How do I plan my wedding on a very strict budget?

Question

I'm getting married in April of next year, and I have such limited funds to finance my wedding with..! I am going to make/arrange the invitations, table cards, the food, the cake, the flowers and the decorations myself.. but I need some tips on what sorts of food I can make that I can serve cold, and that I can make the day (or two) before. Or dishes that I can heat up will work perfectly as well. I also would appreciate tips and hints on how to make my wedding cake. I need helpful tips on decorations that are simple yet easy to make.. I figured I would make my bachelorette party into a decoration-making-workshop.. lol Make them work for their drinks! Any good ideas when it comes to flowers would also be very much appreciated!

Just a little additional information - spare all your "just spend more" comments. I am on a very limited buget for a reason. I earn next to nothing, and I have no one I can borrow from. I need helpful answers, not ones that aim to put me down. Thank you.

Answer 1

My ex-fiance once suggested a potluck reception.

And I like the idea, it greatly reduces the time you'll spend on the food, will cost you next to nothing, and gives the oppportunity to give you a wide variety of foods with minimal wasted time, money, or energy.

Answer 2

Very difficult , although u can have a lovely day on a shoestring wedding.. It would take me all day to help with everything but the basics will do. Decide what colour scheme u would like as that determines the outfit design for your groom. Thats where the flowers come in. Have one colour say cream as your base colour and add gold maybe? the groom can wear a gold waistcoat etc and you could have white roses with gold ribbon around them? The expense comes in when u include bridesmaids but im sure u know that..

As for the food, go to a caterer about having an all day buffet style as the food will be on literally all day and topped up for the night time. Pick a venue thats close to home even if it is a local pub or working mens club u can spend a little making it pretty with baloons etc. You can make your own favours at a fraction of the price, using netting material ribbon and mini eggs...

And weddig cake u can buy three sizes of already iced cake from sainsburys, get a friend to make some sugar flowers to put on the top and there u have it,, Oh and not forgetting the ribbon. thats about all i can suggest for now sorry its brief

Answer 3

I can give you advice as far as the cake & photography goes. Once you total up the cost of all the ingredients it is actually cheaper to buy a pre-made cake from a supermarket. You will also find icing a cake to an acceptable standard is a skill which requires years of experience. The wedding cake is usually the centre piece of any food spread, and usually attracts alot of attention, so it is important for it to look right. You can buy a 3 tier wedding cake from a supermarket for as little as £30, which is already finished to a proffessional standard. You would struggle to buy the ingredients for this much and then you would need the equipment to finish it.

A proffessional photographer is usually one of the most expensive parts of any wedding. People are prepared to spend so much money because it is the only visual souviner from the day to remember your wedding by in the future, the photographers know this and charge accordingly. My advice is to ask a competant friend to take your photographs for you with a good digital camera. The reason I say competant is because you don't want any heads cut off and you want groups arranged in a pleasing way. Once you have the files (photographs) on a pc they can be manipulated to give results which you would be more than pleased with and with a little more experience you can turn a good photograph into a stunning one! Hope this helps.

Answer 4

Meatballs can be rolled, fried and then frozen a month in advance. Heat them up with the sauce in a chafing dish in an oven then put them in the rack with sterno. Serve with rolls for sandwiches AND baked ziti (which can be made a couple of days in advance).

Bake a couple of real hams (nothing from a can), slice, and serve cold (my husband and mom both prefer ham cold) on a platter.

Tossed salad and pasta salad can be made a couple of days in advance. Make sure you cut the lettuce with a plastic lettuce knife so the lettuce doesn't get brown. Add extra dressing to the pasta salad right before you put it out since the pasta will suck up the dressing while in the fridge.

Roasted chicken pieces are a really good and you can keep them warm in sterno pans. Roast the chicken a couple of days before and reheat in the oven, then put in the sterno rack. Marinate the chicken in italian dressing before cooking.

Jumbalaya and gumbo can be reheated and served in sterno pans but I don't know how to make them. Serve with white rice in another sterno pan.

The above menu should be good as long as you add some side dishes. Below is some advice from another question I answered that you might find helpful.

Find a hall that doesn't have a liquor license. It's much cheaper to bring in your own, typically they mark up liquor 100%. Also, to really save money, only serve beer and wine and soft drinks.

