Wedding on a budget tips

[dreamin_disney]

My dfi and I have been together almost 11years. We have a dd who will be 10 this year. We are planning on getting married in Jan. I'm excited and nervous( I dont like attention). Anyways will be paying for everything ourselves. I want something simple and small. I figure just close family and friends , which is about 75 people(13 of my family members, 10-12 close friends and the rest dfi's close family). We both want a church wedding. To accomedate everyone we will have to get a hall and found American legion is cheapest at 500.00 for 4 hours. Dfi's family wants a D.J. so thats another 350.00. Church is 150.00 for catholic church and Priest wont make us do the 6 months consueling. We went to a local grocery store and found a wedding cake for 229.00. DFi's grandmother said if we buy the meat she will make it so thats about $60-$100 being a mexican wedding we will have rice, beans, rolls. Dfis mom said she will make a macoroni salad, I can make a pasta and potato salad. There will be a bar but everyone will have to buy their own liquor. We will provide punch and sodas. On the fence about buying a keg of beer.

I'm hoping to find a nice dress for under $200.00. I plan on making the invites myself and party favors.
Our colors are navy blue, sliver and white


any ideas? What about center pieces ideas? Monday we will reserv3e the church and hall. I'm not sure if the hall allows candles. I would love candles or battery operated lights but know the baterries can get expensive for lots of those. Any ideas tips or advice?

 

[Caglehead13]

Do you have any County facilities that you can check on to use for the reception? Sometimes people forget about Community Centers and such - we just got married and used one - it was $150 for 8 hours and included all tables & chairs.

If you have a Dollar Tree around, they have battery operated tealight candles - you get 2 for $1 - in case you can't use real candles.

Check out Oriental Trading Co online for some decorations you might be able to incorporate for cheap.

My aunt made our centerpieces - she just ordered a few bunches of baby's breath, and about 30 mini carnation stems (there's 3-4 mini carnations on each stem). The bunches of baby's breath were like $15 each, and the carnation stems were $1 each. You can get vases from the Dollar Tree too. She also just pulled fern pieces from her yard and used them in the centerpieces.

We got some of the plastic "china" looking plates from Costco - people thought they were real plated until they picked them up - they really look nice. We also got the plastic silverware from Costco - it looked like real silverware - shiny and all. You'd be amazed if you haven't seen it before - and the packages come with double the forks, which works out well since you'll have cake too. It has 80 forks, 40 spoons, 40 knives per package and is like $10.

Hope this helps!

 

[stopher1]

We got married almost 15 years ago, so of course prices of stuff have gone up since then - but both DW and my parents were recently divorced and not able or willing to do much for us financially, so 90% of the burden of a wedding fell to us - and of that I'd say about 90% of it then came to me. I wanted to ensure DW got a nice wedding, but at a reasonable cost. The only really expensive parts of our experience came down to the Photos, since that was truly the only souvenir we'd have, and the honeymoon (WDW). The rest was cheap but nice. My mother is a professional seamstress, so she made DW's dress - DW only paid for the materials which came in about about $125 or so. A local bakery did the cake, and it was less than what you quoted, but given the time that's passed since then, it's probably about what ours would have been in 1994 dollars. We opted to go with a morning wedding and a "light luncheon" instead of an afternoon wedding and "dinner" - which saved us like 75% of the food budget! We also used a county golf course's clubhouse vs. a country club for the reception, which also saved about 90% of the cc's quoted cost. We had a liquor free reception to avoid that cost all together, and a friend supplied the music services gratis, so there was no DJ cost. We shopped around for a limo and got the best deal possible. DW and MIL made all of the centerpieces themselves which were basic and simple, and for fun they added hershey kisses and confetti to each table. DW chose a very simple but elegant (and cheap) single card invitation with a single card response as well. I remember her pouring over the wedding books and showing me all kinds of fancy ones, but in the end the practical side came out and the inexpensive won out. I did all of the table name cards on the computer, and then DW and MIL fancied then up with little flowers and doo-dads they got cheap at Michael's. In the end it turned out to a great day. On the wedding/reception itself we spent about $2000 or half of I did on our honeymoon, which is pretty good, considering we had about 200 people there. Granted in 2008 dollars that would be a lot more - but it was still cheap compared to numerous friends who wed that same year or the year after and spent double or triple what we did on just the wedding/reception portion!

 

[dreamin_disney]

Thanks for the tips!

