Cheap Wedding Ideas?

Question

I want a beautiful but cheap wedding. Me and my husband to be are paying for it ourselves and we don't wanna be still paying for our wedding a year after we're married. Any ideas?

We are having the wedding and reception at his hometown church. I really need decoration ideas.

Answer 1

You're very smart to realize that a wedding is no reason to go into debt.

eBay, eBay, eBay.

Other than the obvious things like food, DJ, etc, you can get almost everything you need on eBay - used or DYI.

You can...
- Make your own invitations
- Buy a pre-owned or sample gown, and save hundreds!
- Arrange your own flowers. You can order them online, wholesale, from many vendors -- MUCH cheaper than a florist. You can also buy silk flowers on eBay
- Buy used decorations (vases, candles, pew bows, etc) you can get these on eBay for pennies, no one will know they're secondhand

Those are all things we're doing to save money.

A lot of this would depend on your budget. My parents are paying for our reception (food, renting the venue, alcohol, etc). But, we are paying for everything else - Photographer, DJ, invitations, flowers, my dress, all the miscellaneous decorations, etc. Our budget for all of that stuff is only $5,000, which will be easy to stay under.

Some other budget wedding ideas:
- Skip the photographer - have a family member/ friend take pictures
- Skip the band/DJ - have a family / friend be the DJ with an ipod
- Join www.theknot.com and go to your local board. Your local knotties can point out inexpensive reception halls.
- Have a dessert and coffee reception. If you do an evening ceremony, this would be fine. You could offer different pastries, etc... and the catering bill would be so much lower.
- Have a dry reception. Alcohol is expensive.
- Cut your guest list down as low as possible, it will cut the costs of everything down - table/chair rental, catering bill, etc.
- Don't offer favors. These cost $1+ a piece, and aren't that important to guests.

Try not to get overwhelmed. Wedding planning is very time consuming, and even more so when you're on a strict budget. Try to focus on your marriage, not the party.

If something falls through and you just can't come up with enough money, you could always get married at the JP and take close friends and immediate family out to dinner afterward. This would cost less than $1,000; and would mean just as much - and you'd be just as married - as if you had an elaborate, traditional wedding.

Answer 2

I don't know when you are getting married and how much of the decorating you have to do and if your caterers will have table cloths and stuff. But, the biggest expense of decorating are the flowers. If you can cut corners there---for things that will die---you can use your money somewhere else. Someone told me not to waste money on flowers---at the actual church. You are there only an hour...and a church is beautiful enough. Also--your bouquet--florists usually make HUGE bridal bouquets. Your bouquet can be the sized down to the size of a bridesmaid and the bridesmaids can have bouquet the size of Jr bridesmaid. That is another savings. I did not decorate our reception. Our reception had white Xmas lights up...for ambience--that was already at the restaurant. We had food stations/buffett style....tables had white table cloths. No head table. So, you can get white lights, hang them along the wall, near a dance area. You can get strings of them for $2 at Target at Xmas. We save enough money--we got a band---which is what we both wanted. Wedding favors, I had them--but I would skip. Though, the ladies like to receive them. Or if you need to have them--I wouldn't waste your time making them. It's too tidious. It's actually a small expense compared to the amount of time it takes. And you will have a lot going on. You can find places online that are pretty cheap. I would find something that would add to the ambience and decorations of the table. You will need one for every invitation. So, don't buy 200. Buy a little over 1/2. Here is a good site. http://www.americanbridal.com/ Wedding invites--you can make your own. Lots of options out there. I must say--I just got one where the invite came all folded up---and the bottom rsvp card--detached like a postcard. There were no envelopes. That had to save costs somewhere. Don't waste your money on a topper for the cake, unless you have to have it, just have a cake decorated beautifully. Other ideas besides flowers at the reception are candles floating in water? Petals on the table. Though, I think petals are expensive. Here is a good site to get some ideas. http://www.superweddings.com/index.html Marthastewart.com and ourmarriage.com has good ideas too. Have fun!

Answer 3

First start putting away as much money as you can right now.
And it really depends on what your idea of cheap is.... and how much your willing to sacrifice....
If you want a hall start looking now and start pricing... try to get a cater that's all inclusive! The cheapest is always keep it small and have it at your house or some elses.... make your own food.

Answer 4

I always believe in having a small intimate wedding- immediate family and dearest friends only.

This way its cheaper, you get to spend the day with less stress and with the ppl who really matter.

After the wedding/ honeymoon, you can have other ppl over for bbq, etc. just to show appreciation. Most ppl tend to understand and if they don't understand your financial obligation is not to them then they are not your friends in the first place.

Answer 5

My aunt and uncle had a fairly cheap wedding... they went to the dollar store and bought bubbles and bells, they attached a little card made on computer with their names on it and date on it. Then they had family do all of the food except for the cake.

Answer 6

Create your own invitations. Go to your local art supply store and buy the basic invitations there, then print them out at home. This is what we did and not only did they look classic and simple, but they were so much cheaper then having a professional company do them!!

Answer 7

At a nice park or maybe on a nice beach.If you really want to go cheap you could have it at someones house. good luck

Answer 8

My husband and me got married on beach in bathingsuits,,cost less then a hundred bucks,was beautiful.

Answer 9

If you are young, then you can try using STA Travel student and youth travel agency to go somewhere to an island, maybe

Answer 10

Email me at [e-mail]

My husband and I paid for our wedding (second for both!) and we had a wonderful time..with family and friends...and it was CHEAP.under $600 (for EVERYTHING!!!)

Everything from invitations...to my dress...to his suit ~cake decorations...JP..everything...