My daughter is getting married the end of February. She didn't leave much time for planning and preparing! This is her second marriage, but first "wedding". She wants a really nice one, but she is very budget minded. They will probably have 100 - 150 guests. I sure would appreciate any creative suggestions that can cut down on expenses. One area is reception.......the groom does want a really great "party".........dance, drinks, socialization.. He does have a DJ friend that is providing his DJ'ing as a gift. Creativity is good for any part of the wedding.......it will not be a comletely traditional wedding. But she does want it very nice. She does have her wedding gown. Everything else is still in the planning stage though. Help!! The time is closing in fast! And money isn't easily available. Thanks for any ideas and suggestions as to where, how and what! (An outdoor wedding or reception is not an option.............it is located in a pretty chilly part of the country.
2006-12-04 00:44:47 · 41 answers · asked by Anonymous in Family & Relationships ➔ Weddings
1-Print your own invitations...you can find really pretty wedding invit. stationary at even discount stores. Not many people keep them anyway...why spend the extra dough??
2-Rather than all-out catering...ask family members to provide some family-favorite dishes/desserts and then fill in the rest from a catering service or restaurant. Place little pretty-printed cards next to the dishes like "Aunt Cathy's Cookies". You can cut your food $$ in half and it adds a nice personal touch!
3-EASY CENTERPIECES--Monogrammed Luminaries:
Buy white paper lunch/craft bags.(They make them in all colors and can be found in craft stores or even purchase on-line from Oriental Trading) Get the ones without the handles, as you will be cutting the tops. Use peking shears with a pretty shape, cut the bag straight across the top to make it whatever height you wish.
Using black ink, put a "porportioned" stamping of either just the last inital or monogram initials in the center of the bags.
(monogram=Grooms 1st initial-smaller size, Last name initial in middle-larger size, Brides 1st initial-smaller size)
You can do this just on one side or both.
As far as the colors of bags/ink, you can customize it to whatever the wedding color--EXMPL--white bag/black or color ink...light colored bag/black ink...dark colored bag/white paint (Not sure if you can find white "ink"!)
Pour a weight-base into the bag about 1-2" thick using anything like sand, salt, sugar..even kitty litter! Then place either 2 tealights or 1 small jar candle in each bag. (They make really nice scented jar candles found at dollar stores and it would provide a nice aroma to the reception area)
Place in center of tables and around the base of the bag you can scatter a variety of things (based on the decor theme): Glitter, fake snow, flower petals, small river stones/pebbels, glass marbles (the flat ones used for crafts/flower vases)a long stemmed rose....or you could tie a wide tewell netting or organza bow loosly around the bottom.
Plus, whether guests take them or you just toss them at the end-who cares!...what can you do with 30-40 glass bud vases or such afterwards anyway!
I did this for a wedding of 350 people and it was BEAUTIFUL, easy, and very inexpensive...maybe $60 for 35 tables.
***Gather up all of your "crafty" friends and family members!*** For my sister-in-laws wedding, her friend printed out all the invites as advised above...
5-Her aunt did all the favors: using plastic spoons in the wedding color, she placed 2 Hershey kisses on each one and wrapped the "spoon" area in tewell netting bunching the open ends toward the handle leaving the handle UN-wrapped, tied thin pretty sheer ribbons to close it and w/a hole-punched note card expressing thank yous from the bride and groom (She used the business card stock paper that you can buy for home printing-already preferated and used a scrapbooking hole punch in the shape of a heart for the hole).
6- I myself made>>
**The cake toppers for a 4 pedestal cake: Silk flowersput into a organza wrapped foam half-circle domes.(about $10 Ttl for 4 toppers)
**The wedding apron:hand sewn/adorned w/pearls, sequins and applique.(about $5-found fabric in remnant bin and well as a bag of assorted loose pearls/sequins and such)
**The guest book: purchased a PLAIN white guest book and adorned cover with items matching the wedding apron. (about $6)
**The wishing well: LONG directions, but EASY...happy to email them to you if wanted. F.Y.I., this was for a full-size "floor model" well, not a table top well,
**bouqets and boutineers, centerpieces
**ring pillow and bridal purse(to match the apron and guest book)
Crafty people can help "you" save TONS by helping out as part of their wedding gift...just be sure to compare prices of doing it yourself or buying already done.
I have MANY more ideas.....but I'd take up the whole screen! If you have any particular areas that you'd like some ideas for, Feel free to email me!
