Wedding Ideas?

Question

Any of you have ideas on a VERY low budget wedding. My fiancé and I would like to get married October 21 of this year and our families are not really going to help out financially. Are there any ideas you all have on a nice low cost wedding? I'm looking for something other than the backyard or a friends house. Be nice... I'm very sensitive about this.

I just wanted to add that I am going to do all of my flowers, his grandmother makes wedding cakes and my best friend's dad is a minister. So that part of the wedding is taken care of.

Answer 1

Centerpieces -- Footed bowl w/ floating candles will add beautiful light during your dinner and dancing. Buy 1 bowl per table and 3 candles per bowl. My budget was $20.00 per centerpiece which the candles were the expensive part but wanted light ot last at least 8 hours, so to me that is important.

Invitations -- Do them on your own! There are so many packages of card stock that you can customize yourself. Print them on your computer using borders and different prints, add color if you wish and your font choice and volia a personal beautiful invitation! Where to get wording ideas? Get some of those free invitation catalogues where you are not obligated to buy (got mine from the internet) and you can get more ideas to help you along! So far, we have spent less than $75.00 including buying extra packs to work out any mistakes!

Attire -- Buy off the rack and this includes you! Do some research and you will be able to find salons that do this and save lots of money in the process! For accessories including shoes, check out department store sales, warehouses, craft shows, flea markets, etc... Remember that if you fall in love with something for you or your bridal party... Buy It but make sure it is within your budget. Lastly, do your shopping on own or with your maid of honour. Add other people or more people and there can be opinions that can frustrate you which is not you want to feel.

There are many other things I can share but am unsure where your question is directed to. I hope I was some help but if you have other queries, let me know and I can try to help where I can.

Answer 2

I'm not sure where you live so I'm not sure what the climate is but maybe you could get married at a local park with a rock, pond, or waterfall backdrop.

Decide which is more important:

If everyone seeing the ceremony is most important to youhave a simple appetizer and cake reception.

If a reception is more important, have a civil ceremony at the courthouse with your parents and wedding party and then meet up with everyone for the party. Bbq or cold cuts are pretty inexpensive or chili. Anything you can cook in large quantities may save you some money.

Find someone with a really nice digital camera and who enjoys taking pictures to take the photos as a wedding gift to you. That will save both you and them money. If you or a family member is a member of a church try borrowing the chairs, tables and table clothes from them or see if you can find a local wedding center than has halls with complete set ups at affordable prices.

Best of luck to you and congratulations.

Answer 3

ON such short notice you moight have trouble renting a hall. However, try a VFW or Knight of Columbus hall. They are cheap, the food is usually very good and they work on a shoestring!!! I had a party for 50 people at one and with food the total was about $400 This included four meats, three sides, salad, bread, plates, napkins, utensils.
Decorations at the dollar store would be fine. They have some great stuff if you look.
Also, there is a store called Total Wedding. I don't know if it is a chain or not. It is in Gurnee Illinois at the Gurnee Mills outlet. they have wedding/bridesmaids dresses some for under $100!! THey are VERY nice. Isaw them two days ago when my friend and i went in the store. Veils were like $15.

Good luck!

Answer 4

I was in the same boat..here's what I did...
*Sister in law's gift to me was the reception---find a friend who is willing to help, making and decorating a cake isn't that hard, as long as you keep it simple and most times simple is prettier. Or you can get cake mix and make cupcakes and decorate then, I've seen that and it's very cute, borrow a display tower from a department store and "build the cake"
*for flowers--go get silks they are really inexpensive and get ribbon and wrap the stem part of the flower
*other sis in law's neighbor was a baeutician and she did my hair and nails, if you're talented you can almost fix your own hair and do your own nails.
* my dress was a loner from my third sister in law, is was not fancy but to me it's more about the ceremony then the dress.
* pictures- my mom took the pictures, find firends and family to take pictures then develope them for you, most times you can get just as good quality with friends doing them then going with a professional.
Another idea for a dress is David's Bridal has $99 dresses, save costs with having the ceremony and reception at the same place, at reception just have cake, punch, mints and nuts.
I hope this helps and if you need any other ideas shoot me an email.

Congrats on the wedding and good luck!

