Looking for tips on planning a wedding in 6 months with as little cost as possible.?

Question

I'm getting married July 28th in a church and we want a reception,not too big.Any suggestions to cut some costs?

Answer 1

Congratulations on your wedding!

There are several areas you can cut costs. First, keep your guest list under control. It is so easy to fall into the trap of just adding one more and one more etc etc, soon you are having 100 people instead of 50.

Set your budget. Be realistic, you can't have 200 guests on a $300 budget. First, set aside the amount you will pay for the license, the officiant, and the venue. Those are the must haves, everything else is details. The amount you have left is for the details. How much it is dictates what you will be able to do. The less you have, the more things you will need to cut, OR be resourceful and creative!

For your wedding attire, you can shop bridal sales, eBay, department stores, classified ads, and thrift stores. You may find a dress at an outlet or department store. It doesn't have to be a big white gown. Look in the prom dresses, especially after the prom season, they will be marked down. Or look in the bridesmaid dresses at the bridal shop. Traditionally, the bridesmaids are responsible for their own attire.

Flowers: You are having a summer wedding. There should be wildflowers and gardens will be blooming. Do you have a family member or friend who is a gardener? Have them plant some annuals in your colors. A few seed packets will produce masses of flowers, just be sure to pick a variety that will be in bloom in late July. Also, warehouse stores and supermarkets have flowers much cheaper than ordering from the florist. Summer flowers are easy to arrange in vases. Things like magnolia, ferns, and ivy make good greenery for filler and table decoration.

You can tie bouquets easily. Just buy floral tape and ribbon. The bridesmaids could carry a single flower. Just wrap with a ribbon. Boutonnieres are easy to make, too.

Thrift stores are full of pretty flower vases. (And many other pretty, and sometimes unusual, things you might use.)

Ask your family and friends what they have that you could borrow to use. People have all sorts of beautiful things just laying in a drawer and would be thrilled to loan it for a special occasion. Fancy candlesticks, linens, silver, dishes, serving pieces, all sorts of things. Everything doesn't have to match.

Reception food: A lot depends on the time of day. Have the wedding in very early afternoon, and just serve cake, mints, punch and coffee. Mid-afternoon, you will need heavy finger foods. You can buy very tasty frozen foods at Sam's Club or Costco. Use veggie trays, meat and cheese trays, crackers, and fruit. Maybe some finger sandwiches. Little frozen quiche and perogies. If you have family who want to help, let them bring a dish or help serve at the buffet. Serve punch instead of alcohol. If you are having a late wedding that extends into supper time, you will need a real meal. You could serve a dinner, with meat, starch, salad, and veggie, or you could do pastas and salads, or you could be rustic and do hamburgers and hot dogs as a cook out, with the traditional sides. Again, family could donate the side dishes. Or you can have a potluck, with many people bringing their special dish.

Don't worry about favors. Most people won't miss them. You could just have a dish with silver kisses if you wanted a bit of something.

Now for the photography. It is widely suggested to use guests and disposable cameras for your wedding photography if you're on a restricted budget. Please DON'T rely on this method! If you cannot afford a professional, then ask a friend or family member with a decent camera to step up to the plate You might check Craig's List, often beginning wedding photographers advertise there for cheap or even free to build their portfolio. Maybe even check the photography department at the local college. If you do this, ask to see pictures they have taken, even if they're not wedding related. At any rate, get someone with a real camera to take important pics, a few of the ceremony, family groups, bridal party, bride, bride and groom, and cake cutting. Take some outside if you can, especially the bride and groom portraits. Find a pretty location in late afternoon, in shade if possible, and take some with the flash and some without.. Then have them printed at a decent lab.

Don't buy into the big white wedding industry myth that you must spend thousands and go into debt to have a lovely, memorable wedding. You can have a nice wedding and not spend a fortune.
It just takes some ingenuity and work, and the help of people who offer it!

Answer 2

I just got married January 07... Get a sheet cake, two if you are going to have more than... hmmm 50 people, have your wedding around 2:00 everyone has eaten breakfast and lunch and are not ready for dinner so all you need is cake and punch, coffee, soda, tea or whatever. Now going with alcohol will cost more i didn't even go that route. As far as music get a blank c.d. and copy some new and old favorites, Flowers? I got some fake lavendar roses and put them in vases you can find fake ones that look real and classy. Something else that is fun get a dozen disposable cameras and put them on the tables so other people can take pictures for you, yhe more different people taking pictures the more views on your wedding and candid pictures you will get.
Good Luck to you and your future husband!!