2006-12-04 01:45:59 · answer #1 · answered by secret_oktober_girl 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Rent a low cost hall, and have the food catered by a caterer that offers a buffet style dinner, purchase all the drinks and wine or champagne yourself and put it on the tables, doing most of the work yourself will save more money. You can have a very beautiful wedding without all the added unnecessary expenses. Go to the local library and get books on great weddings on a budgets. Have a great wedding, and best wishes to you and the Bride and Groom to be. Happy Wedding Day.
2006-12-08 14:18:39 · answer #2 · answered by Janice 10 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Buy things in bulk. try www.orientaltrading.com and/or www.mileskimball.com
Make your own invitations. My husband and I did and everyone loved them because they were uniquely us and very nice. It took us an afternoon and we had so much fun making them.
Have it on a Sunday or early in the week (mon or tues night). If that's not an option, have an afternoon wedding. That cuts down on huge costs.
If you have an afternoon wedding, instead of a full sit down dinner, offer brunch if it's earlier in the afternoon or a sampling of appetizers if it's slightly later.
If you only want an evening wedding, then have dinner be buffet-style. Offer limited alcohol choices.
Choose flowers that are in season and local and make your own bouquets. Can use the same flowers to make centerpieces and decorations for the reception. Where ever you have the reception, ask them if they have pictures of other weddings to get an idea of what works then borrow the ideas and make them your own.
Hope these ideas help
2006-12-04 06:49:19 · answer #3 · answered by married2004 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
First look at the location. Many churches have church halls attached to them. Most also have Ladies Units that will do the catering (I know around here the roast beef dinner that the Catholic Women put together is amazing). Most church halls will allow you to get a liquor license for the event so don't think that you can't have a great party there. What time of day is the wedding at? Candles tend to be less expensive to decorate with than flowers so if it's an evening wedding then this could be an option. For 100 - 150 guests you'll probably have about 15 tables...go to the dollar store and look at the candle stuff for centerpieces. For the stuff on the table to take home I did homemade candles (you get 4 candles out of a sheet of beeswax that costs about $2) and also boxes of homemade cookies. Just a plain white box with cookies wrapped in tissue in it. I put a ribbon around it with my Husband's and my name on it, the date of the wedding and "Thank you for sharing this special day with us". The cards that said all this I printed myself on my computer. We made our own wine for toasting with. But I have been to weddings where the wine was a gift from one family or the other. We had a pretty realistic looking fake cake for cutting then just a regular slab cake in the back that got cut and served for desert. (Much cheaper than the big fancy cakes they wanted to sell me!) Let's face it once it's cut up who knows what it really looked like to begin with.
Just try to keep it simple.
Good luck!
2006-12-04 01:35:37 · answer #4 · answered by cookie 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Congratulations! I've been planning my wedding for May, 2007 since last year and I have some ideas that will hopefully be of help to you and your daughter. Have you already chosen the location? I suggest having the ceremony and reception under one roof as it will absolutely cut costs. My ceremony and reception is at an inn and the package includes the food, centerpieces, cake, linens, honeymoon suite, and more. Finding a package is your best bet. Weddingchannel.com and the good old Knot.com are good places for finding locations to hold your ceremony. My guess is that only an inn or hotel will have a package deal, so if you would like to go in another direction you can call your local historical society. They may have mansions, barns, museums, etc. that you can rent. What's great about this option is that you can provide the alcohol on your own and it will cost less than if you did it through a hotel, etc. However, there are so many more hoops to jump through, including maybe needing to secure liquor licenses and the whole shabang. I would also check out local restaurants and see what they offer for their banquet rooms. I'm not particularly a fan of renting the Knights of Columbus hall or VFW, but in some towns its actually a viable option, as might be the Italian-American society or something of that nature. The bottom line is shop around for a location that hopefully includes as much as possible in the deal. And if you have a large enough yard, perhaps you should consider a *heated* tent. Good luck!
2006-12-04 00:53:20 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 3⤋
Mary J, my suggestion would be to get a wedding planner/coordinator! Most coordinators/planners have most of the equipment you need for your ceremony & can get discounts on stuff that you cannot get discounts on. And you pay one price for everything instead of buying a whole lot of individual stuff.
And if you can not afford to get a planner/coordinator or your time schedule does not allow you to, then I would suggest that close family a friends like, the brides parents(you), the grooms parents, & siblings from both sides to each make 2 dishes for the reception, as for flowers use fake, they are just as pretty and cost less! If purchasing bridesmaids dresses are an issue, then have all bridesmaids purchase their dresses them selves & so on. There are so many ways that you could have a beautiful wedding without breaking the BANK! lol.. lol
2006-12-07 04:09:32 · answer #6 · answered by tawannajones2217@sbcglobal.net 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I would suggest you do your own invitations and do everything yourself. Invitations at walmart go from 14- 30 bucks for 50. Use can use your own printer and such. Since it may be chilly in Feb, keep flowers to a minimum. User ribbon and candles to accent stuff. For candles, you can buy the bulk package of tea-lights. For Food - do a buffet it may only cost 20-25 a head. Some places let you bring in your own food, and alcohol. Even though you want to have it fun and fancy, you can still have fun and have it look nice by not having the best of everything.
