Frugal wedding planning .....

[DiannaK]

Hit me with your best frugal wedding tips!!!
My husband and I are validating our marriage in the Catholic Church next month, and getting our baby boys baptized the same day. Church is set (free, except for what we give our priest), booked the reception place today. We'll be hosting a get together for about 30-40 people or so.

Ceremonies begin at 1pm, so we are looking at a reception from around 3p-7p.

Give me ideas on food, flowers (will be minimal), etc.

Thanks!

[Norasmomma]

I just went to a wedding that was fairly fancy, but almost all of the food, wine and the cake were from Costco. I am pretty sure that some of the wine was from TJ's also.

The table decorations were from the dollar store, you can get candles, table runners, napkins, plates, vases, even fake flowers there, I know that was where the table decor came from. We also just did our DD's b-day party and all the decorations came from the dollar store. All the stuff looks classy and cute, not cheap.

What kind of food are you looking to do? My DH and I had a reception to celebrate our marriage(we eloped) but our family did all the meat/veggie/cheese trays, those you can made for a good deal though(another Costco thing). They also do flowers and I hear they are a great deal, but IDK from my own experience. I'm sure others have some great ideas.

[thixle]

Go for seasonal food. We got married in the summer, so we had a cookout, buffet style! You could do a traditional fall spread, buffet style... if you want to do a full-on meal. You don't have to. You can totally do a potluck if it is "informal" enough. No, that is NOT tacky to ask close friends and relatives to bring a dish.

Cake was 3 seperate small cakes and we rented a tiered stand covered in tulle for display (the stand was like $8)... The cake itself was simply white frosting with a little "beaded" edge in icing. We picked it up the day before and put flowers on top (summertime, so it was tiger lilies and...ugh, what are the purple flowers?)... Totally beautiful, totally budget friendly!

I used little plastic juice bottles, covered in white fabric and a purple ribbon tie, with rocks in the bottom (couldn't see that part) to hold flowers that were sitting on tables....

Have you sent out invitations? You can print them yourself at home if you have an eye for design. Just get good quality resume or artists papers. Honestly, ours looked better than many expensive printed ones...

ummm.... It's been a little while, but we basically did a DIY wedding and it turned out fabulous!

[cristeen]

We did a budget wedding party as well. For the flowers I went to the wholesale flower market and picked them up myself. This is where all the street vendors buy their flowers. The one here is open to the general public. I picked up enough flowers for centerpieces for all the tables for under $40.

The meal my family took care of. There's a local caterer that does whole roast pig. The whole pig costs about $125, and is enough to feed about 100 people. On top of that, we just had a huge salad bar, big bowls of greens and all the toppings you could think of, with 4 or 5 dressings, and several other salads (pasta, broccoli, etc.), chopped fruit, etc. Dessert was TJs frozen cheesecakes with homemade strawberry sauce. DH and I brew beer, so we made up two batches (4 cases), and there was a case of champagne (which I'm sure was some Bev Mo sale buy). I'm sure my parents bought some wine as well, and I know a couple guests showed up with bottles, but that's wine country for you. That was pretty much it. My parents hired a cousin to DJ, they rented tables, chairs and linens and set the whole thing up in their backyard. Paper plates, I don't remember about the cutlery, but it was probably disposable as well.

[DiannaK]

Yup .... we've already done the invites ... a GF of mine who is a scrapbooking queen helped me, and for $30, they are stunning!

I'm a bit stumped on food ... our ceremony will be at 1pm, and we are figuring getting to the reception house at 3. I could probably handle doing our small ham/turkey sandwiches (our standby for entertaining), and we truthfully COULD do a potluck. I just wasn't sure how much/what kind of food to have for an early afternoon shin-dig.

I'm probably not going to fuss too much with centerpieces, table decor, etc. I'll mark the bridal party (really just DH, me and the kids) table with some thing.

Here's the link to the reception house .... small, cozy, and I can arrange the seating however I wish.
Cornerstone Cottage pics

Now .... who's used the iPod for music at a reception?? Tips??

