This is going to be my third marrage. I want a nice, simple, and cheap elegant wedding.I need suggestions?

Question

I would like a wedding and reception mixed. Very little alcohol will be involved.My 3 children ages 16, boy 9, boy and 7, girl will also be part of the ceramony. The wedding rings are not included in this budget. Please give me any advice and cheap ideas, the motre help and idea's. I get, the more I think maybe I can actually afford to make this day the best day of my life. Thanks....Lisa

Answer 1

Throw a back-yard wedding, then ask family members to make a cake. (sweet talk them.) Then, for flowers, work a little overtime and pay for them, then, for bride maids dresses, ask them to wear their nicest clothes (preferrably a dress.) AND THEN, for food, get everyone you know, (that can cook,) and have them spend the night at your house helping you make the food. Hope this helps some.

Answer 2

you definitely should do something completely different than traditional wedding things. i agree with the posts above, since it is your third wedding. it becomes really ridiculous to see a third time bride all decked out in a big, fancy dress, walking down the aisle. what i would do is buy a dress that is just below your knees that is very simple. i would go with something other than white or off-white. this is a chance to do something really different with your dress, especially, since you have already done the whole big dress thing, i am assuming.

then, i would make arrangements to have a minister or an officiant come to your house to marry you & your husband to be. i would have 20 or less people come to see the two of you married. when you are married, then everyone go out to a super nice restaurant (depending upon your budget) and have a really elegant and private dinner together. many elegant restaurants also have private rooms you can rent. this way your kids can be there for everything and be right by your side! you get to be all dressed up and make the day special without spending a fortune.

in reality, it is always the best day of your life when you marry the man of your dreams.

congrats! & good luck!

Answer 3

You can incorporate rings just get a pair of simple bands if you can't afford diamond bands and upgrade when you're able to. A simple band wouldnt cost you no more than maybe $50-60.I would stick to a simple budget of a small ceremony if you're strapped go and get married at city hall as a civil ceremony and then plan a reception for close family and friends. Decide on the food because the more elaborate the more it costs so you might want to talk to a catering company to plan a menu that will meet your budget and talk to a baker about providing a wedding cake that will work with your budget. Go on websites like WeddingChannel.com or TheKnot.com and see if there's ideas for brides that have limited budgets.

Answer 4

If this is in fact your third wedding. It's time to forget the "elegant" and be practical. You have three children. Think of them. Put that money towards college or some health care. It is ridiculous to see people being so self-indulgent. A simple wedding is in order. Drop the elegant and be realistic. You've walked down the aisle 2 other times. I understand this is important. But were the other 2 just "practice"? Seriously, noones going to take your 3rd wedding seriously. Be realistic and have a wedding dinner, or just reception. Get married at the local Courthouse by a Justice of the Peace, and throw an afterparty at your house with adult friends only.

Not trying to rain on your parade, but get your priorities in order. Incorporating your children into this third "wedding" will not make them feel any differently. Put the money to good use and save for a rainy day.

Answer 5

Depending on the time of year you are thinking of having the wedding look into an out door wedding at a National Park or other outside venue that isn't commercialized. It is usually very cheap and sometimes FREE.

Answer 6

a public park, or community centers rent out for less that 300 per day. Instead of a band create a few mixed cd's to play. I found a brand new dress on ebay for 40$ including shipping I also like some of the decorations on there I got my personalized napkins and gift bags really cheap.
for the park you have to get a alchol permit.

Answer 7

Cruel, glad, but logic is on your side.

Since you are asking, a third marriage is time for a semi-private wedding. Family and close friends, JP. No dance; no rented hall. Get hitched, go home, have flat cake and sandwiches and kool-aid, and take the little kids to the park.

Answer 8

e-mail me at [e-mail] for more ideas...

How much is your budget exactly & how many people?


For food, homecooked is cheepest. You can either go w/ a casual BBQ menu, or one that celebrates your heritage,For mine, we both have bohmin ancestory & he's polish & I'm french too. So we had alot of pork & sourqraut. French breads & deserts, And anyother foods we grew up on. We ate on plastic plates & plastic cups that were decorated by hand w/ fake rinestones.

For decoration, We hung up my fav fake flowers, along w/ strings of lights. We put marbles/pebbles of the wedding colors in clear bowls as the centerpieces.

For his oufit (this was a very casual wedding) he wore a dress shirt & pants. His groomsmen did too. For my dress, I found a prom dress at a local store for about half the price of the cheepest wedding gown I could find. My bridesmaids wore whatever they picked out. Long as it was a variation of my wedding colors.

Gifts for the wedding party, for his men, they got a wallet that reflected their personality. For my maids, they got a clutch purse w/ a mirror & change purse inside it. They were in my wedding colors & I personalized the outside of them w./ thier inital in rinestones. I also include a small picture frame w/a copy of my fav. picture of us in it. The picture frames were in thier fav. color.

Favors for the guests...a packet of seeds for the two kinds of flowers I had inside a small flower pot.

We held the wedding & reception at a park with a "lodge" that was overlooking a lake in the evening.

For music, we "burnt" alot of music onto C.D.s. We put the songs on the C.D.'s in the order we wanted them. We took our stereo up there (which has a 5 disk changer on it). Just hooked it up & let it play. We did have one of our friends hang out by it incase a c.d. would skip or something, but none did.

Instead of a guest book, we had people sign picture frames (we also found these at the doller store)

To keep the children entertained, we gave them each a different toy every hour.The toys were all in the wedding colors. They included a little maze (w/ the ball inside), a couple of boxes of those markers that only color on certian paper & alot of that paper, clothes pins that had magnetic tape on them & gluesticks & a huge pile of cutouts to glue onto the clothepins to make their magnets, a pail to put everthing in (we also had a "sandbox" full of rice w/ toys in it for them to play) & teddybears w/ an oufit.

We didn't have alcohol, but if we would have, we were gonna mix up pitures of our fav. mixed drinks & thats all.

We had his aunt who is supposibley good at photography do the pictures. I recomend hireing a proffessional!!!

One of his other aunts is a baker, so she did the cake.

We had a friend whos in college for religion do the ceromony. He wasn't allowed to do the papers though, so we went alone to a lady we found in the phonebook who did it for $50.

To get our rings, we stalked all the jewlry stores till we found something we wanted while it was onsale. I got my engagment ring for $125, my band for $175. His ring was $175. Their all very nice & were priced double that or more before. It also helps to bargin w/ the ring guy. If he tells you a rings on sale for say $300, tell him ur gonna go look somewhere else. Come back later, tell him you just seen the same ring at full price for $225. Eventually he'll come down. (the place where we got his ring told us $300 at first, we ended up getting him down to $175!!!)

Um, like I said, e-mail me at [e-mail] for more ideas. I know I have more but I can't think of them at this momment.

Answer 9

go to the park

Answer 10

Yeah - go to a Justice of the Peace and get it done. You know it won't last anyway.