Don't let the florist talk you into $50 centerpieces. Not necessary, there are lots of centerpieces that can be done for less than $10. Go to your local arts and crafts store, buy a glass bowl, fill part way with water and float some blooms in the water. Much less than a typical florist arrangement. If the bowl is shallow enough you can also put a pillar candle in it. Check out the neat centerpieces they did on Design on a Dime wedding, link below.

Don't buy a four figure wedding gown. I have seen a $5000 gown up close and personal and I'm here to tell you, it doesn't look that much better than a $500 gown from Davids. You can't tell the difference at all in the pictures or on the video.

Don't rent limos or any other kind of transport, they're a very expensive waste of money. I went to my wedding in my dad's pickup (it looked nice, not a beater). We left the church in my mom's car, she has a nice Cadillac.

I will say that you should spend as much as you can on a photographer. This is the only part of your wedding that is permanent. Go with the best person you can afford.

Order a small tiered wedding cake to cut, instead of a cake that will serve everyone, and have sheet cakes in the back that the caterer can serve to guests. Also, a good place to get a cake that's not too expensive is a grocery store with a good bakery. Walmart also makes wedding cakes and they look and taste good.

Skip favors all together or go with something simple and inexpensive. Wrap up some Hershey kisses in tulle and your good to go.

I hope this was helpful, have a good wedding. Also, something to think about is a destination wedding, you won't have as many guests but it's alot cheaper, especially if you go to an all inclusive place.

Answer 5

A wedding cake is difficult but cupcakes are simple and becoming more and more fashionable. Spend a little money on a cupcake cake stand. Its easier than the doing a tiered cake and its a fun twit to the cake. Plus you can have different cake flavors. As for decorating them, pick up a decorating book or just browse to get ideas.

Having real flowers are hard, you can't do it all on your wedding day and they can get pricy fast. Thinkg about candles in bulk and silk flowers. That or make low centerpieces of a low vase with wanter and have a single rose floating with tea candles.

there are tons of low budget ideas, figure out what you can spend and then be creative. Congrats by the way, whatever you plan will be perfect :).

Answer 6

well I'm pretty sure my wedding will be the same way once I do get married. Well I know a appetizer or 2 that would probably be good the first 1 is called Italian Lahvash Pinwheels these are so super good if you have never had them they have cream cheese, roasted red pepper, provolone cheese, and different kinds of meat it them they are so great!! And the other is called ham onions I learned how to make these from one of my grandmamas. The 3 things that you need for this are cream cheese, ham (not chopped ham), and green onions. O.k. the 1st thing that you do is to clean the green onions, then once you have those cleaned, take a piece of ham and spread cream cheese on it and then place one stick of green onion on the end of it and then roll them up. and make sure that the open part is on the bottom or it will unroll or you can us tooth picks to help them stay closed ( I just hope that people remember to take them out once they start to eat them). And it's good that you are making and doing everything on your own saves money that you don't have ;) another dish you could make that I learned from my aunt is shrimp pasta it's just penne pasta, shrimp, mayonnaise, finely diced bell peppers. You can cook the shrimp if you want o or not this is a dish that is to be served cold. Or something that you could do is just go to albertson's and have them make you a couple of trays and you could make some that would help alot, and also you could have some of your girlfriends help out too especially the ones that can cook really good:) Well I don't know your wedding colors so I can't suggest flowers, but maybe you could use an off white colored rose and a beautiful sunset orange, or you could go to these web sites and get some ideas www.darrenbarefoot.com, www.just-flower.com, www.rosaflora-flowers.com, www.sumico.com or you could look in modern bride to get some good ideas also. I hope that these help but I could e-mail you some appetizers, drinks, and other quick receipes to help you out if you write and put in your e-mail address because i tried to contact you but it didn't work.

Answer 7

I'm getting married in April too, and we're on a budget, so I know how you feel.

I've got family & friends paying for bits of the reception rather than giving us presents. The best man & his wife are paying for a photographer, my mum is paying the the buffet, my fiance's brother is paying for the disco and my sister is organising the cake. - she's buying three Occasion cakes from Asda, and will decorate them herself.

Our venue is free as long as we get the buffet from there, and as it is a members only club, the drinks aren't overpriced, and the bar managers daughter does flower arranging from home, so we should be able to get a discount on the flowers too!

We are getting married at the Salvation Army, so the venue is free (although we will make a donation to the Corps), but they can't do the legal side, so we have had to pay for the registrar and to give notice, but that has to be paid for anyway, unless you get married in a Chrurch of England ceremony.