Answer 3

There are 2 basic ways to cut costs with weddings and receptions, cut your guest list, and cut what you do. For example, let's say your guest list is already down to about 100, and you really can't cut more. See if the church you're getting married in has a fellowship hall (most do) and see if you can rent that for the reception. Better yet, have an outdoor reception in a backyard or park. Eliminate or cut alcohol at the reception. Ask your caterer about ways to cut the food budget, or simply serve cake and punch. Here's a great article about ways to cut expenses as well. Best of luck to you!

http://www.theknot.com/ch_article.html?Object=A51122164348&keywordID=156&keywordType=2&parentID=527

Answer 4

depending on where you have your reception see if you can purchase and take your own wine. You can usually get good deals from vineyards and cellars. even paying corkage will still work out cheaper. Make your own invitations. I dressed the reception area myself and purchased everything I needed from wholesalers. Purchase the material for the dresses from a wholesaler. I saved over 50% to shop price. There are several ways of saving $. My wedding in Sept cost just under $10,000 for absolutely everything, 60 guests, gifts for bridal parties and photographers, reception, dresses, outfits for the grooms, rings etc. Also a buffet always works out cheaper then set menu. And if you have friends with nice cars to use ask if they can drive you as a wedding gift.. We didn't ask for gifts we had a wishing well which paid for our honeymoon instead.
Hope this helps and good luck

Answer 5

Other suggestions
If you have flowers, do all fake flowers or do what i did mike fake and real flowers together..all my bridesmaids had fake flowers, they all display the flowers in their home now as a keepsake, mine were real...for photo purpuses and then we mixed the two types in arragements...everyone thought they were beautiful..
Do your own invitations..i looked at a million examples and picked words and phrases I liked...printed them on ppr i bought from staples...ran them off..folded them in a comlex unique way and also had beautiful ribbon you had to untie to open the invite... Have ppl rsvp via email or your cell phone...email is a great way to keep things organized too!
For a wedding cake..we had someone make ours...a 3 tiered simple white frosting cake, with 2 small heart white frosting cakes..I stenciled ribbon with our verse..Romans 1 11-12, you could do a verse or a love quote....it looked really classy......
We had our wedding at our church and used alot of decorations ppl had donated...and my mother in law borrowed decorations from her church as well! We had 2 arches, a latice with a beautiful heart to hang behind us at the table, mirrors and my friend had her wedding 3 months before mine so i borrowed half of her centerpeices...did my own twist on them and then i only had to buy centerpieced for 1/2 the tables...it also looked nice to have a verity at the tables..
If you want to do a favor..do c.ds....we did cds with songs from our wedding, and songs that ment something to us...created an insert like a regular cd has with pictures and a little story for every song..so ppl would know why we picked it..i still hear how ppl listen to them.....
Have the groomsmen buy suits instead of renting tux's..it is cheaper and they get to keep them!
Good Luck

Answer 6

I've been married almost 6 years and I had I cheapest wedding imaginable. It was a back yard wedding and we had hot dogs, hamburgers with all the fixings. I paid less than $30 for my cake, because I order a large sheet cake instead of a tier cake. It was wonderful, good luck to you.

Answer 7

My wedding plus honeymoon was under $3000! We had a small wedding, had the reception in a room in the church so it was free..no music or food, just cake and nuts and punch. A family friend who makes cakes, made one as my gift, and a friend who majored in photography did the photos for free. They were amateur but I don't look at them alot anyway AND I got TONS because I only paid for developing.

Good luck!

Answer 8

Hey...

I just got married last december 29 and we only had FIVE DAYS to prepare the wedding. the notice was abrupt as well.

But believe it or not, it was very grand! Thanks for my sister who is a wedding coordinator, we were able to prepare our wedding that resulted into one that is elegant, memorable, and yes, simple.

Like yourself, we also had a minimal budget for the wedding considering also the time we only had.

First of all, you should already prepare the list of your guests, your entourage.. Make sure you only have few of them since we are on a tight budget.

Second, have your entourage spend for their gowns, if possible. Designate expenses to your family members, like your parents, your aunts, uncles, and even friends. For example, have your friends donate a wedding cake, your parents for the food, your aunts and uncles for the flowers.

Also, to have your wedding looking elegant, use LUMINARIES... they are candles enclosed on opened colorful paperbags.. they are placed around the venue.. use flowers that are on season right now.


Thirdly, use balloons, flower petals, and if you can afford, fireworks..

If you want more details, I am really willing to help together with my sister. I can also send you some pictures for samples. God bless! and Congratulations!

Answer 9

Instead of a DJ or band, create playlists from your computer or mp3 player and hook it up to some speakers.

Instead of dinner, have H’orderves or a single entree.

Have a buffet instead of having dinner served.

Instead of hard liquer, have champaign, wine and beer.

Don't give out favors. No one really like them anyways.

Have sheet cake instead of a several tiered cake.

Answer 10

I had a church wedding, and it was very cheap, but very beautiful... we made our own flowers, I bought all the flowers in bulk on ebay... I made all the bouquets, centerpieces, etc... we ordered the tolle off ebay as well, as draped it down the pews at church, and made my own bows to put with them... we had a lot of candles, in the candlebras, wish we rented, and on the piano... we put a garland of roses around the alter with clear christmas lights... the reception was in the reception hall... we used ivy garland to go around the tiers, cheap plastic table cloths, candles with flowers around them... and my cake was the most expensive thing, we had it made for us though... our wedding was at 1, so our reception choices were chicken salad, tuna salad, meat trays, which we made ourselves, and potato salad, fixings for the meats, chips, and fruits..
our entire wedding, out of pocket cost for us, minus my wedding dress, and his tux, was 400.00 dollars... if you need more info, or want to ask questions... email me. [e-mail]