Caglehead13- I didnt even think of the community center. I will look into that. I was also thinking of a single flower(white rose-might be too much) with baby breath in vases. The hall already has the long rectangle tables which i prefer the circle tables but will go with what comes with the hall. I must go look for the sliverware you mentioned. If it looks real and shiney, that would be perfect. I want navy blue napkins and if the plasic ware looks sliver then perfect for the color scheme.

stopher1- I hqvent even started pricing photography. I know that will be expensive. I have no idea where to start on that-lol! I'm into computer crafting so the invites and favors are covered. That will save me some money.
I also plan on having family save Michael coupons for me to use for buying decorations. Not sure if the white wedding flowers are on sale or clearance. I know after summer they are discounted. Not sure to go with a sliver heart theme or snowflakes. I guess it will depend what goes on clearance after x-mas.

 

[parmtoo]

My neighbor is getting married soon too. She had an idea that I thought was really cute! Instead of one big wedding cake, they are getting a small cake for each table, this way, the cake also serves as a centerpiece! Congrats and good luck!

 

[coolbeans]

Don't laugh. I went to the Dollar Tree yesterday and they have rolls of Tule (white or ivory), little glass slippers and swags of ivy leaves. I have a friend getting married in January and she is getting the tule there to line the church pews and to cut for birdseed packs.

 

[powellrj]

try a student photographer, my DS used one for his wedding in June. He took many great pictures and then sold DS the disk for us to have our own .
prints made. Make sure you get a signed release to get the prints made.

One of the bridesmaids asked at bath and bodyworks what they did with display pieces at the end of the promotions and she was able to get lots of lovely decorations for free. They were beautiful!

 

[dreamin_disney]

powellrj- i live down the street from a university, maybe if i post something i might find a student photo

coolbeans- How long is the tulle? I'll have to check out my $1 tree. I'm going to have to ask the church about decorations. I'm not sure if we deco the pews and floral arrangment for the front. The church I got to has three slots for weddings 12pm, 2pm and 5 pm but they also do Quinceneras in between. If i do need to make tulle bows for the pews, then those would be great for the reception to add on gift and cake table

parmtoo- the center piece cakes sounds cute but there will be kids at the reception and i get a visual of them poking at the cakes

 

[churchpilot]

For the photographer---do a search of any photography forums in your area. You can inquire if there is anyone willing to do your wedding to build their portfolio. Some of these guys follow a more experienced photog as a second shooter and learn their craft very well. Just make sure their equipment is up to snuff. Also consider getting someone who does a photojournalistic style rather than traditional. These pictures are less time consuming to pose and shoot!!

 

[dreamin_disney]

For the photographer---do a search of any photography forums in your area. You can inquire if there is anyone willing to do your wedding to build their portfolio. Some of these guys follow a more experienced photog as a second shooter and learn their craft very well. Just make sure their equipment is up to snuff. Also consider getting someone who does a photojournalistic style rather than traditional. These pictures are less time consuming to pose and shoot!!

great idea! What question do i ask besides looking at their work.

 

[coolbeans]

coolbeans- How long is the tulle? I'll have to check out my $1 tree. I'm going to have to ask the church about decorations. I'm not sure if we deco the pews and floral arrangment for the front. The church I got to has three slots for weddings 12pm, 2pm and 5 pm but they also do Quinceneras in between. If i do need to make tulle bows for the pews, then those would be great for the reception to add on gift and cake table

I didn't look, I think I was surprised to find it actually. I always thought it was expensive for some odd reason. The roll was about 6 inches across just not sure how much was on it. sorry!!

 

[englishteacha]

I posted about our wedding on another thread yesterday, so I won't repeat here. Dh and I paid for our wedding ourselves and had to be very frugal. A family friend (an amateur photographer) took all our photos for us for free, and all our guests gave us copies of their pictures, too. We have over 600 pictures in our wedding album! If you can't afford a pro, make sure everyone you know is taking photos, and you're sure to get some great shots. We got married in 2002, so most folks still were using film cameras. Now with almost everyone using digital, it's so easy to share photos.

Our centerpieces were wild daisies in borrowed vases, completely free. Since you're doing January, maybe you could do evergreens? When purchasing wedding flowers, ask the florist what it would cost if they were to design something for you. I told our florist I wanted daisies, roses, and wildflowers in my bouquet, and they did the rest. It was $25 and the most beautiful wedding bouquet I'd ever seen. My friend picked a similar bouquet from the book in the shop, but wanted it exactly as shown, and hers was $50. Because I let the florist choose what was in season and design it, it was much less expensive. Our florist also rented silk floral arrangements. They were gorgeous, looked real, and were a quarter of the price of purchasing. My MIL sent me flowers the day before the wedding (daisies, of course!) which we put in the church for the ceremony. Don't overlook grocery store flowers, either. You can get lots of flowers inexpensively and put them everywhere!

Enlist the help of family and friends. Ask if they will help you instead of giving you gifts. If it weren't for my family's help, our wedding wouldn't have been the success it was.

 

[clh2]

Check craigslist in your area for photgraphers. I know the craigslist i n our area has some that WILL do weddings and give you a disc for you to print your own pics.

