people will use or have - I think I saved MAYBE $500 - $1000 but likely not at the high end of that.

And when you count all my time and that of my friends/family to put the cheese cracker platters together, buy all the soda and alcohol, setup all the tables and chairs, pick up the desserts and put them out, put tableclothes on all the tables, decorate- and then afterward - take down tables/chairs, pick up every empty can and cup, take garbage away, etc....It likely didn't save us anything at all when you consider the time put into those activities.

With hindsight - I wish I had investigated an afternoon reception at a banquet hall for a FEWER number of people. I think we might have even ended up saving a bit if we had done it that way.

Just a thought to look into...it is a LOT of work to do it the way you are. I know - I've done it!

 

[Sorsha]

Ok - DH and I had a super-budget wedding (17 years ago this July) because it just was NOT in the finances to have a big one. Here's some of the things we did - they won't all work for you, but maybe you can take some ideas from them.

1) My mom made my wedding dress. She is a very accomplished seamstress and it turned out beautifully. She said she learned new ways to curse creatively in the process, however. I bought the materials, she did the work.

2) My MIL made our cake. She had had cake-decorating training, and it was very lovely.

3) We rented tuxes and gowns for the bridal party. The mother of my flower girls made their dresses. She simply made dresses in a lovely floral pattern that coordinated with our colors. Then the little girls got to keep them and use them until they grew out of them.

4) We had the wedding in the church we attended; the pastor waived his fees, and we paid a pittance for the facility. Then we had the reception in DH's parents front yard. It was lovely, we borrowed tables and chairs from the church's banquet room for free.

5) We tried to do flowers as cheaply as possible - definitely the "bargain special" at the florist's shop. If I had it to do it all over, I would buy flowers from Costco (you can get huge bunches very reasonably) split them up, and do the arrangeing myself.

6) My husband's uncle, who dabbles in photography, took all the pictures for us, and did a lovely job. He sent us the negatives (yes, it was THAT long ago) and we simply printed out what we wanted. Years later, when I got into scrapbooking, I made my own album, and I just love how it turned out.

I was at a wedding recently and they had SUCH a neat idea!! They bought, in bulk, those "one-time use" cameras, the ones where you drop the whole camera off for developing. They threw a few on each table, and encouraged the guests to use them to take pictures of anything - the bride and groom, other guests, etc. Then the cameras were just to be left on the tables. They gathered them up afterwards, had them developed, and ended up with hundreds of lovely, candid photos.

7) Music. One of my best friends from high school, an accomplished pianist, provided the music for our ceremony for free. For the reception, I think we just had the radio on. Nowadays, I would just fill my iPod with the music I wanted played, hook it up to a good speaker system, and hit shuffle.

8) Food we did BBQ/potluck. We bought all the meat and had several grills going constantly with hot dogs, brats, hamburgers, veggie meat alternatives (some of the guests were vegetarian) and chicken legs. Everyone else then provided salads, desserts, beans, chips, etc. Just remember to assign each member of the wedding party something important: one brings the paper plates, one bringd the silverware, one brings the condiments, one brings the buns, etc.

9) Alcohol. We had a "dry" wedding - several family members and friends are strict teetotalers. Didn't bother us any... we had a huge bowl of punch (one of our grandmothers made it) another huge bowl of iced tea, and sveral coolers full of soda. Costco is your friend.

Anyhow, hope that helps. We had a really fun wedding, with a very minimal outlay of cash.

 

[Earstou]

Some of my dd's wedding was budget, some was not! She was married in a park, that part was budget! We had a tent on reserve, if the weather was a little rainy, we would use it. Turns out the rain stopped before the wedding, so we didn't use it...so no cost. But their reception was indoors, so we didn't have to worry about that part of it. Also, we could have held the wedding at the reception site if we needed to.
Be sure to have a back-up plan for bad weather. We almost needed ours

We rented chairs, but did set-up ourselves, saving a little money.

Flowers, none needed at the park as they were married in a garden area with a fountain. For the reception, she ordered by the stem. We gathered vases for a year before the wedding, finding them on clearance and at second-hand stores. Filled these with the loose flowers. She considered ordering the same for the attendants and wrapping the stems with ribbon, but decided not to. She also found a florist in a small town who charged next to nothing.

I see someone already suggested what I too was thinking, a BBQ place for catering.

 

[patsal]

I agree with the pp who said elope. I did and it was a huge money saver! 20 years later and I still do not regret it!

 

[deerhart]

My number 1 advice is to pick what is most important to you and put your money there. That was the "rule" for my wedding so here goes the break down

1) I got my wedding dress and veil from a small store in the UP of Michigan while on vacation. Since I bought it off the rack, it was over 40% off, plus they were having a sale on the accessories so they were also 40% off. Ended up being less then $500.00 total including alterations.

2) We didn't use a local caterer. Instead we used a restaurant about 60 miles away. It came to about $3 per person, or $600 for 200 people. They had people to serve the food, provided all the plates/utensils/napkins etc..

3) We had a friend of the family make the wedding cake, it was gorgeous! total cost $200.00

4) We rented the local community center for the reception, cost $75.

