can you plan a small wedding with a decent place for a reception under $1,000?

Answer 1

Absolutely you can, but you will have to leave out a bar tab & depending on the number of guests, you might have to just settle for cocktail foods (platters) or just have one main meal without entrees & for dessert, just have the cake with some fresh cream. It can be done!! Just call around the places you are interested in & ask the to email or post you a menu/price list, it will take a little bit of time (research) but eventually you will find somewhere :o)
If you have your ceremony in a nice public park, that will be free or cost a small fee, a civil celebrant can be found for a great price if you look around & provide you with extras (like a table for signing, a P.A system & cd player). For the car you could ask a family member or friend who has a nice looking car. Dresses can be bought at a retail outlet for as little as $50, it doesnt HAVE to be a white wedding gown, it can be something more simple. Flowers can be bought (or grown depending on the time you have till the wedding) at a general florist. A single long stem rose looks stunning. Rings can be bought for under $100 each, new or second hand. The cake you can make yourself, as with invites etc.
Thats about all I can think of right now :o)

Answer 2

How small are you talking, and will the decent place cost $1000, the reception cost $1000, or the wedding/reception cost $1000?

If you are members of a church, and you have the ceremony there, and you either have access to a free reception hall (with a church or club), an acquaintance who will allow you to use their home if it's nice, or a garden, or you have the reception somewhere like a public park, you could possibly have a "decent" wedding and reception for under $1000, but it would really involve a lot of freebies and downgrades.

I don't think mine cost much more than that. It was in a church my grandparents are members up and that I grew up in, and they also loaned us certain items for the reception. The reception was at my mother's house and backyard, which is always done up Martha Stewart-eque. My stepmom's sister's "wedding gift" was that she made the wedding cake, and my uncle's was that he was our photographer. My mother, my sisters, my aunt, and my grandmother all made finger sandwiches and various finger foods for the reception. Instead of using a florist, we bought fresh flowers at walmart and made our own bouquets that morning. My dress, however, cost a few hundred dollars itself.

I was lucky that many things just kind of came together and we were able to pull of such a nice event for a low cost, but I think even with all that, it was over $1000.

There were about 50-70 guests.

Answer 3

You can totally do it! You just might have to stretch things a little. I'm planning my wedding at the moment and I don't even have 1000 dollars to spend, so I'm cutting corners wherever I can. I'm renting the community center in my hometown and having the wedding and the reception both there. My friend and I are the same size and she just recently got married, so I'm wearing her wedding gown and she's wearing the bridesmaid dress I wore in her wedding. I bought fake flowers when the were on sale at a craft store and they had all of their wedding things on sale, so I got all the flowers I needed, the rose petals, a tiara for my hair, and tons more stuff for under 50 dollars!! I'm having a friend make my wedding cake and the groomscake and I don't think that will be more then 50 dollars, and I'm having family and friends videotape and take pictures. I'm getting decorations from all the people I know who recently got married and I'm just going to play cd's at the reception. And forget about the reception meal! Have your wedding around 1 or 2 in the afternoon and just serve cake and punch!! A cheap idea for a guestbook is taking your engagement picture and putting it in a matted picture frame and having everyone sign the mat. My friend did that and has it displayed in her home!! You can also get your engagement pictures at the Wal-Mart picture studio when they have their sales very cheap. Me and my fiance are going within the next week while they still have their $6.88 mothers day sale going on. You get 35 prints for a little over 7 dollars including tax!!

Answer 4

ABSOLUTELY!! Dresses, cake, food, reservations, invitations, flowers...pretty much everything cost us just shy of $1000...tie in that we flew home and drove back added about another $1500 but oh well.

Anyway...for flowers and decorations...get creative. Go to Wal-Mart, Micheal's, or any arts and crafts store and buy the supplies. Have a "girl's night" or something and make your bouquets. Its really not that hard and you can make them how you want them to look...plus, you get to KEEP your bouquets. Plus you can get things like arches, "rope" flowers, and lots of other things to decorate. My mom bought some potted daisies and put those in the reception hall...they are in her flowerbed now.

We also got some supplies at Michael's and made our own invitations, so they were a lot more personal and they suited both of us better than something overly fancy.

Check out department stores for bridesmaids dresses (and possibly your own). Prom season should be nearly over with now, so there should be lots of dresses marked down. I actually bought my dress (simple but classy) and my bridesmaids dresses (similar to mine but different enough to stand out and they had the same dress but different colors) all for $150 + tax (theirs was 75% off). And I bought my shoes for 1/2 price (had seen them but wasn't sure about them and when I went back they had been marked down).

For the food, you can get things like lunch meat, bread, and mayo or something to make little finger sandwiches, and then get other small "finger foods" to serve. And also ask around. You may actually know someone who is a really good baker and would be more than willing to make your wedding cake the way you want it and for a lot cheaper (some may even "give" you the cake as their gift). I just took a picture to a couple of my mom's friends and they couldn't've made it look more perfect.

For your pictures you can get a photographer if you want. Or, you can get disposable cameras and have your guests take pictures. I know some people will say that's not a good idea b/c folks tend to forget to leave the cameras with you, but I had no problems at all. And all of our pictures were "real" and not "posed" which made it a lot nicer as well.

Hopefully I gave you a few good ideas here. I had a blast with planning my wedding (planned the whole thing in less than 2 weeks) and don't regret any of it yet.

GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, AND DON'T STRESS!!!

Answer 5

Probably the best thing to do is have the wedding at a friends back yard, and have all your family help decorate it. Also hire some frends and family to cook and serve at the reception and your 1000 dollars will go a long ways.

Answer 6

Of course. The best place for a reception with people that care about you is at home . Weddings seems to have taken a wrong turn with all the money that is spent. Weddings are really about family and close friends. you don't have to spend a lot of money to let friends and family ( and the one you love} that you are in love, together and want to share that with them. Everybody pitch in and cook a dish . means so much more.

Answer 7

Maybe.. if you don't serve a full dinner. Our food alone is costing us about $5,000. Have a small wedding, early evening (around 7:00) and just serve desserts or something. That would cut a lot of the costs.

Answer 8

Sure you can. You'll have to be very frugal and creative. Use a park or community hall or someone's home. Get a dress of E-Bay or Craig's List. Get food & flowers from Sam's & CostCo. And be serious about keeping it small and intimate. I like chapels for this too. good luck!

Answer 9

have the wedding and reception at a church.
or have family bring food

Answer 10

Yeah at Burger King