Weddings and other Special Events on a Budget!

[to1drland]

I went and got stuff from michaels today w/ 40% coupons...
got the one size of cake plate i didn't already have (12" one, already have a 10" & 8") also got the pillar balls ( base set and middle set), several small items for giftbaskets for wedding party etc. total spent 17.89 ( checked out 3 times- so i could use 3 coupons)

dollar tree trip netted this-
8 white 3" candles ( for candleabras)
10 pkgs. wedding bubbles
5 rolls of curling ribbon
6 pks. balloons ( white and silver)
3 silky fabric gift boxes ( for bridal party gifts)

and at TJmaxx i got-
2 sets of tall glass candle holders (2 in each set - $5 a set)

flowers will cost us nothing- as a dear friend of our's wife owns a flower shop and- that is our wedding gift from them- I just have to drive the 1 hr. drive to pick out what i want her to order! (Score!)

looking at the atrium at the art museum this week, for ceremony location.....and a couple others before holiday weekend!

[hotcouponmama]

Found this today - link still appears to be good - free magazine!

http://www.weddingbells.com/unitymail/wb_mag_offer.html

[to1drland]

today i found some goodies for the kids at the reception...
at dollar tree:
6-glow stick bracelets and necklaces 2-6 per pk.
4-4 pks. crayons (8 colors in each)
12 coloring books
4 card games

hopefully that will keep them all busy!

[to1drland]

well- needless to say- we have givin in to the family- and our small wedding is becoming a big wedding- on the up side my mom just paid for and ordered me the most gorgeous dress!! which also allows me to spend alittle more in other places. still hunting for a DJ-:beavisnbutthead:

we had our wedding at home we saved a lot of money that way some people we know rented the jim at our daughters school once to have a wedding we thought that was too much money

[sbp]

We got married 11 years ago, but we did it for under 7k, which included a 2 week honeymoon in Hawaii.

Alot of our deals were because of people we know, but some of the things we did to save some money:

My wedding dress came from a JCPenney Outlet store ($120.00 plus $50.00 for alterations). The one thing that I absolutely insisted on was a pair of white laceup booties to wear under my dress. They rocked, but were $70!

Wedding invitations and accessories I only paid wholesale for, since I was selling invitations at the time.

Flowers - we used silk for my bouquet (both a toss away and my keeper one) as well as for my bridesmaids, corsages for the parents & godparents and boutineres (sp) for all the guys). We only had 2 fairly large size arrangements set up in the front of the church, which we then took to put on the ends of the head table at the reception, and each table had a small vase with 2) real carnations (one white & one red) Flowers weren't high on my list of necessities! One of my bridesmaids was working for a nursery and her boss took us to one of her wholesale companies to buy everything.

My mom paid for the photographer (he was one of the biggest expenses, about $650) and my bil's uncle, an invited guest, videotaped it as a gift to us.

The reception hall rental was free! We had it at the local Moose lodge, dh was a member so we got the hall for free, just had to pay for the meal ($10.00-ish a plate for a roast beef dinner with all the fixins!), the bartender ($35) for the cash bar (we know too many people that like to party to have an open bar!!!), and a janitor ($35) for cleaning up afterwards.

Wedding cake was made by a former co-worker of mine. I gave her a picture from a magazine and she matched it perfectly, and she makes wicked delicious cakes. ($1.00/slice = $120.00) delivered and set up!!!

The tux place had a deal on rent 4 (or more) get 1 free.. Instead of us getting a tux free for dh, we just divided the total price of all the tuxes and divided it by the 6 guys renting and gave them a piece of the price break.

Another one of our bigger expenses were the wedding rings. When dh had picked out my engagement ring, he picked one with a heart shaped diamond so a regular shaped band wouldn't fit with it, so we had to go with the band designed to go with the ring he picked out. Wedding bands, both his and mine, were about $900.

Limo rental - free because we didn't have one!! We had wanted to ride in the back of my dad's 1936 white pick up truck, but it was raining that day, so we drove to the reception in my dad's blazer instead. We arrived at the reception site well after all the guests, due to the picture taking, so no one saw us drive in anyways..

I've been involved with wedding planning shows and it always amazed me to see brides go so crazy because they needed to have everything. To me a wedding is all about the love between 2 people and while a reception is meant to be a celebration with friends and family, there's no need to go so far in debt with it, that it takes years and years to recover from it. We had a budget to work with and we stayed within that budget, splurging on things we wanted to splurge on and spending less in other areas...

[MrsPinecone]

They had a news segment today on the top 5 money-wasters for Americans, and expensive weddings were #1! They said that the current average is $30,000.

[ArmyOfFive]

MIL paid for a venue for us, along with a bunch of the food & the cake.

All food was homemade or prepped. It was finger foods.

My dress was around $27 brand new on ebay, incl shipping and I couldn't have had it altered to make it fit any better. It was perfect.

We (meaning me & both MIL's) did all the decorating. I bought a ton of ivory tulle from ebay. I spray painted various shaped small jar silver and used them as vases, along with ivory roses & lilac coloured carnations in them. I also made weights using pplaster of paris, spray painted them as well in silver and used cello in clear and purple to wrap them and tied them off with black ribbon. I got my bubbles at the Dollar tree. I bought a Precious moments figurine new on ebay to use as the cake top.

I made my invites, using parchment look paper for around $4 @ WM, printed them right off my computer with a design I did, bought shimmery envies from ebay to fit. So less than $20 for invites. I made the name cards for the tables, using the same paper.

I made the veil, shoes were bought on ebay and I did my own hair & makeyp.

We did not hire a photographer. We were under the impresion that family would actually take pics. Unfortunately they all "forgot." HTH do you "forget" to take pics of a wedding? :lame: So do NOT scrimp on a photographer, even though I've heard you can sometimes hire a student from the college. It is great for their port's & of course, easy on the budget.

I bought cheap candle holder from WM as well as all the candles. They were plain as I made a very prettied up unity candle. I did not want the candleholders to deter from the unity. I used, again, the same paper from the invites. The last of that paper was used for thank you letters.

And last but certainly not least, I asked one of my friend's hubbys to marry us. We were willing to donate to his church (even though we had never even been to their church). He said that since I was friends with his wife, to consider that our wedding gift. That was the absolute bestest present at all.

[to1drland]

for anybody that wants to be nosey- I've updated our wedding blog page- see my sig area for link..

Ok guys, I have 4 weeks to plan my wedding!!!
Its been 10 years (aniv. 12-26) and we keep putting it off to go for bigger/better expenses like our first house, then our 2nd.... etc.

Now, we are planning it around my brothers military holiday leave.

I tentatively have the place, waiting for a return phone call to confirm.
I got my dress and slip last night. We are going with a laid back casual wedding. 35 guests. Immediate family and our very closest friends and thats it.

give me some great ideas for table centerpieces, favors to put out, etc! things that give it the personal touch that I may forget about in my rush LOL and things to jazz up a room that doesnt have a lot of decoration to begin with, but has an amazing water view!!!