Weddings and other Special Events on a Budget!

[swansong]

FREE wedding dresses

Again this year Home Page is working with local wedding suppliers across America to give away totally FREE wedding dresses to USA military servicemen and their fiancees.

[#1RobThomasfan]

Our wedding was around 1200 this was 10 years ago..

125$ my dress
100 dh's tux and the groomsmen 155
dont remember the cake price
we cooked all of our own food ( dh has been told he should open a restaurant) turned out fabulous
dh took pictures for years! So we set up the camera and had a friend snap away. Turned out great.
Our reception was held at our dear friends house (in august in was HOT) they set everything up - no charge there
flowers cost around 100 total
chapel was already fabulously decorated , elegant but understated
I did my own invites for around 20$
I can't see spending a fortune when you don't have to.
Then we honeymooned in Disneyworld.

[meems]

As a mother of the bride, who has raised a princess (practical, but yes Daddy's princess)..how in the world do I suggest cost cutting measures w/o offending her? We've already offered X amt of money, my bet is it will go over that. Do I challenge her by offering to let her keep anything that's left over?

The venue for both wedding & reception is $4500...that's all that's been picked so far to give you an idea.

[beth119]

Originally Posted by meems As a mother of the bride, who has raised a princess (practical, but yes Daddy's princess)..how in the world do I suggest cost cutting measures w/o offending her? We've already offered X amt of money, my bet is it will go over that. Do I challenge her by offering to let her keep anything that's left over? The venue for both wedding & reception is $4500...that's all that's been picked so far to give you an idea.

$4500? Your actually doing good these days! WHen my older sister was planning her wedding (was called off...long story) her venue was $8500 w/o the food! :hectic1:

Anyway... What you could try doing is asking you DD to let YOU get some of the stuff, or do the negotiating... That way, you can "cut costs" w/o her knowledge really. Or if you find a great deal on something, show her what it is, but not the cost. SHe may not even know the difference.

Is the groom's family pitching in at all?

[meems]

No they can't..it's really all ours. The venue is w/o food..but man oh man it is absolutely incredible! One of the last performing arts theaters from the 20's left in the US...it is just stunning! I'd love to share pix, my other DD has them on her camera...

[beth119]

Meems--

I just remember what a friend of mine did last year when her DD got married. She told DD that they were going to contribute 15k towards her wedding, even though they had 25k saved for it.

WHen all was said and done, the bride spent 22k... she "thought" she had gone over budget, and mom was happy...

Kind of like telling someone who is ALWAYS late to show up at 12:30 even though the party is at 1.... then they might make it on time :)

[mrsschroeder1]

Ok ladies, I am asking for your ideas! I am getting married in 2 very short months. I am over my budget by $8! I have NO decorations!!!!

Here are the things I need. If you can come up with something crafty let me know, PLEASE.

-Card box
-fall decorations
-Fake wedding cake
-table cloths (90" rounds)
-flowers, for cake and sign in table. Also 4 bouquets, 4 boutonnieres. I am planning on using a $25 FTD gift code for some of this.

I also have a $50 gift card for Amazon that I won on this wonderful site for blogging about Julie's Entertainment book article!

I have a small wedding website: schroederloehnerwedding.weebly.com

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. I can't wait to hear what you have to say! I know the ideas will be great!!!

[kval07]

Sign up for your local freecycle and post what you are looking for. There are always people putting up wedding stuff on there in my area.

[tmsmalley]

A lot of this depends on how formal your wedding is going to be and what tone you want to set. If these things don't fit the feel, then of course, disregard. June is the big wedding month so you may be able to find things on clearance now too.

For your fake wedding cake, you can use styrofoam. Places like Joanns and Michaels have it in rounds of 12, 9 and 6 inches. You'd need two of each size to get that cake layer look. Then just use frosting to cover. You can decorate with live or fake flowers (or make frosting flowers but that's a lot of work and a bit of expertise). Watch for sales and you should be able to find a bunch of nice fake fall flowers really cheap (also check freecycle and craig's list on those).

