Getting married on a tight budget, looking for ideas.?

Question

I am getting married on September 23rd of this year. We are on a tight budget and are looking for ideas on how to have a nice wedding without spending a fortune. We are doing everything ourselves. Outdoor wedding will be nearly impossible as we live in Louisiana and we have horrible weather year round basically. Just any ideas on decor, food, etc. etc. would be great. It’s our first marriage so we don’t even know where to begin.

Answer 1

Do your own decorations. You don't have to do anything crazy, maybe just some nice centerpieces on the tables and some white christmas lights with tulle wrapped up around them. This would be for the reception. For the ceremony, maybe just pew bows on the first three pews. Those you can make yourself pretty easily. The church will probably already look nice, so you may be able to get away with a couple of flower arrangements for the front of the church. It will be simple, but look nice!

For the reception, rather than hire a DJ, make your own CD's with music to dance to. This will cut costs a great deal! See if the reception hall has a stereo system that you can play the music through. By making your own CD;s, you'll have all of the songs you want, and not the chicken dance or electric slide!

If you have a friend that takes good pictures, ask if they will take the wedding pictures for you. I took pictures for my nieces wedding and they came out great! Not only did she get great pictures, but I gave her all of the negatives and proofs (this was before digital cameras!) That is a bonus because many photographers do not let you keep all of the proofs.

Get your family to help.. make favors, invitations, etc! The more you can do yourself, the less expensive the wedding will be!

Hope these help!

Answer 2

Honey, if you're getting married in September of this year, a little more than a month away, and you haven't planned it yet, then you're going to spend a fortune on (1) finding a location that isn't book already and (2) paying for rush services for everything.

Now if you mean NEXT year, 2007, then there's hope! Go for an informal or semi-formal event. The wedding dress, bridesmaids dresses, flowers, and decorations are much cheaper when they are in an informal style. Make your own invitations (I got a supercute invitation kit set from WalMart) and centerpieces. Get some bowls, fill them with water, and float some flowers (fake or real) or candles in them, and the centerpieces will be less than $1 per table.

Also, consider a cake reception. They are much, much less expensive and a lot of guests appreciate that the wedding won't take up their entire day and night. Or, a great money saving method, is to cut your guest list. Have a very, very small wedding and a dinner at a nice restaurant afterwards.

Good luck!

Answer 3

my husband and i got married with a very tight budget too... it was a small wedding but turned out to be beautiful. we were in college at the time and got married in the church on my campus (it was a christian school) so that didn't cost but $200. we got the reception hall at a local hotel for free (they had just opened and used us as publicity for other weddings)- however the room was only $85 to begin with. we bought silk flowers (cheaper than fresh, and last forever!) and made our own arrangements.. we found a lot of stuff on sales, or went to the dollar store for some little things... the center pieces on the tables were a candle, in a small glass hurricane with a flower ring around the bottom. they were only $3 a piece to make and we only had like 12. alos, if you can find a small resteraunt to cater that's good.. or if you have friends that would help out... you could make it just a small reception with more finger type foods (many of which you or your friends could make in the days before the wedding) also- you could buy things in bulk at like sam's or Bj's and buy appetizer type stuff there... my mother is a baker and made the cake... you can find the wilton line of decorating stuff at walmart.. they also have a small learner's kit that you could use.. plus, take a look at the books they have there, or go to the library and get one on cake decorating.. it doesn't have to be perfect.... hope this all helps, good luck with your wedding... congrats to you both

Answer 4

Go to a craft store like AC Moore or Michael's. They have a section on wedding decor and favors. Balloons also make nice decorations and are very cheap. Use bubbles for favors. As far as food, finger foods will work well. Meatballs, cheese, crackers, stuff like that. Also a good fruit platter will help. You can rent a punch bowl from a party supply center along with any other things you may need for the food. You can have the reception at a hotel conference room or rent a space at a community center. It depends on how many people that will attend which will make it more or less expensive. Please have fun and enjoy yourself. I hope this helps.

Answer 5

well, i had my wedding at a state park beach so that part was free. im not sure where you could get married cheaply in LA. we did all the music ourselves, instead of hiring a dj or band. we just burned music to mp3 and had someone in charge of cueing up the first dance song. we skipped flowers on the table as too expensive and decorated with candles and seashells.
see if wherever you have your reception you can bring your own booze. you could also do a potluck. some consider this tacky but i think its ok if its family and close friends.i also bought my dress on ebay for $100 and it was gorgeous.
its an important day but dont go into debt over it. you'll still be just as married tomorrow whether you spend 500 or 5,000

Answer 6

well my aunt had her wedding at a cute little church and then there was a room in the church that they had the reception in. it wasnt tacky at all and they hardly spent a thing! they had the wedding and then rented out the room for the reception, got a cheap catering company, her mom made the cake, and the flowers were from a cheap place and the decor was from the dollar tree (and people still asked what what wedding booklet they got the decor from! haha!) seriously, you CAN do a lest costly wedding. you have to price things and call a million different places and stay on budget is all :)

Answer 7

Food: Sams. Serve hors d'ouvres instead of dinner

Flowers: Silk flowers. Hobbie Lobby

Center pieces: Dollar general, dollar tree, family dollar. Buy some pillar candles and tied them up with a ribbon. Place them on an inexpensive glass dinner plate. Voila!

Cake: Walmart have decent looking wedding cakes at a fraction of the cost.

Decorations: Decorate with ballons, bring or borrow plants to make the reception hall beautiful.

Reception Hall: Church reception area, or an American Legion Hall, Community Hall ...they rent their space very moderate.

Music: Burn a Cd with your favorite songs and let it run in the background.

Drinks: Serve punch and sodas, toast with sparkling grape juice.

Silverware: They sell pretty paper napkins and plastic silverware that resemble real ones. There are also plastic plates that are very very pretty, my coworker had those at her daughetr wedding. She said that she found them in the internet.

Try: www.orientaltrading.com

Congratulations and Good luck

Answer 8

this is what I di for my wedding, I got my ring at a pawn shop and you know what everyone loves it. I had my friends bring in my favorite food as a wedding gift to start off the new me. I also found my wedding dress at a prom store. I mean if I know you live in CT I have great ideas for you.
Also we had a great dance and all I needed was my radio and a parkinglot. We danced in the parkinglot of my church, under a moon lit sky and everyone watched and people cried because it was so sweet.
we also had a dollar dance, that is where me and my husband danced with our family for a dollar, they would pin it to your dress or your suit. it gives people a chance to dance and talk to you plus they know if they are married just how hard it is starting off.
Maybe you can try some of those

Answer 9

Wow! You're really cutting it close!

Where to begin?

Interview vendors--cake, catering, photography. You may want to do everything by yourselves, but doing everything just won't be possible all the time.

Look into a hotel ballroom as a location for both reception and ceremony--will really help.

You aren't going to have a lot of time, but you're going to have to do a lot.

Ask a friend to take pictures.
Go to a consignment shop for a dress.
Make your invitations.
Use a cd for music
Get your flowers wholesale or even fake (Hobby Lobby/Michaels run sales)
Keep everything small--rent the tables from your church
Keep the guest list small

Good luck!

Answer 10

I'm getting married in two weeks and I've done everything for just over 2G's. Getting married in Niagara falls coming home for a BBQ in the back yard,