I'm planning my wedding currently but it won't be until 2008.
Good Luck!
If you need anything else let me know.
mbane86 - gmail
2006-12-04 03:31:38 · answer #7 · answered by mbane86 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I also wanted a nice, but cheaper wedding without it looking "cheap." I know this is very stressful, but it is do-able.
Some ways I did this was schedule it on my wedding on a Sunday. I know this may not be possible now but many vendors have reduced rates on Sundays because fewer people marry on that day and it is a nice way for them to pick up extra business.
Also, buy flowers from Costco or Sam's Club. I believe this was the biggest money saver in my wedding. More than 300 roses cost me around $150 dollars when I bought them through Costco. They were gorgeous too - florist quality! Me, a couple of bridesmaids and one of their mothers all arranged the flowers the day before the wedding.
Another thing, bake cookies as favors. Believe me, I have heard from so many people that wedding favors (candles, etc.) go unused or unappreciated. Cookies are a great way to cut costs while pleasing everyone. Buy a large jar (I wrapped ribbon around the middle in wedding colors) to put the cookies in. Buy those tubes of pre-made cookie dough from the grocery store. I made about 200 cookies for $30. You can't beat that!
Also, buy cheap silver frames from stores like Ross to put some of the couple's baby pictures/ couple pictures in throughout the reception area. That way, the couple will have frames for wedding pictures later and they serve as a great and interesting decoration.
Buy bulk votive candles from ebay. There are many great sellers out there that provide the candle and the candle holder for cheap!
I suggest she also get her petticoat (the poofy slip that goes underneath the dress) from ebay too, you can save up to half the cost.
I have more great ideas, but these are the biggest I can think of right now. If you have any more for specific areas, I would be glad to help! Also, if you need the name of ebay sellers who I used for candles and other things, let me know. i had good experiences.
2006-12-04 02:37:40 · answer #8 · answered by Molly1015 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Cut the costs in your mind first!Understand first that an expensive wedding (celebrations) isn't the guarantee for a good marriage. Getting the right principles of a good marriage begins with living within the means of the couples. You may want to set a time within which the reception would take place as such not open-ended and likely to be expensive and demanding. Can you also try to set a budget per guest. This may be pre-arranged and agreed with caterers. Most importantly, radiate joy and worry less because the most important persons is your daughter and her groom on their day and the point ultimately willbe how well they luve thereafter. Good luck.
2006-12-04 01:08:40 · answer #9 · answered by KO 1 · 1⤊ 2⤋
When my oldest daughter got married I did most everything (and for under 200 bucks, dress and all)... Decorating, food etc. If you are creative, and or have a creative friend, then you can pull it off inexpensively by doing most yourself. The bar (I was a bartender) will be the most money spent. I recommend you find silk flowers and do centerpieces yourself...also the decorations for the church (or wherever) and reception. Pool your resources from friends and family members..."Aunt Carol" may have a great set of silver platters, for example. I love doing weddings...wish I could be there to help you! Email me! ( ibcj@yahoo.com) Start by sitting down with your daughter and MAKE A LIST of what she wants and her colors. Hope I've helped! GOOD LUCK!
2006-12-08 02:39:07 · answer #10 · answered by ConcernedMom 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
first of all congratulations! we are getting married in April. All the food is going to be cooked by family members. the building we rented we are going to have the wedding and reception had the same place. it is an american legion building and people know people so we got that for $175.00 for 2 nights rehearsal dinner and day of wedding.All the decorations and wedding favors came from ebay. you will be surprised what good deals ebay have. a family member is the DJ. instead of hiring some one to do the music for the ceremony, I downloaded the songs on a CD and the DJ is going to play the music in order. He has written instructions I wrote down to let him know when to pay what. I bought blank wedding invitations and made my own on my personal computer. Bouquets are also on ebay. my mother is paying for wedding pictures as her gift from her to us. you just have to be creative and don't be too proud to ask for help. i have no wedding director because it is our wedding we know how we want everything. so I think you will be fine.
2006-12-09 06:20:29 · answer #11 · answered by nurse2011 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