You could even cover the fake cake in white frosting and then use ribbon (opaque, sheer, printed, whatever you want) around each layer in your wedding colors. That should allow you to do the entire fake cake under $20 (maybe better depending on what deals you can find).

Do your table cloths need to cover an unsightly table or are they just for decor/so they're not eating on the bare table? If they're just for decor, you may be able to use tulle instead for a very cheap price. How many do you need? I found from just a few seconds of surfing that you can get cloth ones for about $10 each in about 10 colors. I found paper ones for about $3-4 each. You could also look at something different like using muslin or a cotton but there would be a fair amount of labor involved in getting it into shape to use.

You could also look at using colored butcher paper, wrapping paper or something similar to cover the table tops. Again, that assumes you don't need anything to hang down, but you could cover each table in a fun way with a little double sided scotch tape on the back to keep it from slipping. Cut to fit the top itself, I wouldn't try to wrap underneath on a round table. You may be able to find things like that very inexpensively if you hunt around that could be in your wedding colors and/or with prints on them that would be fun for the wedding. Or use plain white paper to cover the table (white butcher paper) then a swath or two of wrapping paper to dress it up (hearts, wedding paper or something that matches your colors). Again, surf on line and watch for sales and things that might make this come out very inexpensive. That could resolve a big part of your need to "decorate" too.

A card box isn't necessary. If you really want one, get any old kind of box and cover it in wrapping paper. You may even have some you can recycle from a shower. Oooh, and if you saved all your shower wrapping paper you might be able to incorporate that into covering the tables with it.

You might do best on your live flowers by talking to a local florist. Find out what is going to be in season and what you can get cheaply. If there is a local flower market or farmer's market in your area and someone a little bit handy, you can make them up yourself. All you need is a little floral tape, some scissors and the flowers. Again, depending on what goes with your wedding, you can have very inexpensive bouquets and boutineers. A bud and a little baby's breath covers the guys. 3-4 buds and some baby's breath and some leaves covers the girls. Or, if you or a friend or relative have a garden, you may be able to work with what's there. Some fall leaves in a bouquet could be really pretty. You could also go with the tussy mussy idea and use several herbs which may also be pretty inexpensive such as lavender, fennel, sage (with or without some fall leaves).

Good luck!
Tess

[holamelitta]

Originally Posted by mrsschroeder1 Ok ladies, I am asking for your ideas! I am getting married in 2 very short months. I am over my budget by $8! I have NO decorations!!!! Here are the things I need. If you can come up with something crafty let me know, PLEASE. -Card box -fall decorations -Fake wedding cake -table cloths (90" rounds) -flowers, for cake and sign in table. Also 4 bouquets, 4 boutonnieres. I am planning on using a $25 FTD gift code for some of this. I also have a $50 gift card for Amazon that I won on this wonderful site for blogging about Julie's Entertainment book article! I have a small wedding website: schroederloehnerwedding.weebly.com Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. I can't wait to hear what you have to say! I know the ideas will be great!!!

Card box: If you have a nice basket sitting around, you could use that instead of a box. Put a box on it, and it will look great.

Table cloths: I was a bridesmaid in a wedding last month, and the bride got all her tablecloths from thrift stores. And they weren't all actually table cloths - some were sheets or cloth shower curtains (the reception was in a pretty dark room with a lot of candlelight, so it wasn't noticeable unless you were really looking). It sounds like your tables are bigger than hers, so I don't know if it would work for you or not, but if you had sheets or large pieces of cloth, you might be able to cut them down to the size you need and then hem them.

Fall decorations: Our centerpieces were pretty cheap, but still looked nice. I went to Hobby Lobby and got some cheap glass bowls (probably about 6" round), floating candles, and colored stones. For the reception, we just put the stones in the bottom, filled them with water, and lit the candles. Some of the bowls had food coloring in the water. It's been several years now so things are starting to get kind of fuzzy, but I think the total for all my centerpieces was probably around $20. You could also probably get some silk fall-colored leaves fairly cheaply, and scatter them on top of each table. Depending on where you live, you also might be able to get a good deal on gourds and/or small pumpkins that you could put on the tables.

I hope this helps!