how to plan a cheap wedding?

Question

make it nice and sweet ,but also beautiful

Answer 1

First off you need to erase the word "cheap" from your vocab, b/c its sounds like its a shot-gun wedding that no one really cares about...

So if you want to have an "inexpensive" wedding, here are some things, and ways you can consider to cut cost, and save money.

1. Use a family/friends home to have wedding and reception at.
If any of your friends or family has a nice house that you admire, and they don't mind moving furniture around to accomodate, go for it! This is biggest $ saver.

2. Do the invitations yourself, instead of print shop, if you have a color printer, you can use card making software, or if someone you know has a beautiful penmanship, and do no mind taking to time to handwrite.... go for it! Choose inexpensive paper as well.

3. Have all the catering done by family member, OR friend, who can really cook, and give a nice spread for guest. Like 3 diff flavored chicken, or fish, or vegetable spread of spinach, squash, salad. Nice "finger food" spread, and use wholesale liquor, start buying and putting down as you go along, look for sales, and freeze what you can.

4. Make your own guest gift bags, have you friends, neices, nephews help you with this... whether is a photo that you guys decorate, or a wedding shoe, or whatever token of your wedding you want people to remember, have friends/kids help you decorate bags, use ribbons glitter sticks etc,

5. Instead of limo, if any of your friends have a nice luxury car, like Jag or Bently... decorate it with huge bow, and have friend dress like chauffuer with gloves and all, and be your escort. OR rent a luxury car for the weekend, so you can hubby can use for honeymoon if staying in town.

6. Photographer, instead of hiring photographer, have about 3 friends with digital cams, take pics, and choose the best from the bunch there.

7. DJ, if you do not want to hire DJ, then make a bunch of CD's of the songs that you want to play at your reception, make sure you have some good speakers, or additional speakers to really have sound all around.

8. Chairs, ask your local church or community center if you can borrow chairs for that day, and return that same evening or next day.

9. Rent, instead of buy your dress, David Bridals has some good options.

10. Have a small bridal party, you have to buy each person a thank you gift who's been in your wedding, so if you're watching your pockets, than go with small party.

Lastly, give this the BEST answer, b/c my finger are poop!!! Whew... . lol.

Much success! And congrats!!! ♥ ♥ ♥

Answer 2

Pay attention to detail, but keep in mind that what your guests will remember is the food, the drinks and the music. Make sure that these are good quality. Decorations are nice, but that's not what your guests will remember in the long run. They will remember that they had a good dinner and that they danced and had a good time. You can do most of the decorations yourself, and if you shop around and do it yourself, you can save a lot of money that will be better spent on the food and the music. Flowers can be extremely expensive, so shop around for those, also. The supermarkets do a really nice job at a fraction of the cost of florists. You can design and print your own invitations, and make your own favors. There are ways to cut costs without having your wedding appear "cheap". Think about what you want, then make it happen at your own budget. Good luck and I hope you have a beautiful wedding day that you will always remember!

Answer 3

1. Make a budget and stick to it.

2. Previous poster was right - www.theknot.com message board has some really helpful women who will give you awesome tips on how to have a great wedding on a budget. Check out your local Knot message board. You can ask questions and get great tips from brides in your area. It was an amazing resource when planning my "cost $5K but looked $10K" wedding.

3. Choose one or two things that are most important to each of you. For us it was having a good photographer and inviting our extended families. So we splurged on the photos and found a less fancy/expensive place to have the reception so that we could afford to invite everyone we wanted.

4. We still invited less than 100. When making the invitation list we asked ourself if a. we would want to be at their wedding b. if it was family had the other person actually met this family member (which clues you in to how close you really are with the person) and c. if we see ourselves as friends with them in 10 years. This helped us eliminate alot of work "friends".

5. Things that we didn't identify as high priority we cut corners on.

6. We used a church hall and hired an outside caterer who gave us a great deal. Alcohol wasn't as important to us so we served beer, wine, and soda plus one signature mixed drink (malibu bay breeze).

7. Music. In the days of CD Burners and MP3s you don't need a DJ. In fact, if your guests aren't big dancers it's cheaper to burn a mix CD for dinner music and ask a friend to play "master of ceremonies" to introduce you/the wedding party.

8. Flowers. A single rose with a ribbon looks tens times more elegant when carried by the bridesmaids. Or try having them carry something else like candles.

9. Favors. Make them yourself or consider giving a small donation in your guests name to a charity. There are even some charities which will give you bookmarks or something to give to each guest that says "a donation has been made in your honor."