To save money on a cake - buy the smallest wedding cake you can possibly get by with (i.e. a 2 tier, where one is the anniversary tier), and then just buy sheet cakes to make up the rest of the amount of cake you'll need. This is much less expensive than a big fancy wedding cake.

Also - be cure to check craiglist for wedding decorations. Right now, in my area, there are a ton of wedding decorations, vases, pew bows etc that people have used, and now they want to get rid of.

 

[Kate and Pete]

What about doing cupcakes for the wedding cake? I have seen some really spectacular "cupcake cakes"! Check over on the wedding board - I know some of them must have pics!! And it's becoming quite "the thing to do."

 

[Squishypig]

I just got married 3 months ago and had a very nice afternoon wedding for 100 people for around $7,000. And $2,000 of that was hall rental and $1,500 was for photography and $1,300 for catering!

For the photographer---do a search of any photography forums in your area. You can inquire if there is anyone willing to do your wedding to build their portfolio. Some of these guys follow a more experienced photog as a second shooter and learn their craft very well. Just make sure their equipment is up to snuff. Also consider getting someone who does a photojournalistic style rather than traditional. These pictures are less time consuming to pose and shoot!!

This is what I did. In addition, ask for the negatives or a CD of high resolution pictures and ask for a release to print the pictures yourself. I am ordering through SmugMug (same place that my photog uses) and paying $.19 for a 4x6 compared to $3.00 through the photog.

What about doing cupcakes for the wedding cake? I have seen some really spectacular "cupcake cakes"! Check over on the wedding board - I know some of them must have pics!! And it's becoming quite "the thing to do."

We also did this. We did the plain white swirl cupcakes like you'd find at a birthday party (nothing fancy like flowers of fondant). We bought 12 dozen at $6/dz so our total cost was $72. I put mini bride and groom picks into each one. It was nice because no one had to stand and cut the cake, everyone just grabbed one. My dad made the cake stand.

Alcohol. We were able to provide the alcohol ourselves so we went to a local liquor store and bought cases of wine at 10% off a case AND they let us return any unopened bottles after the wedding. This was our big money saver in that we grossly overestimated the amount of wine our guests would drink. We bought $1200 worth but only $200 worth was consumed! Sam's had the cheapest price on beers in bottles and we also provided bottled water as well. Overall we probably only spent $400 on alcohol and our guests did not have to pay for it.

My dress was simple and a sample that I found for about $350 with alterations. Don't be afraid to tell the bridal shop that you are looking for a deal. The first bridal shop I visited was offering me 20-40% off of the dresses and accessories! All I did was tell them that I'm not looking to spend a lot! Ask around for people who do alterations as they are usually cheaper than doing them in the bridal shop. Forget about buying a veil in a bridal shop. I bought my cathedral length embroidered veil on ebay for $30. If I had purchased it in the bridal salon, it would have been over $200.

I did my own flowers purchased through Sam's. All red roses for bouquets, centerpieces and petals. I ordered them online and they were delivered to my door 3 days before the wedding (I specified when they delivered). For about 400 roses I paid $300. It looks like the price has gone up a little bit since my wedding though: http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?catg=1539

I designed my own invitations, RSVP cards and reception cards and I was fortunate that my inlaws own a print shop so they printed them for free. Had I paid, it still would have been significantly less than paying out of catalog.

If you have a Hobby Lobby around you, stalk the weekly ads. In the months leading up to my wedding they frequently put all of their wedding stuff on sale 50% off. I picked up a shorter veil for after the ceremony for $10 there. They also put their vases on sale for 50% so that was a great money saver as well.

A beautiful wedding CAN be done for a reasonable amount. The little purchases here and there are the ones that tend to screw up a budget more than the high priced items. In the age of over blown wedding celebrations filled with "have to do's" and "have to have's" remember that the only thing you need to be married is an officiant, marriage license, bride, groom and witness. Everything else is negotiable. I am just as married as someone who paid $30,000 for a wedding. Good luck!

 

[wld]

dd 2 got married this past June and dd1 the july before that. Both got their wedding dresses at davids bridal on sale for less than $300 and they were beautiful. One was cheaper but had to be altered, other one did not have to be altered
We saved alot of money doing the food ourselves for dd1. WE all got together and prepared it the day before the wedding. It was great fun with 4 generations working together.
We did not use a professional photographer for either wedding. My niece and I took pictures with our Rebel digitals and everyone else donated too. dds do not regret the money saved and love their pictures.

A friend of my sisters was starting a decorating business and did decorations(disney theme)for dd 1. I got the plastic table cloths at the dollar store and you couldn't even tell once everything was set up.
We did the decorations for dd2 and used a candle lantern like thing with tea lights. But we only had to do 7 tables. The flowers on the gazebo were made to be her table decoration too.