I got my dress cheap on Ebay (brand new) and a friend is going to do the alterations around the bust for me.

Try factory outlets for suits, or even Asda or Primark. In Clarks Village in Street there is a 'Next To Nothing', which is a 'Next' outlet, so you can get good quality clothes at a fraction of the cost.

I'm making my own invites, and I have ordered some free samples from http://www.specialdaydirect.co.uk to give me a few ideas to work with.

Decorations at the reception venue aren't really needed, and we are just going to put some balloons up matching our colour scheme.

For the Hen Night we're just going out for a meal, everyone has been asked to pay for their own, and if they're not prepared to do that, then they just don't come. It's that simple.

We are getting our Bridemaids dresses from a catalogue, and as it's the first order, I'll get 20% off, and that 20% works out as the cost of one of the dresses, which will help.

Keep looking on Ebay, as you will find some real bargains there.

Congratulations and good luck!

Answer 8

Flowers - Has anybody in your family got a nice garden with flowers growing - pick roses for button holes, put damp cotton wool around the base to stop them drying out and wrap silver foil around them - they look smart and are free. I don't know about you bouguet, but there is nothing to stop you doing something similar, but get some nice fabric (lightweight) and wrap that around the base with ribbons hanging down. The only cost would be for the fabric 0 unles you have an old dress or something you could cut up.
Food - mixed pasta dishes can be prepared the day before and are always filling, mixed rice can also be done the evening before. A large mixed salad can be done that morning and you can get everyone to muck in preparing it. sausage rolls, mini sausages, quiche etc can all be done the day before. You could also do jacket potatoes the morning you are getting married - just chuck them in the oven and leave them - that way there is also something hot for your guests. Decorations are a bit more difficult, but I would suggest a small investment to but one of those machine which will fill balloons with hydrogen (I think) and then you can make bouquets with two or three balloons tied with string and weighted down. You can buy the balloons already done but this would be more expensive. You would also be able to do you balloons several days before you get married. Cover the table and chairs with fabric and tie large fabric bows in a corresponding colour around them. Invest in some wedding confetti and sprinkle that on the table to lift the fabric. And the best advise possible - call in every favour and bribe everyone you can to help. After all it will be your wedding day and you want it as stress free as possible. It can be done. A friend of mine did it and three hours before she got married her family and a few of her guests (myself included) took over her kitchen and prepared everything. The wedding went well and everyone was happy with the reception. Above all - have a fantastic day.
PS - Sorry I can't help on your wedding cake - there I am well and truly out of my league!

Answer 9

If you have any family friends that do special services ( DJing, Catering, Baking, Crafts, etc etc) ask them instead of gifts to provide some type of service. If you are a member of a church you should be able to have your ceremony free, or have it at a park, or at the same place as your reception. I'm making my favors, favor tags, programs, and save the date cards, as well as my unity candle and a few other things. Watch for sales at the craft store to pick up cheap supplies. Another tip, to find my ideas I picked the brains of others on here, wedding blogs and craft idea places. If I saw something I liked I'd figure out how hard it would be to make it instead of buying it. My cousin's in-laws prepared picnic type food for her reception and saved a ton of money on catering (chicken strips, baked beans, fresh fruit...) Good luck!!

Answer 10

You could do the catering little by little over the coming months! Start by baking your cake (the longer you keep it - and feed it with a little brandy! - the better it will taste. Then make one savoury and one sweet dish a month and put them in the freezer (ask friends and neighbours for a bit of space in theirs). This way, you will spread the cost and the effort involved! Or perhaps you could ask people to donate a plate of food as a wedding gift...

For decorating the cake, you could ice it simply in white roll-out fondant icing. For an unusual look, emboss it using a patchwork cutter (available from cake decorating shops - ivy leaves or hearts look great) and then brush with an edible lustre. I have made dozens of cakes like this and the all looked fantastic! Make sure you ice the board, too (put beading or ribbon around the cake to disguise the join) and trim the board with ribbon for a totally pro look! And finish with fresh flowers on top. Beautiful.

Answer 11

why not ask other people to chip in(excuse the pun). It'll save your time when you need to be thinking of whether you're doing the right thing or not, and it'll also make everyone else feel as though they've helped you on your big day. I've been married twice. the first time was a big do, and was boring, the second time, everyone mucked in, big tent in back gard and was fun- which is what a wedding day is meant to be.... still ended in divorce tho! Good luck!!