[feminist~mama]

It looks like a lovely place!

No real advise about the Ipod- I guess make sure someone's in charge of it and do what you can to make sure that all the music is at the same volume, KWIM? Some songs seem to be recorded really loud compared to others...

Oh, and "special" songs should be easy to find, like if there's a song you want for your first dance, etc.

Congratulations! I hope it's a fun day!

[ChetMC]

My Bought Our Flowers

My bought our flowers from a flower farm... $60 for three bouquets, the church and about twenty table centre pieces.

[MorganRiley]

we spent 1000 on our wedding

24 guests

backyard wedding

food from Costco

flowers from farmers market (mil arranged them)

cake was small...so less money than a big cake...just one round cake

[LaughingHyena]

We didn;t have an ipod but we did do our own music.

We burned MP3 CDs and took our CD player. After gathering all our songs we found that just setting it off on random play didn't work too well, it just didn't flow.

What we ended doing was one master CD with the tracks ordered (so we had some warm up stuff, then stuff we though people would dance too) we stuck a couple of songs at the end which we would recognise as our cue to change discs.

Then we did a couple of other CDs with a general "mood", I think 1 we intend to use as people arrived, 1 or slower stuff for then end of the evening and another I can't remember.

It did take longer than we thought to get the CDs done but it worked really well. I assume you could do the same with an ipod and set up several playlists.

As a bonus we like putting on our reception CD.

[That Is Nice]

I think we spent around $800 on our wedding.

I bought my wedding dress used. Actually it was a prom dress, I think, not a real wedding dress. It cost about $30 or so?

We didn't have a DJ, dance floor, or music. This was kind of a shame, I thought, since I would have like to have that, but we didn't have the money and looking back, I'm glad we didn't spend it.

We got married in a pretty cheap area. We found a place to have the wedding where it was free. It was a little cramped, but it was free.

I bought all the decorations, etc on clearance at a going out of business sale.

Decorations and flowers were kept to a minimum. We didn't use fresh flowers to save the money, although that would have been my choice.

We didn't hire a photographer.

Let's see...pretty much the only expense was the cake ($100), the tuxes (a few hundred) and the food (a few hundred).

So, cheap weddings can be done if you cut corners.

[BananaBreadGirl]

My grandma and my mom's friends baked up angel food cakes (from boxes) and we served them with strawberries and whipped cream for the wedding cake.

We borrowed centerpieces and tablecloths from other people who had recently got married.

Hired a church group to organize the kitchen (keep buffet tables filled, etc.) instead of a caterer. We bought salads and fruits and recruited relatives to cut up fruit the day before the wedding, which they didn't mind doing while they chatted. Local pork producers association member grilled pork chops which he bought ahead of time (and froze) when they were at a good price.

Made many decorations ourselves (flowers/candles for guest book table, etc.) with stuff from Hobby Lobby.

[PabloHoneySF]

Congratulations! I love hearing about people who do small weddings!

We had about 30 people at our new house for our wedding. Got flowers from Costco, my MIL and DH's grandmother made cakes from special family recipes. DH and his best friend made Beouf Bourgninon with pasta (French beef stew- I know I massacred the spelling) the night before and my SIL did a simple dish with chicken breasts. My other SIL brought over a simple green salad and someone picked up a bunch of baguettes from the local bakery that morning.

For music, my SIL's husband liked playing DJ when really all it entailed was cueing the ceremony music and turning on the iPod for mood music.

With such a small group it was really beautiful and intimate. Everyone felt special to be there and it was great that they all wanted to pitch in a little here and there.

[slsurface]

DH and I had a small wedding 8.5 years ago that cost us less than $2000 (honeymoon included). This is what I learned from it:

1. Invite only close family and friends/coworkers. Don't go crazy with the invitation list.

2. Chose a reception hall or location where you can bring in your own food. You DO NOT want to have to choose from their catering list or had THEIR food because the cost will be jacked up! Then prepare as much of the food yourself or have your family do it. (My mom and I made a ton of cookies and candies, as well as fruit platters).