Answer 5

It really depends on your budget. $20,000 is low buget today for a wedding LOL... If your looking for a hall or a place to have it in your area.. try theknot.com I got a lot of information off that website. Unfortantly, anything that involves a cater is going to cost you. Maybe you can rent a hall and then have your family cater it? You also have to check the rules of the hall, sometimes they won't let you do that.

I am in the same boat as you and we are paying $9,000 just for the receiption. But with tight budgeting and making payments every month- it's not that bad!

Answer 6

You don't say where you are located or what budget range you are looking for (i.e. $5,000? $10,000?). VERY low budget can mean a variety of things. Look around your community. Public parks are typically low cost or even free. Local community center? Just make sure you take into consideration the rules. Some places won't allow candles or alcohol. Food/Alcohol will probably suck up the majority of your budget.

The location I found was actual a place where seniors live and have activities (it didn't look like it). I found a room there to rent that cost about $290.00 and would fit up to 175 people. The only draw back was that I needed to use their catering, which I negotiated. Most of the items for a buffet on the list started out at $16.00/person. I ended up going with a theme (a variety of food with similar ingredients). We had Chinese Food (Chicken or Beef Lo Mein, with other stuff) and got the cost down to $10.00/person. One of the other suggestions was a taco bar, which would have also cost around $8-10/person.

To keep costs down on alcohol serve theme drinks. The place I chose had a supply your own policy. We went with a keg of beer and the theme drink of killer kool-aid (cheap and tasty). Killer Kool-Aid is just water, vodka, and kool-aid.

Also if you have crafty people in your family bring them into the loop. I made my own invitations, you can make yours too. Also, I had my grandma and great aunt help out with making table runners, and the fabric portion of my centerpieces (we found great fabric in the discount section of the store). My husband and father in-law make little wooden boxes for the center pieces too (his dad does a lot of wood working, so we he just happen to have the wood we needed lying around).

Do a lot of searching for what you need on the internet. Be cautious of purchasing items from wedding websites like the Knot. If you really look around you can find these items cheaper elsewhere. Try eBay.

Good Luck!

Answer 7

Sounds like ur rich in other ways sweetie, of u doing the flowers, the grandmother making the cakes and a minster who's in the family. When u have all that then forget the otnes who refuse to help, u can have it at a church or some place nice where u don't have to pay som emuch.

Good Luck sweetie

Answer 8

Just get married and don't worry about all the frills. Ultimately, the end result is that you want to make it legal. There really isn't much more than a friend's house or backyard, or the courthouse. Then, you can go to dinner with a couple of close friends. It doesn't get much simpler unless you elope.

Answer 9

wow, thats the same day i'm getting married! Congrats!

we're doing it ver low budget too. here are some ideas i'm using:

location: my sisters back yard
cake: one chocolate wedding cake (no grooms cake)
invitations: made our own (got a kit at Michaels)
food: no dinner, cheese and craker platter, fruit trays, chocolate fountain that my mom already had from my sisters wedding.
fire pit: we're building a fire to keep warm(cold in TN in Oct. and roast marshmallows.
Bridesmaids dresses: simple chocolate brown from the dress barn.
the Men: no tuxes, just dress pants and a fall color shirt
Music: my brother in law is playing acoustic guitar for it all
we're borrowing chairs, tables and a tent from my moms church
we're getting the flowers from a wholeseller and making the bouquets and centerpieces ourselves.

hope this helped

Answer 10

I am getting married sept. 16th. We did everthing low budget. We are having an outside wedding in our back yard. We did everthing for about 2500.00-3000.00. We rented the tent, tables and chairs. There will be small kids so we bought a moon bounce from toys r us for them to play on. (200.00). We are having someone do a pig roast for us. Doing all the party trays ourselves. Using our own cd player for music. Putting white christmas lights all around our tent because it is getting darker earlier now. Ordered our wedding cake. Got all of our decorations from www.orientaltrading.com. Putting cameras on all of the tables for everyone to take our wedding day pictures. I am putting a mum on all of the tables as the centerpiece. Just doing beer and soda. If money permits we may get a few bottles. I did get everyone a small glass votice candle that has our names and wedding date on them as a favor for the tables. Pretty much that is it I hope this helps you. good luck and congratulations.