Total cost for 1st wedding, including dress, married at courthouse(their choice) and with a reception for 150 was $3000. We got a deal on the hall (at the super8 very nice) and the dj because we held it on a friday night.
Oh and we planned and executed it all in 2 months.

DD2s wedding came in at $5000. for 28 people but it was on Mackinac Island, so it had to be catered, flowers were more, etc. We also paid for everyones ferry ride. Planning time 6 months
She used the cupcakes for her wedding everyone thought they were great!
DD1s cake was shaped like Mickeys head

Most importantly both girls had the wedding of their dreams and were very happy with everything.

 

[Resseda]

And my first comment to you and any other bride I come across is to remember that this ine one day out the the whole rest of your life/lives. It's improtant, it's something you will want to remember, but it's one day.

We had friends do the catering and photography. Our best man and his wife did our wedding cakes-several smaller sized heart cakes at different heights and a 3 tier cake to cut for pictures. My mom made my dress-fabric with 40% coupons at Jo-Anns. Rented a closed in park pavillion that looked like an old farm house and looked out over Lake Ontario. My in-laws paid for the alcohol. We burned CDs for our music and brought our stereo from home. We got married in March and our colors were red & white, so I snagged a lot of Valentine's decorations from Target for cheap. Our certerpieces were from Michael's...again, 40% off coupons...just red and white flower candles floating in glass bowls. We set out red and white Hershey kisses and red and white M&Ms in the candy dishes from Target (and yes, we used the V-day M&Ms and very carefully sorted out all the pink ones.) Our plates and cutlery came from Factory Card Outlet. I had a dozen red roses, my maid of honor had 6. My girlfriend did my hair.

I think the key to a smaller or less expensive wedding is to be flexible. Not flexible to the point that you are doing things you don't want, but flexible that the just-right thing for you might be at Target or Sam's, as opposed to the bridal shop for 3 times as much.

 

[Zoemakes5]

One of the prettiest centerpieces I've seen was also one of the simplest. It was live planted flowers in the same colors as the wedding party. Then the bride took advantage of after x-mas sales to get the little twinkle lights that don't need to be plugged in and wrapped a strand of twinkle lights in and around the flower.
We had floating tealights in glass bowels. Fairly inexpensive.
For the favors, we did Herseys hugs and kisses candies wrapped in tule.
Another centerpiece I've seen which is really cool is a cube of pictures of the bride and groom through the years with little tealights around it to illuminate it. It was cute to see baby pictures of them. I thought it would be great to have it with a bunch of pictures of the bride and groom together.
If you're not doing alcohol, I wouldn't do beer. I've always thought that was a bit odd, frankly. Especially since I don't drink beer! But, beer is alcohol just like anything else. We didn't have an open bar. The only thing we paid for was the champagne for the toast. And it was already poured into champagne flutes and brought to the table.
If there is one splurge I'd highly recommend, it's shoes. Make sure whatever shoes you wear are comfortable, as you'll be in them a long time. We decided not to do a videographer and that's one thing we really regret. We don't have any video of our wedding, and it's all a total blur. Even if you don't have a videographer, have someone close designated to video tape the wedding and parts of the reception.

 

[Grumpy'sWife4Ever]

I didn't read all the responses, so I hope I am not repeating, but when it comes to the photos - a family friend with a good camera is always a wonderful option, or two if you want different angles. Plus, tell someone to bring their video camera and you'll have the whole thing live which is pretty fun....

As for the reception, you can put disposable cameras at each table and ask the guests to take pics. You can buy the fancy decorated kind through wedding places, but we bought a six-pack of regular disposables at Costco for what averaged about $2 a camera, and they turned out great. We got shots of guests we didn't even have time to talk to!!

 

[TheBeadPirate]

For the centerpieces have you thought about clearance Christmas ornaments in clear bowls(borrowed)? I know the past couple years KMart does color themes and I'm sure blue and silver was one of them. There's a package with 24 ornaments for $9 after Christmas(regular retail $19.99-at least last year). Or work the Michaels coupons and get the clear glass ornaments and do the paint drizzle thing inside in your colors, put them in a bowl on the tables for centerpieces with a card asking guests to take one as a favor from the wedding. Kills 2 birds with one stone.

And for cakes we did 5 regular cakes in 5 flavors (cheesecake, red velvet, carrot, chocolate, white) all decorated different and used a clearanced multi-tiere plant stand wrapped in tulle and silk ivy. It looked substantial with everything on different levels and we spent maybe $75 for all of it.

If nothing else check with the cake decorating class teacher at Michaels, Hobby Lobby, AC Moore, etc- they may give you a deal or a lead at least!

And I did Davids too for the dress. I picked a last season, ivory, in a plus size even and it was $99. Watch for their $99 sale.