Inexpensive, but elegant wedding ideas?

Question

In the $5000 price range.
Please give detailes ideas, especially if you have planned one yourself.

Thanks!

Oh, and please do not say the courthouse.

I'm in the metro-Atlanta area.

Answer 1

I’ll give you some elegant ideas I read in an excellent site. I’ve copied some below:

1. Instead of having a formal reception with a lunch or dinner where people are sitting, choose a cocktail party where the guests can enjoy some special Hors d’Oeuvres, in a distinct place where you can gather a jazz trio that will help creating a wonderful and unforgettable party.

2. Avoid big musical groups. Choose something more intimate. Ask some friend to offer you, as a wedding gift.

3. Instead of serving only champagne, offer some elegant cocktails, mixing champagne with, peach, orange or blueberry juice, creating an original colour party.

4. Accept the help of relatives and friends, you will make them feel special by sharing these moments with them. That doesn’t mean that you have to take their suggestions! For example, if a friend offers you his house for you to celebrate your wedding, accept it with one condition: that you will use it with the same care and regard that you would have with your own. Never forget to thank him kindly, inviting him for a special dinner at your place right after the honeymoon, so that he can be the one to wear your new belongings for the first time. He will certainly feel like a special friend.

5. If, for example, your cousin is a lovely choir solo, accept her contribution to sing at the ceremony.

6. If any relative is an excellent gourmet or a confectioner, accept (in case he or she offers to) his or her contribution to cook the starters or the desserts that your already know to be a success.

7. If any of you has a nice handwriting, why not make your own wedding invitations?

8. Forget those wedding gifts bought in dozens… do you really believe that someone will keep that memory of their wedding? Choose simple and useful gifts, like for example, a flower so that each gentlemen can offer it to a lady (of course, in this cases the ladies are the winners).

9. Substitute the traditional floral table arrangements by bunches of cereals, like wheat bunches, branches painted in silver spray, aromatic herbs like rosemary or centres made with season fruit. For example, a glass cup filled with lemons, cherries or very nice apples… won’t it make an impression?

10. Buy your honeymoon travel tickets quite beforehand. Check to see if there are any less usual places for a honeymoon, and of course more affordable, where you can spend unforgettable moments without getting bankrupt.

11. You have certainly noticed, when in other weddings, that very few people enjoy the expensive wedding cake, haven’t you? And why is that? Usually there is a great exaggeration of desserts that might, perfectly, be excluded – believe that no one will even notice – and so people can enjoy a nice piece of wedding cake. Still regarding the wedding cake, order two, one for you to cut at the reception (as luxurious as possible), and another one, with no decorations (cheaper), to have in the kitchen and serve to the guests. You can always offer some fresh fruit to go along with the cake.

12. In what concerns the photographer, if you know anyone that you think capable of taking quality photos and that might handle that task, offering his or her services as a wedding gift, you can accept it.

Answer 2

Cheap But Elegant Wedding Ideas

Answer 3

1) Make your own invites. If I could post a picture of the ones we made, I would. We saved $200-300 by doing it ourselves, and it turned out great. Everyone thought iwas professionally done.

2) Find a location for both the reception and ceremony--some places will give you a discount. Try to find one that you won't have to decorate (i.e. old theatre, gardens, etc).

3) Use your personality in the wedding. Don't do the usual, but think unique.

4) Make your own wedding cake. My cousin and her hubby did it, and it was a great touch.

5) Cut back on the ceremony. It will last 15-30 minutes, unless you're Catholic. Focus on the reception.

6) As for the dress--shop consignment. You'll be surprised what you'll find. My sister-in-law found a $2000 for $300.

7) Where is your focus? Food? Flowers? Etc? Just find one or two and go for it.

9) Splurge on photography, ditch the videography.

10) Look at the music--live band? DJ? We know our band, so we were able to knock them down to our budget level to perform at our wedding.

11) Don't give up. There are always options. Negotiate and plan alternatives. Try to have a wedding on a Friday or Sunday or even on a weekday. The prices will be less.

Answer 4

Well, first of all it depends where you live. I can suggest places in my area but you might live across US then it's pointless.
You might find a nice place to rent for your reception like a smaller restaurant that you might like. Thinking about ceremony: Do you live near beach (those ceremonies are cheaper to organize since you don't have to rent the space) maybe a nearby park? You will just need a permission to do that.
Then such a budget will require a lot of invention and ever more work from you because I'm assuming you're not hiring a wedding planner (costly thing). There is a wonderful TV Show called "Whose Wedding is it anyway?" and I got lot of ideas from them (my budget was even lower than yours).

Another one to think of is how many guests are you planning to invite? I would suggest to invite only very close friends and family and create very intimate event (this way you will cut the cost of feeding all those people you don't care that much and this will let you rent a smaller place which will of course cost less than Ball Room).