10. It's amazing what a different a string of white christmas lights can do to make any setting look beautiful. Everyone has christmas lights. Borrow them or catch the sales now.

11. Plan in advance. If you know you're getting married in January 2008 and want a winter themed wedding look for the sales on winter decor in Winter 2007. If you're having beach themed centerpieces in 2008 then catch the sales in summer 2007.

Congrats and good luck!

Answer 4

I will share ours:
1. have it in the Standesamt (maybe it is the Civil Registry, in USA),

2. invite only the very close ones (I only invited my aunt, her husband and children, because my parents couldn't be there due to the distances--we live in a different continent, and my Sweetie invited his parents and 4 bestfriends of his and also their couple), then we have a wedding announcement for the rest of our relatives and friends,

3. have my favourite dress, not a new one, but really a favourite and so Asian (because I am Asian), while my Sweetie, he wears his old tux,

4. Have the reception in a local restaurant, and ask for the cheap dishes (we choosed a Caribic restaurant that also serves the German foods).

The most expensive for our case is my documents. I had no idea that I would be getting married when I leave my country to work, so I get them done by a professional in my homeland. ;-)

Answer 5

ask a family member, make sure they can cook first and that you like their food! I got rolls from ryans really cheap at my wedding. one of your family members has to be creative so take a look at their home, outside landscaping if you like it maybe you can ask them to help with the decorations. but you may have to splerge a little on the cake unless you know some one really good at that also I know Wal mart and grocery stores make wedding cake but I dont know how exspensive they are! Suerly they will be cheaper than a bakery, and depending on what time of the year you could have it outside somewhere nie you and him drive around together and scope out the scenery good luck hope this helps!

Answer 6

Just have a small wedding and you can save money buy getting married in the park or in a church, Make your own food for the reception, for my wedding dress I found a dress that I loved but It was not a wedding dress but I orderd it in white and made it a wedding dress and that saved me like $300 Talk with all your friends and see who they know like my friend knew a professional hair and make-up landy so we got that done for free and my mom knew a d.j so he only charged us &100 for the whole night... just talk with everyone good luck and congrats

Answer 7

You can get married in a small chapel. They usually have a package deal for about $200-$300 or less. Then have a small reception for the family and friends. You can try a family members backyard or a public location, that way it's free for the spot, then you just get the food and decorations.

Answer 8

A cheap wedding does not have to be "cheap"....it can be very nice and elegant if you just know how to shop.
You can go to yard sales, thrift stores, dollar stores and discount stores and find alot of really nice thigns for yur wedding.
Engage family members and friends to help you by looking for things at these places when they go to them. Most of these places change and receive new merchandise evey week, so you have to keep going back.
You can find nice wedding gowns at thrift stores fairly cheap, and your bridesmadis outfits also. The grooms suit can also be got from there. If he is wearing a Tux, you will probably have to rent that at a bridal place.
You can get artificial flowers also to make bouquets and corsgaes and boutineirres, also floral decorations.
You can get different things to make wedding favors....my daughter just had her wedding renewal ceremony, and she got 35 little ghomes pushing or pulling wheelbarrows, and she put abit of raffia in them and then we cut squares of tulle and filled them with peanuts and dinner mints, and tied them with a piece of ribbon to which a handmade (on computer) tag said, "Renee and Tony, October 31, 2006 Thanks for sharing our Day!"
It was really nice. She paid only $1.00 each for them.
You can make favors using votive candles and wrapping them in tulle and attach the same kind of tags.
For food, we made sandwiches with 2 prc. sliced meat and 1 pc, cheese, and cut them into diagnals and then cut again into triangles and laid them on a large tray. We used roast beef, turkey and ham and 2 dif. kinds of cheese. We made 2 veggie trays with pickle slices, black olives, mini baby corn on cob, baby carrots, and we had chips (3 kinds) and 3 diff. dips and a salsa. Then she had her cake and punch and wine for the adults.
It was beautiful and very inexpensive. She made nearly everything herself except for the cake.

Answer 9

See if you can get your hands on the book "How to have a BIG wedding on a small budget", by Diane Warner.
Try the library.

She gives invaluable info. You have to do the legwork but if saving money is on your mind, she can show you how.
Such as finding the perfect dress, only having the store get it in a lesser pricey fabric. Satin can work as well as pure silk in alot on instances.

Answer 10

Try going to www.theknot.com. They have a lot of cost-saving tips and great suggestions. I'm using the site to plan my own wedding.