3. Have an early wedding and try to avoid weekend weddings. This way you get a better rate on the reception hall.

4. Don't have a sit-down dinner. First of all, I hate these because families don't mix and talk. Second, it costs a LOT! If you have a buffet style with a few tables for eating (but don't provide enough tables and chairs for everyone to sit down), it will cost less. Like other pp said, have seasonal menu items, prepare them yourself. Our wedding was in spring. We had a breezy sort of lunch menu: sandwiches, fresh fruit and cheeses, etc.

5. DON'T serve alcohol. Reception halls have to hire security when you do and this costs you more $$.

6. Forget the DJ. Have a friend or relative with a god music collection put CD's together for you.

7. Shop local florists for bouquets. They often charge less. Choose in-season flowers - cheaper. Skip fresh flowers for the church and reception and make or buy silk arrangements.

8. The only thing that I recommend spending good $ for is the PHOTOGRAPHER. Ours was a disaster and we still have no wedding photos.

9. Make your reception deco yourself or with family. (Again, my mom was great in this area!)

10. Have a small wedding party...less dresses and suits to buy or rent.

11. Only invite the wedding party for the rehearsal and have a small dinner afterward.

12. Reuse a family wedding dress or shop thrift stores. I am always blown away by the fabulous dresses I see in the thrift shops! And instead of insisting on matching dresses for my two bridesmaids, I let them shop for a nice vintage dress in our color scheme. They both picked out pretty dresses that they could wear and use again and that cost me less than $50.

Some people may think that this sounds like a terrible wedding, but everyone who came to our wedding had a great time. It was a beautiful day (excluding the cold rain) - plus it all goes so fast! Honestly, DH and I went to his best friend's wedding a couple years ago. They went $20,000 in debt for it, and it wasn't that fabulous. I would much rather had a nice, but subdued gathering with my closest family than start out my married life in debt. But that's just me...

[anitaj71]

8.

The only thing that I recommend spending good $ for is the PHOTOGRAPHER. Ours was a disaster and we still have no wedding photos.

I agree. I hired a friend and the pictures were awful. My mother took better shots with her digital point and shoot. (check out my siggy )

We got all of the flowers from costco.

I found a caterer that charged about 30$ a head for a beautiful roast beef dinner with all the trimmings.

We had only about 45 guests.

Bar was in the basement and was self serve.

I hired a teen to clear tables, plates, cups etc.

The best savings I think was just having a simple wedding in our home. Small is key. I was able to splurge on a few things because we weren't feeding 100 people.

[elephantmargaret]

we got married mid-afternoon and did sandwich platters from walmart, veggie trays from costco, fruit from walmart, mints and nuts and my grandma made cookies. We had water and punch to drink. I had a person do the cakes and found out it was cheaper to do sheet cakes than stacked cakes-she decorated the sheet cakes beautifully and there was a small 2 tier cake as well. There was a ton of food left over!

[caiesmommy]

We had a surprise wedding so ours was DIRT cheap

dress custom made by maid of honours mom-$200
dh new suit(BADLY needed one!!)-$250
Food-pot luck(everyone thought they were coming to ds first bday party/our housewarming
Officiant-200(100 to officiant/100 went to charity for retired ministers)
table rentals ect-40 bucks inlaws paid
keg/liqour-300 paid by my dad/us
flowers-maybe 25 bucks bought "seconds" at a rose farm and picked the rest, hand tied them...they were AMAZING!!!
photographer-free!..friend wanting the experience, great shots
extra food that we bought-200?..maybe
cake-FREE-my best friend made it!
favors-FREE-best friend made them as well...both things were our wedding gifts and they couldnt have been a better gift
I think thats it really

My tips are:

invites-homemade/kit frm micheals! use the 40% off coupon!
flowers-finnd a place like we did...use seconds..believe me you cant tell!
dress-sears has cheap prom dresses ect
food-do light things sinnce its in between lunch and dinner
ask friends to help instead of gifts
centerpieces-keep simple..ie: bowl with floating candle/petals ect

HAVE FUN!!!