5) We purchased our own alcohol (kegs), wine, and soda - total cost about $200.00

6) We did our own decorations, many of which my aunt chose to make. Total cost about $250 (including a water fountain w/ trellis and trees with bench in front for pictures)! My cousins made balloon arches and since my colors were green and silver we bought a ton of stuff during the after christmas sales (including christmas lights which we used to decorate the church and the reception). The church still uses the garland and candle lights during christmas that we donated to the church from my wedding (we had pinned to the garland bouquets of flowers and big silver bows).

7) flowers - well this is the ONE area I wouldn't budget on because I wanted lilies, orchids, and roses in my bouquet, sashs for the candelabras at the church, flowers for the cake, backdrop for behind the cake, bridesmaids bouquets, flowers for mothers, grandmothers, great grandmothers, flower girl flowers and the list went on and on and all real (no fake). My parents house smelled WONDERFUL with all the flowers covering the dining room table in front of the AC. We spent at least $900 on flowers. But, I was willing to cut back on other things so that I could have what I wanted here

8) photography: we hired a professional photographer who would do 4 hours of wedding/reception for less than $400 and give us one copy of every photo and give us the negatives. He worked with my aunt and his photography was a 2nd job.

9) Dj, we hired a DJ service, it was like $250 for the evening.

10) my grandmother altered all the bridesmaid dresses

11) no cost for the church and my parents tipped the pastor $100.00

12) my aunt played all the music and sang at my wedding (free)

All in all we spent less then $5,000 on everything for the wedding (including my mother's outfit, tuxes, transportation from the church - my hubby got my a horse drawn carriage, reception, my dress, flowers etc....) and honeymoon (to disney of course). We also spaced purchases out over the course of a year. We did have about 200 people at the wedding. Also neither my mother or my grandmother wanted to have anything to do with making my wedding dress (they made my mom's and all three of her sisters dresses) after my grandmother made my senior prom dress (10 foot diameter skirt and 15 feet of hand crocheted lace) and my wedding dress was going to be of a similiar style and I was talking needing a hoop skirt!

Some things to think about to save money. Do an late morning or early afternoon wedding, thus either serving a light lunch or just hor'devours and cake. A 1pm wedding, out by 2 with a reception until 5pm serving hor'devours and cake will bypass the need for a lot of tables and save costs on food (as you won't have to serve a full meal)

 

[tiggrsbride]

We did a semi-DIY wedding for my younger sister a few years back. She wanted a wedding on a beach. We found a bed and breakfast overlooking the ocean, booked each room for several nights (parents of bride and groom, bride, me and my family) and used the inn for the ceremony and reception. *We were very lucky to have gotten this deal!*

Invitations were created and printed with a home software program.

A cherished uncle got ordained as a minister for the ceremony at a minimal cost.

The bridal gown was an inexpensive sale dress from David's Bridal. I found my matron of honor dress at Dress Barn on sale for under $40.

The groom owned a perfectly fine suit, all the important men purchased identical dress shirts at a low cost.

Rings were handed down from grandparents.

Flowers were grown by a friend of the family for the summertime event. She arranged them in simple bouquets and filled pitchers, urns and vases with an abundance of blooms!

For reception food, we created menus of upscale finger food, purchased plates, napkins, cups and silverware at places like BJ's and Costco over a period of time, to spread out costs. Food was purchased on sale and at BJ's and local supermarkets. Prep work on the food was done the day before the wedding by the family and a friend, and a local person was hired to do final prep and service the day of the event. The food was fabulous! We grazed all afternoon!

Beverages were $2 buck Chuck wine and beer from kegs, along with soda and water.

I gave the wedding cake as a gift. It was from a wonderful bakery and beautifully decorated with handmade chocolate seashells. My father went and picked it up to save delivery costs.

She hired a photographer who was starting out. She bought 3 to 4 hours of time and got the pictures on a CD. Big savings, amazing pictures!

A friend acted as the DJ as we danced on the deck overlooking the ocean.

Upscale...and more importantly, it was her dream wedding. We were all pretty tired after the big day, but it was amazing!

 

[portlyn]

The DISboards are great, but if you want specific wedding advice, may I suggest you check out iVillage. I'm also an avid poster over there and the people there are just great and the wedding section has a lot of great ideas and very good about tips for budgets.

 

[Evi]

If you haven't purchased your dress go to filenese basement website and sign up for info on running of the brides. Also there is a bridal shop I believe its in Watertown MA that has dresses at a discount.

If you plan to have your wedding at a venue try for a Sunaday afternoon should be much less then rest of weekend.

If you can plan around major holidays like Christmas since lots of places already have decorations.

Reach out to small businesses and your own network of friends etc to find our if anyone knows someone who provides a service you'll need. You'll be keeping business local and more likely then not get better pricing you can also try to lowball an offer you'd be surprised prices are not set in stone and tweaking things from a menu item to type of flower can be huge on your budget.

Get crafty al'a Martha Stewart she has tons of ideas and alot of them are doable with enough time.

I hope some of this helps =)

 

[DCbride]

We didn't want a big wedding either. We had a simple ceremony for 16 relatives and friends on a beach. Very simple but lovely. I bought my dress from JC Pennys- it was a white prom dress. Absolutely beautiful.

Then we had a celebration party for about 100 guests later. Without having the expense and pressure of throwing a "wedding reception" We had fun food, no cake but yummy desserts. The invites said to dress casual. Many said it was the best reception they ever attended, especially the guys.