Think about simple flower arrangements for tables. Maybe for your flowers: bunch of calla lilies tight with a ribbon matching your wedding color scheme. Those look wonderful.

Does your friends have talents like flower arrangement, or decorating places? How about a guy who can be a music DJ during your reception? Do you have a granny or aunt (or whoever you know) who can and like to bake? Maybe they can offer to make a cake for you as a wedding gift?

Good Luck with your wedding

Answer 5

Go to the grocery store and get some blood oranges (they have dark red centers that look pink when light shines through). slice them up and line the inside of a vase with them...add pink roses or Gerbra Dasies and its lovely and very summer. A super cheap idea as well is to take two liter coke bottles or water bottles and cut the tops to make vases. Add a few rocks in the bottom to weigh them down. Use pretty paper, fabric, or bamboo mats to cover the ugly coke bottle and add a few flowers. It will save you a bunch of money instead of buying expensive glass vases and looks great. Use the 40% off coupons that are in the paper every few weeks and buy fabric and ribbon to make easy table runners. Simply cut them to lenght and use tacky glue or stitch witchery to add the ribbon and cover the rough edges. Alternate the table runners. Have one with orange fabric and fuscia ribbon then the next table have fuscia fabric with orange ribbon. Its a cheap way to create visual interest without buying a huge centerpiece. Luminaries are also gorgeous and inexpensive. Buy brown or white paper sacks from the grocery store. Cut squares of tissue in fuschia and coral and either glue big squares onto the bag or cut pieces and make it kinda like a mosaic. Fill the bottom with sand and add a few tealights and you have a very romantic centerpiece or something to line the walkway. Have the HTB make you some boxes from cheap wood. Paint them in the colors and seal them with a few coats of acrylic. Inside you can float a few Gerbra dasies, candles, or you can fill with potting soil and plant grass seeds. If you plant the grass use scrapbooking paper and wire to make "flowers" if you don't have the money for real ones and stick them into the dirt so they are growing out of the grass. Very modern and chic when done right. Everybody has strands of white christmas lights. Pull the ones out of your attic and borrow from family and friends to light you space to give a romantic feel. It looks really good when you string them from clothing line to make a lighted canopy.

Answer 6

I just got married on June 10 and we spent $6,500 with 110 guests. Keep your guest list small (as in don't invite 200 people). Get family and friends to help you with everything. You can make a lot of things that will save you money. Don't go overboard on flowers, find them cheap at a flea market or do something different for centerpieces (like floating candles). And you could even put together your own bouquets for cheaper. For pictures, a good idea that I've seen on here is to take the bridal party to Glamour Shots before the ceremony, it's a lot cheaper. And then just have someone take pics of the ceremony and the reception with a good digital camera. You could also get a friend to videotape it and make that their gift to you. For food, go with a buffet. This will be your most costly thing. Get some quotes from caterers, tell them your budget and they'll tell you what foods they can serve for that price. If it's still out of your price change, get party platters from restaurants. You could do stuff like wings, eggrolls, chicken fingers, ribs, mashed potatoes, salad, Italian, just about anything. They'll supply you with huge servings of whatever food you want. You would still want to hire some servers to clean up and set up the food. You don't want to worry about that on the big day. And if you're serving alcohol, get a bartender. Letting guests serve themselves can cause a big mess. Buy your alcohol and sodas when they're on sale. You could even serve only beer and wine to save more money. Get your cake from Publix, they're reasonable and it's good. For wedding favors, shop around on the internet, then check out Ebay for the same items and compare prices. I found the same exact stuff on there for cheaper than other websites. They also sell wedding invitations which is how I found mine. You could also have the ceremony and reception at someone's house or a park. We did ours at a park overlooking the water, and they had a hall that we rented for the reception. You can also check out VFW halls and places like that, they tend to be cheaper. If you do decide to do it at someone's house, you can get away with setting up a stereo for entertainment. But if you go with a bigger place, you may want to spend money on a DJ. We paid $900 for 4.5 hours, but I'm in Florida and it seems like everything costs more down here. Also, David's bridal has cheap wedding dresses. I got mine at Dillard's, but we had an informal wedding. And always ask around, you never know what someone knows how to do, or if they know someone that will hook you up with a better price (like a DJ, photographer, caterer, bartender, etc.). We scored our photographer and our caterer that way and we saved a bunch of money. Good luck!

Answer 7

If you need help on planing a wedding go and get the book called. planning a wedding to remember by Beverly Clark.I've bought the book and its helping me even though I'm not getting married till 2007 sometime. it will give you all the advice that you need. good luck

Answer 8

Cheap but great favors would be buying shot glasses in bulk and then super gluing toy cars to the bottom,it would look really cool.

Answer 9

Mine was well under $5000, but we did a medieval/Renaissance theme, and I made all the clothes for the entire bridal party.